Report: Strikeforce-Affliction Merger Likely; UFC Turns Down Affliction Deal (updated)
Update: Affliction and the UFC will announce on Friday that Affliction has folded its MMA promotion and will become a UFC sponsor. The fate of Affliction’s fighters is unknown.
Yahoo! Sports’ Kevin Iole has broken news that a merger between Strikeforce and Affliction is in the works or may already be completed, though perhaps more interesting is the deal that didn’t happen with the UFC:
Affliction itself is fighting simply for survival. Several sources have said that Affliction and Strikeforce will have some type of merger with Strikeforce retaining its name. Affliction’s Tom Atencio denied any merger is imminent, and Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker is in Italy on vacation and couldn’t be reached for comment.
However, two independent sources told Yahoo! Sports a deal is either completed or on the verge of completion.
White said an Affliction attorney flew to Las Vegas only days after UFC 100 and offered to fold and turn its contracts over to the UFC if the UFC would remove its ban on its fighters wearing Affliction T-shirts.
“I told him, ‘I hope you idiots stay in business,’ ” White said. “We had a record year in 2007. We had a record year in 2008. And we’re going to have an even bigger record year in 2009. I said, ‘I hope you … stay around in 2010 and burn every dollar you have.’ What they do is of no concern to me.”
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Looks like dana is gonna have another RIP plack in his office. I like the sounds of a merger event. We could see some sick fights and one hell of a card.
Now attencio can focus more on his stellar MMA career.
carls – bro, thats cold…
Yikes! Tough words from Dana. I kinda wish that he did buyout some of the contracts, that way he would own Fedor for at least one fight.
True. But thats never been how Dana likes to do buisness. I want them tp pick up Belfort if they can though.
That would be a sweet addition to the MW division.
Contracts don’t transfer like that, as we found out from the EliteXC/Strikeforce deal. Fedor would likely have made he same demands and been snubbed the same way regardless.
Looks like strikeforce may be growing at a rapid pace ……
I wonder if Scott Coker picked himself up a satelite phone over in Italy when he heard about Barnett’s urine test results in case he needed to talk “business”?
And yeah, Dana White’s comments should be no surprise. He’s very upfront about his whole, “I take care of those who take care of me, and bury those that try to bury me” philosophy.
You look at a guy like Rich Franklin, and his contract has Dana gratitude stamped all over it for past service and loyalty.
Then you read White’s comments about this Affliction implosion, and think back to their whole drama-deal with Affliction, and you can see where Dana is just waiting to punt Atencio in the pills, and then pi$$ on him while he’s doubled over.
To paraphrase an old Indiana Jones movie, as it relates to Tom Atencio, “you chose…poorly”.
White said an Affliction attorney flew to Las Vegas only days after UFC 100 and offered to fold and turn its contracts over to the UFC if the UFC would remove its ban on its fighters wearing Affliction T-shirts…….
if that really was proposed to dana and he didnt accept it^^^ i will now hate dana white the ufc could have had a chance to sign some of the best fighters in the world!….this shows me what dana really wants ….ufc > the fans
See my other comments gun. The contracts can’t be transferred without a renegotiation.
Affliction pissed all over Dana and the UFC. Why would Dana want to sit back and let all his fighters walk around covered in Affliction gear??? So he can have Fedor for 1 fight? I don’t think so. i don’t think any fighter is big enough to get Dana to tolerate his fighters wearing Affliction gear after what Affliction did to the UFC. Dana is right. The UFC is great without Fedor. Fedor’s legitamacy is a hotly contested debate. One fight on the UFC may or may not end that debate but at the price of all the UFC fighters wearing affliction gear? So Affliction can make a ton more money and then start a rivaling MMA circuit? Again!
What fighters? Other than Fedor Affliction doesn’t have anyone particularly important (there past shows were stocked with UFC washouts, after all).
Fedor wouldn’t sign with the UFC regardless of whether they took Affliction’s offer, and any of the decent mid-level talent will get picked up by Dana anyway. There’s no reason to allow Affliction back in.
Good for Dana. F Affliction. They want to compete with the UFC until they realize they can’t and then they’re going to go ask Dana to allow the fighters to wear their t-shirts? LOL. And offer up the fighters as well? Aren’t most of those fighters the UFC’s sloppy seconds? I wonder
Fedor is the ONLY reason that deal would make any sense and Fedor moving to Strikeforce does nothing for his career. He still needs to be in the UFC to validate the most recent parts of his career.
Good call Dana.
Dana white is such a ****ing idiot.. Hate to say it but all affliction and strikeforce fights have been better than most ufc’s. They should have bought the contracts let them wear the tshirts and made millions more than what there already making
Buying the contracts is a waste of money. You can’t sell a personal services contract to someone else and have it retain its validity. It would be money pissed away because Fedor could walk away from any fight the UFC proposed with no penalty.
