Il Loco
17-02-2009, 12:29
16/02/09 - Exclusive: Affliction VP talks third show, Fedor, Golden Boy and more
Tom Atencio is the vice-president of Affliction Clothing and the man responsible for bringing its MMA wing Affliction Entertainment to fruition. In this interview, he talks about the fallout from the company's second show and what 2009 holds.
Fighters Only: Can you give us an approximate date for the next Affliction show?
I still don’t have a date right now, I am sitting down with my partners and work it out. We’re hoping three or four months but we just don’t have a date right now.
Fighters Only: Affliction 2: Day or Reckoning saw a slight drop in live attendance compared to your first show, but apparently did better in pay-per-view terms. What do you take from mixed signals like those?
It was a very successful show. Number one, the attendance was a little smaller because we didn’t have as many seats open this time, so it was a sold-out venue but we didn’t have as many seats open. Number two, the pay-per-views were better, they increased by 50% and the production was better as well.
I don’t think people understand, they’re just not getting the fact that this is only our second event. It is not like we come from little shows that we were doing before this. Ultimately, bottom line, this is only our second event.
Fighters Only: At the Affliction 2 post-fight press conference, you made a comment about Affliction giving fighters a good home in the future, and added “if not us then hopefully somebody else”. Was this a cryptic clue that you will be pulling out of the MMA game?
No I think my comments were completely misinterpreted. I try to stay humble and I try not to get cocky and I try not to get ahead of myself I guess. The bottom line is all I was saying, we will continue to move forward.
Like I said, this is only our second show, people are acting like its our tenth show, our fifteenth show but its not, its our second show, we’re going on to our third and what I meant by that was, hopefully we will continue to move forward.
I’m not getting ahead of myself, I’m not predicting anything, I am not saying we are better than anybody else, I’m not saying we’re here competing with anybody else. I’m just trying to move forward, one show at a time and until I have a schedule set in stone, with a commitment from everybody for twenty more shows, I am just not going to be that guy.
Fighters Only: When Zuffa took over the UFC, they lost around $40 million before the shows started turning a profit. Would Affliction be willing to go that far into the red before seeing a turnaround?
I can honestly say my partners would not be willing to lose that much money, but I think that to compare us to the UFC is quite honestly not fair to us or them. They’ve been in the business since day one, so for them to lose that much money, that is over quite a few years.
Fortunately for us, we’re coming in after what they have already built so for me to say ‘Yeah, we’re prepared to lose that’, it would be ridiculous. But you know having said that, I think that we have a better situation in that the [MMA] industry has been built up, so I can honestly say I doubt we will lose that much money.
Fighters Only: After Affliction 2, boxing commentator Larry Merchant told the television audience watching the Margarito-Mosely boxing match that De La Hoya was not in attendance because he had been paid $5 million by yourselves to attend your show. It was also alleged that Golden Boy are not your partners in any real, financial sense. Can you address that for us?
That was absolutely untrue. Larry Merchant took a situation and completely misunderstood it, misspoke about it. Bottom line is Oscar and Golden Boy are our partners. The original agreement was that he was going to be at the fight and that was agreed to before Margarito-Mosely ever came into play.
Oscar honoured his agreement, there was no pay involved, it was just as a partnership he was going to there and I know after speaking with him during and after the event he was very, very pleased. He loved the fight, he loved the match-up and he became a big fan of mixed martial arts that night.
Fighters Only: Every interview with you, it seems like everyone is asking about the demise of Affliction Entertainment. Do you ever get fed up with that?
I think its just part of the game, this is what I signed on for and so for me to get fed up would be quite honestly a little ridiculous. This is my job, its what I do and people asking me the same questions all the time just makes it easier for me because I can just give the same answers every time (laughs).
Fighters Only: On to something slightly more positive; Fedor scored another stoppage win in his second fight for Affliction. Does that show his detractors that he is the ‘real deal’?
Well I think he has always been the real deal. His record speaks for itself and for anybody to say that he hasn’t fought anybody I think is ridiculous. You can call it a lucky win, you can call it capitalising on a mistake, you can call it whatever you want. The bottom line is, he wins and he has proven it every single time.
