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marcelt
27-07-2009, 03:49
Cardio Freak MMA News Report 7.27.09: Affliction, We Hardly Knew Ye
Posted by Jeremy Lambert on 07.27.2009

Cardio Freak is back with this weeks lead story being the death of Affliction. How it all went down, what happens now, and of course Fedor speculation. Plus news and thoughts on Henderson vs. Franklin 2, Mir vs. Kongo, Bisping's next opponent, Strikeforce injuries, and the rest of the MMA news from around the world. Always testing positive for awesome, it's Cardio Freak on 411.




Allow me to re-introduce myself, my name is Jeremy "Just Killin Time In Between Fights" Lambert and this is the new and possibly improved Cardio Freak. After what seems like forever with the old format, I thought I would keep things fresh to death and change things up. It's still the same long winded snarky opinion you've come to expect but things are a little bit more in order now. So crack a six pack, sit back with some nachos, maybe some popcorn, read up, and just rock slow.

Headline News





"Affliction's first priority is to ensure that all future events live up to the company's high standards."

That was the final line of an Affliction press release that came out following the cancelation of their event but before news broke that they went crawling back to Dana and co. It was funny then and it's extremely funny in hindsight.

Now, where should I start with this whole Affliction debacle? Let me take you into my mind a bit before we really get into the meat of this whole thing. On Thursday I began typing the event preview for Affliction: Trilogy because even though Barnett was out, I assumed there would still be an event. By Friday afternoon that column became useless as Affliction canceled the event. On Friday afternoon I began typing a column that talked about Affliction being morons for canceling an event just because one fighter was pulled. By Friday night that column became useless. I debated re-submitting last weeks column as a joke but also because it's accurate and I had just typed two columns that now go into my "columns that will never see the light of day" folder along with about 500 others so I was frustrated. Instead I put on some Taylor Swift music, opened a Dr. Pepper because Mr. Pibb won't pay me, and began writing what you're about to read. Enjoy.

Affliction is done, Gus.

After over a year of existence, two shows ran, and two shows canceled, they've finally closed up shop. Most people figured the demise of the company would came on August 2nd, the day after their third event but thanks to Tom Atencio's A Series of Unfortunate Events they decided to pack it in a week early. Here's a rundown of what happened:

-Josh Barnett failed a drug test for a banned anabolic steroid and was pulled from the main event against Fedor Emelianenko.
-Affliction scrambled to find a replacement going as far as to offering some fighters $500,000.
-Everyone from Don Frye to Daniel Puder and Tank Abbott to Brett Rogers were named as possible opponents for Fedor.
-Vitor Belfort and his camp said he would be fighting Fedor but it was not confirmed by the promotion.
-Fedor turned down fighting Belfort because his camp saw a poll on Sherdog that had Brett Rogers as the fighter the fans wanted to see in action.
-Strikeforce refused to loan Rogers to Affliction for the fight.
-Affliction canceled their Trilogy event citing that they wouldn't have enough time to promote the new main event.
-It was announced that Affliction would return to UFC as a fighter sponsor and that the company would officially fold.
-Reports surfaced that Affliction had been trying to close the company for weeks now and even offered UFC the Fedor vs. Barnett fight. Those reports also stated that they went to UFC with the same "we'll shut down if you let us sponsor you again" offer in June 08. Barnett failing the drug test was a public excuse for the company to cancel the event and go back to sponsoring UFC fighters.

All of this happened in the span of about 48 hours and although I was never the biggest fan of Affliction, I will admit that this does suck. I always took shots at Affliction because I thought their marketing plan was stupid, they had no clue how to run a MMA company, and they had no future. I was right. As a fight promotion though, I appreciate that they brought Fedor to America and I appreciate that they gave us such fights as Fedor vs. Sylvia, Fedor vs. Arlovski, Belfort vs. Lindland, Arlovski vs. Rothwell, ect…. It's honestly not hard for a money mark to throw millions of dollars away in order to put on one good event but I can't really complain about getting a good event out of it. It also sucks that we got robbed of a good MMA card this weekend.

