What does Affliction Need to Make it to the Top?
There is no questioning the fact that Affliction put on one of the most amazing mixed martial arts cards fans can only dream of. It featured some of the bigest names in the MMA heavyweight division including Fedor Emelianenko, Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski. While there might have been some great fights it did cost Affliction a fair bit in salaries, which totaled $3.3 Million. No MMA organization would be able to earn a decent amount of profit when they are handing out that much money in just fighter salaries.
So what can they do about it?
I would think that one of the best options would be to expand their divisions. Why stick with the heavyweights when you could be using your own home-grown affliction talent. In the long run Affliction would benefit from growing their own talent, talent which could be coming from various weight divisions. I don’t think Affliction will go to the very low weights like the WEC does but expanding out a few divisions would benefit them well.
The need for the self-founded talent is vital to how long Affliction will survive. They could try and dominate PPV buys and get all the UFC’s top talent on high paying contracts but they need to start by getting a name for themselves first. They have that name in the hardcore MMA fans mind but while the sport of MMA is still growing fast they need to keep putting the shows out their to keep their brand growing.
Affliction Banned - Fedor Vs. Sylvia Preview
This weekend Russia’s own Fedor Emelianenko will be fighting Tim Sylvia at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California for the WAMMA Heavyweight title of the world. The event will be Afflictions first event and is titled “Banned“.
The 31 year old Russian Fedor is one of the greatest fighters to live. His current MMA record is 28-1 with one no contest. Over 50% of his 28 wins come from submissions with 14 in total. He also has 6 (T)KO’s and the other 7 fights were decided by decision. His only loss was many years ago back in the year 2000 against Tsuyoshi Kohsaka. The fight lasted a whole 17 seconds with Kohsaka getting the (T)KO due to a cut. I have never seen the fight but getting a cut 17 seconds in does seem a bit drastic. Since then Fedor went on to defeat some of the greatest names in the heavyweight division including Mark Coleman, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Heath Herring. Theres one more he is looking to add to his list and that will come this Sunday against Tim Sylvia.
Tim “The Maine-iac” Sylvia has also had his fair share of fights against some also very notable fighters. Unfortunately for him most of those notable fighters defeated him like Nogueira a few months back. Slyvia’s current MMA record is 24-4 with 16 of the wins by way of technical knockout. Even though Sylvia’s record is not as good as good as his opponents he shouldn’t be taken lightly by Fedor. Tim Sylvia will be going into the fight this Saturday night after a loss to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. He should be looking to redeem himself.
A look at both fighters together shows us that Tim Sylvia does have a significant height and weight advantage over Fedor. A whole 8 inches to be exact. Just look at the image above. I was showing this to a friend who was asking about Affliction this weekend (He isn’t really into MMA) and he said it looked like the most uneven fight he had ever seen. Little does he know it is pretty uneven for the big guy and Tim Sylvia will have to pull something good to get a win over Fedor.
The event will be live this weekend from the Honda Centre in Anaheim California only on PPV make sure you check this one out.
July 19th: Affliction Vs. UFC
It’s old news now and I’m sure that every dedicated MMA fan knows the story behind it all. For those that don’t… Basically Affliction, the clothing company are putting on their first live MMA show titled “Affliction: Banned.” The Affliction card is one of the greatest anyone could of put together. What better way to stop the fans from seeing it than giving people a free event featuring your greatest fighter. Well thats exactly what the UFC did to counter. They offered a free event to be aired on Spike TV featuring the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world Anderson Silva on his move up-to Light Heavyweight fighting James “Sandman” Irvin.
So will it work? I think it will. They should get good numbers of PPV buys. Not good numbers by UFC standards but I think they will be up there. Affliction is already nearing the the almost 11,000 tickets sold by the UFC for their recent event, UFC 86. Currently sitting at around 8,500 tickets with just over a week to go to the event officially kicks off, it wont be a sell out but it should be close.
In my opinion Affliction will get approximately 350,000 PPV buys and sell around 9,500 tickets for their show. I think it will be deemed a success even with the UFC trying to compete.
On the night of the event I not be watching either live. I will be going to see KOTC Canada which is right here in Edmonton. I will see both the events though. UFC via DVR and for Affliction I will buy the re-run as soon as I get home without even going on the net. I will give full analysis on all 3 of the events from that night.
UFC 86: Jackson Vs. Griffin Quick Picks
Here are my quick picks for UFC 86: Jackson Vs. Griffin
Quinton Jackson Vs. Forrest Griffin: I believe that Quinton Jackson will win this fight early on. He is a fierce fighter and will be able to stop Griffin dead in his tracks come main event time this Saturday night.
Patrick Cote Vs. Ricardo Almeida: My pick for this fight is Patrick Cote. I don’t see the fight lasting past the first round, in fact maybe not even past the first minute. So for me the fight goes to Patrack Cote via technical knock out.
Joe Stevenson vs. Gleison Tibau: This is the one fight I expect to see a lot from. Both these guys will give it their all to prove they are still worth something to the UFC. I think Stevenson will win the fight by decision but one thing I believe is that there will be blood!
Josh Koscheck vs. Chris Lytle: Koscheck has this one in the bag. It will be a TKO in round two and “Kos” will come out victorious.
Tyson Griffin Vs. Marcus Aurelio: I believe that this fight will come down to a decision but giving the fans some awesome entertainment along the way. Griffin will win the fight via decision when all is said and done!