Did Arlovski make a mistake? Sure. Did Tim Sylvia make a mistake? I don’t think so. I think Fedor came out and did what he did. Did Fujita make a mistake, you know? You could list everybody, the bottom line is his record speaks for itself.
Fighters Only: Arlovski got $1.5 million for that fight with Fedor. That is many times more than he was paid by the UFC when he was their heavyweight champion. Why are Affliction purses so high compared to the rest of the MMA industry?
I can honestly say that’s a mistake we made in the beginning and it will never repeat itself. I like to pride myself on, if I make a mistake once I wont make it twice and if I do make it twice then I absolutely make sure it doesn’t happen a third time.
But what happened was that, it was just a situation that’s in the past and it will never happen again. But at the same time I don’t have regrets either. We came out and we made a splash in the industry and that is what we are continuing to do, so it’s a moot point.
Fighters Only: Fedor v Josh Barnett is a fight fans want to see. Has it been discussed and is there any broad agreement in place between the fighters?
As a fan of the sport it is definitely a fight I want to see. I know for a fact that the Japanese want to see it. I know there is a lot of hardcore fans that want to see it.
Until I finalise that or until I negotiate it and come to an agreement… as I said before to the press, I am learning a lot, and this is just one of the things that I have learned, is not to say anything until everything has been finalised. I don’t want to talk about it until it has been finalised. Do I as a fan want to see it? Yes. Is it going to happen? Right now, I just don’t know.
Fighters Only: Are there any fights that you could - hypothetically of course - tell us we might see on Affliction 3?
Hypothetically there’s a crapload of fights I’d love to see happen on the next Affliction show! And there’s a bunch that [my colleagues] Tracey and Shannon want to see. But again, it’s the three of us and a couple of other people that, until we sit down and come to an agreement on what’s best for the company, I just don’t want to say anything.
Fighters Only: What are we going to see from Affliction in 2009?
I think by the way I am talking you can see me in politics pretty soon (laughs). We’re just looking to keep moving forward, we’re a good team and we work well together and I hope that ten, fifteen years from now we’re still here. This year, I would like to see Affliction as a brand get stronger and hopefully Affliction Entertainment fight organisation gets stronger as well.
http://www.fightersonlymagazine.co.uk/interviews/viewarticle.php?id=1882
Tom Atencio is the vice-president of Affliction Clothing and the man responsible for bringing its MMA wing Affliction Entertainment to fruition. In this interview, he talks about the fallout from the company's second show and what 2009 holds.
Fighters Only: Can you give us an approximate date for the next Affliction show?
I still don’t have a date right now, I am sitting down with my partners and work it out. We’re hoping three or four months but we just don’t have a date right now.
Fighters Only: Affliction 2: Day or Reckoning saw a slight drop in live attendance compared to your first show, but apparently did better in pay-per-view terms. What do you take from mixed signals like those?
It was a very successful show. Number one, the attendance was a little smaller because we didn’t have as many seats open this time, so it was a sold-out venue but we didn’t have as many seats open. Number two, the pay-per-views were better, they increased by 50% and the production was better as well.
I don’t think people understand, they’re just not getting the fact that this is only our second event. It is not like we come from little shows that we were doing before this. Ultimately, bottom line, this is only our second event.
Fighters Only: At the Affliction 2 post-fight press conference, you made a comment about Affliction giving fighters a good home in the future, and added “if not us then hopefully somebody else”. Was this a cryptic clue that you will be pulling out of the MMA game?
No I think my comments were completely misinterpreted. I try to stay humble and I try not to get cocky and I try not to get ahead of myself I guess. The bottom line is all I was saying, we will continue to move forward.
Like I said, this is only our second show, people are acting like its our tenth show, our fifteenth show but its not, its our second show, we’re going on to our third and what I meant by that was, hopefully we will continue to move forward.
I’m not getting ahead of myself, I’m not predicting anything, I am not saying we are better than anybody else, I’m not saying we’re here competing with anybody else. I’m just trying to move forward, one show at a time and until I have a schedule set in stone, with a commitment from everybody for twenty more shows, I am just not going to be that guy.
Fighters Only: When Zuffa took over the UFC, they lost around $40 million before the shows started turning a profit. Would Affliction be willing to go that far into the red before seeing a turnaround?
