Bloody Elbow Exclusive: The Details Behind Affliction's First Attempt to Exit the Fight Game

When MMA historians look back at the short history of Affliction Entertainment, they will point to September 2, 2008 as the day that sealed the promotion's fate.  Affliction's entire business plan was premised on putting together a fight between Randy Couture and Fedor Emelianenko.  At the time it was undoubtedly the sport's biggest fight, and most observers assumed Randy would be able to get out of his contract and fight Fedor.  On September 2, 2008 the UFC announced the return of Randy Couture. 

Couture's attorney arranged a meeting between UFC executives and Affliction executives to discuss the issue of Randy wearing Xtreme Couture clothing at UFC 91.  Since Affliction co-owned the clothing line with Randy, there was an inherent dilemma.  Randy wanted to wear it for his walk-in to promote the brand which carried his name, and the UFC wanted to help him out, but they were unwilling to help a competing promotion.

The meeting took place on Friday, September 26, 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada.  It was attended by Dana White, Lorenzo Fertitta, Randy Couture, his attorney, Courtney Dubar, Tom Atencio, and a number of other attorneys.  As the meeting progressed, the topic of what it would take to get Affliction back in the Octagon came up.  Lorenzo and Dana made it clear that as long as Affliction was a competing promotion, it would not be allowed in the Octagon as a sponsor.  Instead of provoking scoffs or angry rebuttals, Affliction executives did not object. They asked what the UFC could do for them, and the UFC's team left the room to discuss the issue and came back with some basic proposals.  The meeting ended on good terms, with an agreement to talk the following week. 

The UFC contacted Tom Atencio the following Monday to push the issue forward and start exchanging proposals. Atencio basically brushed them off, and the UFC side assumed the deal was dead.

Over the next two weeks, a number of things happened that sent the relationship spiraling downhill.   First, Todd Beard called Randy Couture's attorney and threatened him, and left threatening voicemails for Randy and Kim Couture.  Then Affliction made a last-minute deal with EliteXC to put Andrei Arlovski on their CBS show, which further annoyed the UFC.

In the days following UFC 89 in the U.K., an Affliction representative contacted Randy Couture's attorney to see if he could put together a call with the UFC to see where the deal stood.  Couture's management put a call together for the Monday after UFC 89.  Enter Todd Beard.

Lorenzo Fertitta opened up the call by welcoming everyone on the phone, and Todd Beard started things off by angrily stating "you wanted to talk to us, what do you want?"  The call quickly descended into a war of words between Beard and Fertitta, and for the first of many times to come, a deal to take Affliction out of the fight business and put them back into the Octagon was killed.

Immediately following the call, Todd Beard went on Scott Ferrall's radio show and unleashed an outburst that eventually lead to his removal from his officer position at Affliction.  Shortly after this, Kim Couture successfully filed for a restraining order against Todd Beard.

The Kim Couture story changed the sport in a more significant way than most observers realized.  By the time the Kim Couture story broke, EliteXC had crashed and burned as a result of the Kimbo Slice scandal, and the people at Showtime and CBS were looking at a number of options to replace EliteXC on CBS.  Strikeforce was obviously in the mix, but Affliction was actually the leading contender to replace EliteXC on CBS.

As a result of that radio appearance and Beard's sordid history that was publicized as a result of the Kim Couture lawsuit, Affliction lost their chance at the deal with Showtime and CBS.