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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief Affliction is set to go forward with their third MMA pay-per-view event this summer with Affliction: "Trilogy" on August 1st. For this third event they are once again headlining with a bout featuring Fedor Emelianenko, this time against yet another former UFC Heavyweight Champion and longtime PRIDE fighter Josh Barnett.
Now I'll preface the remainder of this piece by stating that I enjoyed both Affliction events thus far. While there were production issues and some pacing problems with both events, the fights themselves were all generally good. I also don't want to see a viable promoter going out of business. That being said, this is not a fight promotion built for the long haul.
Affliction COO Michael D. Cohen this week said that "Trilogy" will not be the organizations final show. He went on to say that they will "most probably" run another show in 2009 and will have a fourth, fifth and sixth show. The problem here is, it's hard to believe a word of it.
Fedor Emelianenko is the consensus best heavyweight in the world. He's essentially got a flawless record in his near decade long career with one blemish from an illegal move that opened up a cut and stopped the fight. He has been the fighter most hyped, he's been the fighter most talked about and he's been truly the one selling point Affliction has had. This is a promoter that is trying to state that they'll continue running shows past this next card but they have not done anything to develop the name brand and/or other stars to sell future fight cards.
Affliction's main issue is they haven't been promoting themselves as a brand of MMA, they've been promoting Fedor. They're just the company footing the bill, and Fedor is what they're selling. It's because of that fact that they will never be a viable promotion. They've got Fedor set up as the MMA equivalent to the big name boxer who sells pay-per-views, except he doesn't bring in anything remotely close to boxing pay-per-view numbers. And their payroll issues need to be brought into this conversation here as well, because the pay-per-view buys and live gate don't make up for the ridiculous amounts of money they've paid out through both events.
A lot of the UFC's success can be chalked up to them building up multiple fighters that can sell shows. No one fighter is above the brand, and the UFC name alone can sell a lot of people. Affliction is the exact opposite right now, because without Fedor at the top of the card who would have plopped down $40 for the first two shows? With Strikeforce back into the mix, some of the fighters that Affliction was able to grab for those first two shows are not going to be options for them going forward, so they've now got a roster that has some good fighters but no real names.
This third fight with Affliction is Fedor's last on contract. If they don't sign him to an extension following this card the UFC will be actively attempting to pick him up. If he leaves Affliction, they will have nothing left with which to sell future pay-per-view cards, and with no television deals to set up fighters or events it makes the prospects that much worse in terms of getting people to pay for their events.
So with a bloated payroll, only one fighter selling their shows and an increasingly depleted roster pool, I have no idea what they think they can do to stay in business as a fight promoter. They've done nothing to show anyone that they can stay in business in the long run, and while they can and should be commended for the fights they've brought fans, they're kidding themselves if they believe that those same fans are going to care enough about anything else they can present that doesn't include Fedor.
[Fedor Art Credit - Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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