Recapping the crazy day in MMA
Today started with the expectation that Fedor Emelianenko’s opponent for the August 1st Affliction: Trilogy main event would be named. Well, we didn’t get that, but we got a whole bunch of other news.
First, Affliction announced that the event planned for August 1st had been cancelled. It appears that Showtime was the main reason for the plug being pulled, as they didn’t think they could sell enough Pay-Per-Views without a quality opponent for Fedor. Ticket sales for the event were also relatively sluggish, and the loss of Barnett on the card made selling the additional tickets near impossible.
Later in the day, there started to be rumblings that Affliction would fold up their MMA promotion, and focus exclusively on their apparel sales and marketing. There had been rumors that Affliction would fold after this event anyway, so that didn’t come as a huge shock to many of us. However, the speed of the process definitely surprised me. We received confirmation on the rumors of Affliction folding later on in the afternoon. The company put on some good fights and created some good opportunites for some fighters, but they couldn’t last for long paying fighters the salaries that they were paying them.
Next, we learned that Affliction would once again become a sponsor of the UFC. Once one of the most prominent sponsors and clothing providers to the UFC, Affliction was banned by Dana White from sponsoring any fighters because of the plans Affliction had to start their own MMA promotion back in early 2008. This started the war between the two companies, with Dana White often referring to Affliction and their VP Tom Atencio as “Those t-shirt guys.” When Affliction was promoting their first event, Affliction: Banned, White had this to say:
They don’t get it. I love this stuff. I live it every day. These guys who are T-shirt guys or whatever they do, they think they’re going to show up and compete with us doing it part-time? It’s not going to happen.
Now, Affliction is done as a MMA promoter, and back once again as a UFC sponsor. Late tonight, Dana White and the UFC released a statement:
We are excited about the return of Affliction to the UFC and look forward to seeing our fighters once again walk into the octagon wearing the Affliction brands. Affliction is an innovator of mixing fashion with this sport, and we are looking forward to working together to promote the sport.
Affliction co-founder Eric Foss stated
Our brand is synonymous with the ‘Live Fast’ approach to life, and UFC is the perfect venue for us to market our brand. We have come to an agreement with the UFC, which we feel will be the best for the sport and will help the UFC continue delivering the highest caliber of fights.
It is still unknown at this time what will happen to the fighters currently under contract with Affliction. Depending on the terms of the deal with the UFC, some of the contracts may become property of the UFC, while other fighters may become free agents. I expect to learn more in the coming days.
Dana White continued to add to the crazy day by releasing this Twitter message late in the afternoon:
I am going on espn 1100 in vegas at 6pm. I will be talking anything mma. Call in number is 702 364 1100! Oh yea and welcome back tito
During the interview he mentioned, Dana was pretty non-committal to the return of Tito Ortiz, only saying, “It’s a possibility.” He later stated that the UFC will hold a press conference on July 31st to announce “A lot of crazy things.” What these things could be are anyone’s guess. During the interview, he mentioned that the announced Rich Franklin/Dan Henderson fight at UFC 103 was not necessarily set in stone. Could Tito be coming back to take on Franklin at UFC 103 instead of Henderson? I would doubt it, as Tito has said many times that he thinks he needs a tune up fight or two. However, with UFC 103 going up against the Floyd Mayweather boxing pay-per-view that night, Ortiz may be just the guy that the UFC needs to sell some more pay-per-views.
Perhaps Dana will have news about the fighters that were contracted to Affliction and whether or not they are now part of the UFC. Maybe he’ll have an announcement about Fedor Emelianenko’s possible involvement in the UFC. Of course, there’s also the chance that Dana is just blowing smoke right now and has no huge announcement planned. I’m sure we’ll start getting some news very soon. It’s obvious though that the winner from today’s events was Dana White. He was proven correct when he said all along that Affliction wouldn’t last. He got one of his main sponsors back in the fold. He may have acquired some contracts of some very talented fighters. He probably is closer now more than ever to having Fedor Emelianenko in the UFC family. And finally, he may be close to welcoming one of the UFC’s biggest draws back to the organization.
For a day that started off relatively slowly, it turned into one of the oddest days in MMA history. Keep checking back with MMA Ground N’ Pound to learn the latest developments.
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- Affliction cancels August 1st event
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- Report: UFC offers Fedor 30 million dollar contract
- Fedor conference call: No UFC contract without co-promotion with M-1
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