Future of Affliction at stake with 8/1
MMAjunkie.com Fight Biz – Future of Affliction Entertainment likely at stake with “Trilogy” Affliction’s event next month is dubbed “Trilogy.”…
MMAjunkie.com Fight Biz – Future of Affliction Entertainment likely at stake with “Trilogy”
Affliction’s event next month is dubbed “Trilogy.” A more accurate moniker might be “Finale.”
Rumors have swirled in the mixed martial arts industry about the promotion’s ultimate demise ever since its first show a year ago. However, Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio and the upstart organization have persevered, largely on the back of Fedor Emelianenko. The Russian heavyweight headlined Affliction’s first two shows and will do so again on Aug. 1 against Josh Barnett.
Atencio acknowledges that the promotion’s future hinges on this show. It must outperform Affliction’s previous events in order to secure the future of the organization.
“It does, to a certain extent,” said Atencio. “You can’t continue to lose money. So yeah, it really is an issue of, if we do better, then we’re going to move forward, and I’m really confident that we’re going to do better.”
“Trilogy” should give the promotion a fighting chance to fight on. The card is solid from top to bottom, starting with the Emelianenko vs. Barnett heavyweight bout that diehard fans have wanted for some time. The friendship between the two fighters has scuttled past attempts at making the fight, but the inevitable match-up gives Affliction a Fedor-led main event that, at least on paper, shouldn’t be a mismatch. The once-beaten fighter took out Andrei Arlovski and Tim Sylvia in a combined three minutes, 50 seconds in his first two tours in Affliction.
“It’s the fight of the century,” said Atencio, who is pleased with the pace of ticket sales for the show, set for the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. “Not to mention the card is a huge undercard … a huge card from top to bottom, as we’ve always done. It’s a fight that you definitely don’t want to miss.”
Describing the main event as the “fight of century” is a reach, but the likes of Gegard Mousasi, Jorge Santiago, Vitor Belfort, Takanori Gomi, and Chris Horodecki add depth to the line-up and should help Affliction post a strong showing on pay-per-view.
Atencio said Affliction’s first show generated “well over 100,000” buys. Industry estimates peg the buy rate for January’s “Day of Reckoning” event at between 150,000 and 200,000. Those certainly aren’t UFC numbers, but no other organization has been able to produce those kinds of results. However, multi-million-dollar fighter payrolls have kept the first two shows in the red.
“I’ve always said we’d do one fight at a time, and I always said we’d do three fights,” Atencio added. “I don’t really know if there’s enough success. You’re always going to want more. We wouldn’t be where we are if we didn’t. I think we’re going to sit down, re-evaluate everything and move forward.”
Atencio’s comments straddle the line between being optimistic and realistic. You get the sense that even 200,000 buys might not be enough to guarantee that Affliction fights for a fourth time.
