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By: Jason Bent, MMATorch Columnist Affliction has joined forces with Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions in what can only be seen as a last ditch effort by Tom Atencio to remain in the business of promoting MMA fight cards; and the news is curious to say the very least. More baffling to me is the fact that Golden Boy has no interest in creating a new division of their company to take on the task of promoting MMA shows; instead they are going into this with the goal of producing pay-per-view cards that shall feature both MMA and boxing on the same card.
Oscar De La Hoya has hinted at venturing into the world of MMA but up until this moment all of that was simply speculation without any tangible evidence that this was to come to fruition. When you look at both companies it is easy to see how they could be of benefit to one another; but to really set things in motion it would probably be best to run MMA shows under the Affliction name, but with backing from Golden Boy, and not as a joint venture featuring both sports equally. The prospects are certainly puzzling.
Boxing has been on the decline for so long that you would be hard pressed to find me one person on the street who could name any of the fighters who are current belt holders in any weight class. Most would give you a blank look and then blurt out “De La Hoya” before shrugging and asking if Mike Tyson were going to be coming back again.
Boxing is overrun with sanctioning bodies and a list of current champions would read more like a spoonful of alphabet soup rather than it would anything else. When you have a world in which there can be at least four different number one contenders at a given weight along with the possibility of having an equal amount of fighters claiming to be the “champion” you realize just why so many stopped caring.
Making things even worse for the prospects of boxing is the fact that so many athletes who once may have considered lacing up the gloves are now opting for careers in the NBA or NFL and the chance to earn infinite sums of money while not having to be punched in the face. The same guy who once could have been groomed to be the next heavyweight champ is now focused on becoming the next great NFL tight end. They’re looking to follow in the shoes of Antonio Gates and Tony Gonzales rather than looking to Lennox Lewis for inspiration.
This great sport, once relevant, is now considered as decidedly unhip as Mr. Drummond giving Arnold and Willis a high five on an old episode of “Diff’rent Strokes.” And with fighters like De La Hoya on the way out it seems as if this sport is indeed on its way to becoming a thing of the past.
On the other side of things you have Affliction, which is clearly on the cutting edge when it comes to men’s fashion and whether you enjoy their products or not, it cannot be disputed that they are enjoying great success in this arena. From sponsoring fighters to becoming a name which many clamor to wear, it seemed to make great sense for them to parlay this into promoting their own fights, and their first PPV offering looked to be an amazing first step forward in the battle for a piece of the MMA pie.
The lineup read like a who’s who of heavyweight fighters and was anchored by Fedor Emelianenko, who would be taking on former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia in the main event. Featuring Fedor, who is widely held as the top pound for pound fighter in most fans’ eyes, it seemed as if Affliction was going to have a chance to do what Elite XC seemed to have little chance of doing; standing toe to toe with the UFC.
Dana White and company clearly took this as something serious and counterprogrammed a free night of fights on Spike TV which would feature Anderson Silva as a way of showing that they would not take this challenge sitting down. That should be taken as a sign that Affliction’s entrance into the fight world was something that was taken very seriously, as the UFC expended their energies towards fighting Affliction in a way that they have never done for the likes of Elite XC.
Tom Atencio’s decision to promote fights was a serious one but his execution was a joke. The payroll for this night of fights was so high that even M.C. Hammer would have questioned the payouts given to the fighters on the card. Tim Sylvia made more for his slot in the main event than Rashad Evans and Chuck Liddell combined to make in headlining UFC 88; and while it can be argued that Liddell will make infinitely more money due to receiving a cut of the PPV money, at least the UFC card did enough buys to be able to afford payroll.
Affliction: Banned did somewhere in the neighborhood of 100K buys and to have spent in excess of 3 million on payroll alone was just one ingredient in the recipe for disaster. Affliction was set to bring us their second offering on October 11 and has just announced that they have indeed decided to postpone the event. They made the choice to move the event from Las Vegas to Anaheim, California for a tentative date in January.