I can honestly say my partners would not be willing to lose that much money, but I think that to compare us to the UFC is quite honestly not fair to us or them. They’ve been in the business since day one, so for them to lose that much money, that is over quite a few years.
Fortunately for us, we’re coming in after what they have already built so for me to say ‘Yeah, we’re prepared to lose that’, it would be ridiculous. But you know having said that, I think that we have a better situation in that the [MMA] industry has been built up, so I can honestly say I doubt we will lose that much money.
Fighters Only: After Affliction 2, boxing commentator Larry Merchant told the television audience watching the Margarito-Mosely boxing match that De La Hoya was not in attendance because he had been paid $5 million by yourselves to attend your show. It was also alleged that Golden Boy are not your partners in any real, financial sense. Can you address that for us?
That was absolutely untrue. Larry Merchant took a situation and completely misunderstood it, misspoke about it. Bottom line is Oscar and Golden Boy are our partners. The original agreement was that he was going to be at the fight and that was agreed to before Margarito-Mosely ever came into play.
Oscar honoured his agreement, there was no pay involved, it was just as a partnership he was going to there and I know after speaking with him during and after the event he was very, very pleased. He loved the fight, he loved the match-up and he became a big fan of mixed martial arts that night.
Fighters Only: Every interview with you, it seems like everyone is asking about the demise of Affliction Entertainment. Do you ever get fed up with that?
I think its just part of the game, this is what I signed on for and so for me to get fed up would be quite honestly a little ridiculous. This is my job, its what I do and people asking me the same questions all the time just makes it easier for me because I can just give the same answers every time (laughs).
Fighters Only: On to something slightly more positive; Fedor scored another stoppage win in his second fight for Affliction. Does that show his detractors that he is the ‘real deal’?
Well I think he has always been the real deal. His record speaks for itself and for anybody to say that he hasn’t fought anybody I think is ridiculous. You can call it a lucky win, you can call it capitalising on a mistake, you can call it whatever you want. The bottom line is, he wins and he has proven it every single time.
Did Arlovski make a mistake? Sure. Did Tim Sylvia make a mistake? I don’t think so. I think Fedor came out and did what he did. Did Fujita make a mistake, you know? You could list everybody, the bottom line is his record speaks for itself.
Fighters Only: Arlovski got $1.5 million for that fight with Fedor. That is many times more than he was paid by the UFC when he was their heavyweight champion. Why are Affliction purses so high compared to the rest of the MMA industry?
I can honestly say that’s a mistake we made in the beginning and it will never repeat itself. I like to pride myself on, if I make a mistake once I wont make it twice and if I do make it twice then I absolutely make sure it doesn’t happen a third time.
But what happened was that, it was just a situation that’s in the past and it will never happen again. But at the same time I don’t have regrets either. We came out and we made a splash in the industry and that is what we are continuing to do, so it’s a moot point.
Fighters Only: Fedor v Josh Barnett is a fight fans want to see. Has it been discussed and is there any broad agreement in place between the fighters?
As a fan of the sport it is definitely a fight I want to see. I know for a fact that the Japanese want to see it. I know there is a lot of hardcore fans that want to see it.
Until I finalise that or until I negotiate it and come to an agreement… as I said before to the press, I am learning a lot, and this is just one of the things that I have learned, is not to say anything until everything has been finalised. I don’t want to talk about it until it has been finalised. Do I as a fan want to see it? Yes. Is it going to happen? Right now, I just don’t know.
Fighters Only: Are there any fights that you could - hypothetically of course - tell us we might see on Affliction 3?
Hypothetically there’s a crapload of fights I’d love to see happen on the next Affliction show! And there’s a bunch that [my colleagues] Tracey and Shannon want to see. But again, it’s the three of us and a couple of other people that, until we sit down and come to an agreement on what’s best for the company, I just don’t want to say anything.
Fighters Only: What are we going to see from Affliction in 2009?
I think by the way I am talking you can see me in politics pretty soon (laughs). We’re just looking to keep moving forward, we’re a good team and we work well together and I hope that ten, fifteen years from now we’re still here. This year, I would like to see Affliction as a brand get stronger and hopefully Affliction Entertainment fight organisation gets stronger as well.
http://www.fightersonlymagazine.co.uk/interviews/viewarticle.php?id=1882