It turns out that Affliction was far more screwed up than any of us thought. We all knew that they were bleeding money and didn't have a future past August 1st. What we didn't know was that they didn't want a future past June of last year. Instead of simply stating this, they continued to bleed money and take pot shots at UFC and Dana White in hopes they would increase their brand recognition. It didn't work. Affliction's entire business plan was to run MMA events so they could sell their t-shirts and when the t-shirt revenue wasn't justifying the event costs, they wanted out.

It took them a year to get out but they finally made it happen and even though it came at the expense of fighters and fans, at least they're happy right?

Here's what I wrote at the end of the 2nd throwaway column, making fun of another Affliction press release. Remember this was written after the event was canceled but before they completely folded:

"Affliction stands behind the company's brands and delivers premium products to the most passionate and loyal customers."

aka "BUY OUR T-SHIRTS. WE NEED MONEY. We realized trying to run a MMA promotion is a lot of work and we should have stuck to over-pricing our t-shirts. We sold 5 million Chuck Liddell Affliction shirts when he was wearing them on UFC PPV but we only sold 500 Fedor Affliction shirts when he was wearing them on our PPV."

Affliction shouldn't be glorified for "trying." They didn't try .They tossed around money, used horrible promotion tactics, and used their PPV to promote their t-shirts. That's not trying. That's being completing stupid and incompetent. Affliction never wanted to succeed in promoting MMA. They wanted to succeed in selling more t-shirts and they quickly realized that starting your own company and spending millions of dollars to sell t-shirts was a stupid idea. It would be like me starting my own MMA company just to promote this column. It's a stupid way of thinking. It would be like McDonalds promoting salad above everything when everyone knows they're a hamburger joint. MMA companies should promote MMA first and foremost, not t-shirts. Affliction didn't try to succeed at MMA. They screwed over a lot of fighters, not just by canceling this event but by also putting the t-shirts above the fighter.

If you want to glorify Affliction for anything, glorify them for being a bunch of idiots and delivering good fights by accident. They never had future in this sport. Everyone knew that from the start. It's just a shame that they never wanted a future.

The happiest person in the world right now is probably Josh Barnett. Even though he's basically the public scapegoat for Affliction's demise, the big news story is now Affliction folding and not Barnett being an idiot. The big controversy a few weeks ago was that Brock Lesnar is "bad for the sport" because he got in Frank Mir's face after beating him up and showed poor sportsmanship despite winning. Reality is, Josh Barnett failing a drug test and putting the main event of a major show in shambles is far worse for the sport than anything Lesnar did. Fortunately for MMA, the mainstream media doesn't know Affliction existed so this story got no play in any major media outlets and if it did it would have quickly been buried under the death of Affliction. This just goes to show what truly is "bad for the sport" and what's just a major story that the media can focus on.

The big news out of this is now Fedor Emelianenko is a free agent. Everyone wants him to sign with UFC but I don't think it's that simple. The problem is never Fedor and Dana White, it's Fedor's management and Dana White. M-1 Global represents Fedor and they don't like giving out their biggest jewel without getting something in return. UFC would not only have to take Fedor, they would have to take M-1 Global as well. That might not be so bad if M-1 Global was just a brand of Fedor but they're not. They're also a MMA company and even have an event coming up on August 28th. Fedor to UFC isn't as simple as everyone wants to make it out to be.

Fedor and/or his people turned down a fight against Vitor Belfort because of a Sherdog poll. That says a lot about the people Dana White will be dealing with. The best fighter in the world won't fight a dangerous well-known striker because people on Sherdog want to see him fight Brett Rogers more? Fedor could have fought anyone on August 1st and those same people would have bought the show. Fedor was the draw, not his opponent. He should have fought whomever Affliction wanted him to fight. Maybe Affliction put up a smokescreen of sorts and never intended to replace Barnett but there is truth to Fedor and/or his management not wanting to fight Belfort.