This seemed to be the last gasp for a company which looked to be facing their eventual demise as an MMA promotion, and to say they were in need of help is a bit of an understatement. Enter Oscar De La Hoya. It seems like this may not come to an end so soon, but I beg to disagree. Affliction has laid an egg, and the partnership with Oscar does not mean it is suddenly a golden one by any stretch of the imagination.
To feature MMA and boxing on the same show reeks of something that should be taking place under the tent on Friday night at your local town’s fair and not something that belongs on PPV. Two great things do not always go great together and pairing these two is something I find to be extremely foolish. How do you appeal to an audience that simply loves MMA and finds boxing to not be for them? Also, how do you appeal to the boxing fan that views their sport as the sweet science and looks at MMA as if it were bar brawls among patrons who have removed their shoes?
Two things that are dying are simply incapable of saving themselves much less each other; and this partnership is more a case of one person trapped in a burning building and instead of sending a firefighter you send in a man wrapped in oil soaked rags carrying a container filled with gasoline. Both parties are using each other, as Affliction is looking to remain a viable contender in the MMA world and Golden Boy is looking to help boxing seem relevant to the youth who really don’t even care that it still exists.
Both sports are combat sports and as such are lumped together by your local sports columnist and many radio hosts, but should they really be spoken of in the same breath? Baseball and basketball are both team sports and both utilize a form of ball but would you ever imagine them to be so similar? This partnership is a desperate act by each of the parties and it simply appears like it will result in both being tarnished by the association with the other. How do you advertise the MMA/Boxing extravaganza and for that matter, why would you do such a thing? Tom Atencio should give up the ghost already; can you imagine if other companies decided to bring two things together to save themselves?
Should Elite XC add a monster truck rally to their October 4 show? Perhaps Kimbo Slice could drive Bigfoot into the arena and go head to head with the Ken Shamrock-driven Grave Digger? I mean it is a given that the promotion won’t sell out the tickets on the floor, so there could be enough room for such a thing, and maybe it would draw in the monster truck fans who also like ass kicking; but would it be a good idea?
When McDonald’s takes a bit of a punch from say Burger King in the battle for fast food supremacy, they turn to a new sandwich or they call on “McRib” to aid their efforts. Not once have they thought about partnering up with Chef Boyardee and adding the “Beefaroni Wrap” to the dollar menu. Elite XC is in a bad place right now and when faced with the prospects that their CBS show in October could be their last chance, they opted to bring in the MMA equivalent of the “McRib” in Ken Shamrock; both are old, tired products which are no longer appealing and will leave a poor taste in your mouth once you have had a taste.
I can at least understand the decision to bring Shamrock into the fold, and while we may chuckle at the notion of Shamrock vs. Kimbo being worthy of headlining any card, it makes more sense than slapping a boxing match on this Affliction card does. From Megadeth at the initial Affliction show to the announcement that boxing will now be featured on the same card for the second offering, I have to wonder that if this fails will they book the following show to look like a boxing and MMA hosted Labor Day Telethon with perhaps the likes of Tony Danza singing each fighter to the ring? He was a boxer, you know, so it really would tie things together and add a touch of celebrity flavor to the proceedings.
Sometimes it is best to fail on your own than it is to bring in someone else to go down with you. That’s how I feel about the news of Affliction entering into a partnership with Golden Boy Promotions. MMA doesn’t need boxing anymore, and a joint boxing/MMA card does more to set MMA back than it does to help the sport advance in the eyes of the public. Affliction should fail due to their foolish business decisions, and not do anything which could be of a detriment to this sport as MMA strives for acceptance and coverage as a mainstream sport. I feel we have moved far beyond the days when fans used to wonder if Mike Tyson could take Ken Shamrock in a fight, but I am scared to death that this partnership will bring them back in one fell swoop.
As far as Mike Tyson vs. Ken Shamrock goes, let’s hope Elite XC doesn’t get any ideas to introduce boxing onto their cards or else we could all be in some real trouble.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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