The thing that works in UFC's favor is the fact that Fedor is pretty much out of options. Strikeforce isn't going to pay him the money he's looking for and I'm not sure Japan will either. M-1 Global may pick up the tab on part of Fedor's contract but sooner or later they have to realize that they're paying at least half a million dollars for a guy who isn't even fighting on their shows. Also companies don't want to tie themselves to another company because cross promoting is stupid. If Fedor truly wants to prove he's the best fighter in the world, he has to sign with UFC. The ball is now in Fedor's court. He needs UFC more than UFC needs him. You can rip Dana White all you want for not being able to sign Fedor but it's on Fedor this time around. I have no doubt that Dana is going to offer him a fair offer that works best for both parties. Love or hate Dana White, he seems like a loyal guy who wants to do what's best for his fighters and business. Dana and Fedor have to come to an agreement that benefits both parties. Dana has been able to do business with almost every fighter in sport. So when is it Fedor's fault that he's not in UFC?

Affliction is back as a UFC sponsor. I guess that's good for the fighters because it's another way to make money but do fighters really want these guys sponsoring them? What happens when they pay Forrest Griffin a million dollars to wear their t-shirt and it only sells enough to bring back $100,000? Will they cancel their sponsorship a week before Griffin's next fight leaving him scrambling for a new sponsor? Affliction is great at promoting t-shirts but it has to leave a sour taste in the mouth of fighters to see what they did when promoting MMA.

UFC also acquired the tape shelf of Affliction. While not massive it does contain recent highlights of Vitor Belfort who is likely on his way back to the UFC and other potential incoming fighters for the company. It also has footage of Fedor destroying Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski, which could easily be used to promote the Russian should he sign with the company as well.

In 48 hours we went from having a great night of fights on August 1st to being down another major MMA company. The real question is, what happens to WAMMA?

Tony
27-07-2009, 09:32
heel goed stukje...

Voor mij waren "deze 48 uur" dan ook direct de grootste soap van het hele MMA circus van de afgelopen jaren..

ongelofelijk wat er allemaal gebeurd is en gaande is....

Gennep-Spitfire
27-07-2009, 09:39
Mooi krom dat het managment van Fedor een partij tegen Belfort afwijst,omdat ze een poll op internet gezien hebben waarin staat dat de fans liever Barnett zien.:confused:

Hij moet gewoon vechten, maakt niet uit tegen wie!

Fasada
27-07-2009, 10:45
Het management van Fedor heeft nooit de partij tegen Belfort afgewezen, zij zelf vonden dat er betere vechters waren die tegen hem kon knokken

“We personally entertain the idea of having Brett Rogers step in since he knocked Andrei Arlovski out,” he said. “But if there is any problem with Rogers, then it’s pretty safe to say it’s going to be Belfort. However, we are well aware of the fact that fans don’t consider Vitor Belfort to be a suitable replacement, according to a recent Sherdog poll.”
Finkelchtein later brought up Rogers again as the fighter they are most interested in fighting.

Als Brett Rogers niet kon waren zij zich van bewust dat Belfort de tegenstander zou worden, dus het management heeft de partij nooit geweigerd...

raveboy
27-07-2009, 13:29
En nog snap ik niet dat ze niet gewoon doorgaan.
Ze kunnen toch wel 1 keer met een mindere tegenstander voor Fedor aankomen?
Ze hadden dan in ieder geval wat inkomsten, misschien wat minder, maar wel inkomsten.
Nu hebben ze helemaal geen gala, maar moeten waarschijnlijk wel de huur voor het gebouw, en alle andere zaken/ vechters enzo betalen.

Met een Donald Trump en eigen buffer kan je het toch wel 1 gala redden, zonder superwinsten?