Doesn’t anyone remember the EliteXC/Strikeforce mess, where all contracts had to be renegotiated?
your on drugs mike, keep watching strikeforce and affliction reruns, we will all let you know what happens in the good ppv’s
come on gun, affliction screwed him once, that age old philosphy goes fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. its not smart buisness to do buisness with people who have screwed you before. atencio made his move, and tried to compete with the ufc, and now he is trying to save himself. i like that dana is sticking to his guns and not going back on his code of honor.
even if the deal with affliction wouldve gone through, that doesnt mean fedor wouldve been in the ufc. or mousasi or belfort[who i think are better in terms of adding competition to their respective weight classes in the ufc.] the majority of guys on the affliction roster are non-exclusive to the company they fight for, and dana hates that. he doesnt want to risk having a fighter get hurt in another organization, that means less money for the ufc.
I hope the UFC can get some guys from Affliction, but i doubt that they will given Dana White’s comments.
The bottom line is the UFC HW division will never be 100% legit without Fedor and Fedor will never be 100% legit without the UFC. This means now the UFC has to wait for Fedor to get old and loose his touch before any real MMA industry observers will consider the UFC HW div the best in the world/undisputed. Thats the REALITY.
HUGE mistake, unforgivable.. I’m going to cut my UFC buys down to 6 a year from 12 now and only buy the cards that are actually good.. instead of just being a blind supporter.. I mean hey.. they is some good alternatives now so I’ll put the rest of the money into Strikeforce.
I hope you are aware that “buying the contracts” wouldn’t make Fedor fight in the UFC, right? Why should Dana pay for the right to be extorted by the Russian mob when they’ve been doing it for years for free?
When a fighter signs a contract with an organization and that contract is “sold” to another org, that existing contract is unenforceable. The new org has to negotiate with the fighter. Obviously, the new org wants the same contract as the old, but the fighter is allowed to pick any point he or she wants to start negotiations.
When EliteXC folded, Strikeforce negotiated contracts with some of their fighters. Others, they either didn’t try or couldn’t reach an appropriate contract. those fighters were therefore released. That is how Kimbo got onto TUF instead of fighting in Strikeforce.
I see no reason the UFC should have tried here. They can simply wait until no one else can afford Fedor’s demands and go through the same hoops and non-agreements as before.
Yah I am aware of the ins and outs of contract law my post prior to the the one that DID get approved by admins went over all that…
In a nut shell it said.. “although contracts arn’t necessarily transferrable there has been instances n the past where purchasing contracts works out without a problem because the people involved choose to honor them.. this is actually the reality of the situation more then you see people walking away from a purchased contract”
So basically.. sure they arn’t technically transferrable but it is rare to see someone actually walk from a contract.. and considering afflictions contracts I would doubt you would see fighters walk from them if purchased by the UFC.
Hopefully this one dosn’t get modded out.. hope it helps.
What possible motivation would Dana White have to help Affliction?
I mean honestly, isn’t it that simple?
If Affliction folds, their contracted fighters are back out in the MMA workforce, and available at a better rate for a perspective promoter.
Also, why would Dana White want his fighters wearing Affliction gear, when they have a fine working agreement with TapOut, and guys like Hendo own their own clothing line?
And if in fact the above story was true, why would an attorney working for Affliction make Dana such an offer “days after” UFC 100?
Weren’t they less than a month away from their own big event?
Did someone in the Affliction front office know something was brewing, or might crop up in Barnett’s urine test, or is it just a coincidence?
The timing of this UFC meeting looks awfully bad IMO…
Obviously no matter what happens in the end, Dana is still going to try and get Fedor to come to the UFC. Who knows what will happen to the other fighters contracted by Affliction, but Fedor will for sure get a phone call from the UFC.
good timing for that belfort signing that was mentioned a while back for ufc
Good call White. It’s funny that Affliction wants the UFC to let their fighters wear their shirts again. There is one reason they want that, Sales are down. UFC made Affliction Clothing what it was. I never heard of the brand until I saw UFC fighters wearing it. Tough Break Affliction, now the UFC rocks other brands and at better prices. Silver Star is my personal choice.
As for the contracts, when Affliction goes under, those fighters will be available to pursue. White and the UFC know exaclty what they are doing.
Dude the confusion as to why dana didn’t buy affliction/strikeforce is wierd to me because dana white will not buy them out on principle alone. Besides, that would be in some way helping out a dude he can’t stand, atencio.
Strikeforce will survive and retain it’s name, but how long before dana makes moves and gets ALL the best fighters in the world, atleast those not already in the ufc. I’m guessing all the mma action will be seeing in the near future will be UFC.
I agree with marvel i’d like to see a lot of these dudes go to the ufc.
@zp580 – really good point about the Silver Star thing, and walkout wear in general.
Personally I like when fighters own a clothing line, like Hendo does with Clinch Gear and Tito does with Punishment Athletics. You buy a rashguard or pair of boardshorts, you’re getting something fairly unique to wear, like Affliction USED to be before everyone and their little brother started rocking them, and you’re putting some paper more directly into a fighter’s hands than if you buy a generic clothing like like Affliction.
Does Hendo know I exist?
Fu<k no, but I'm sure he appreciates my orders just the same.
This is a bit off topic, but I wonder how many people are bashing Affliction Entertainment while sitting at their keyboards, and then throwing on an Affliction shirt before grabbing their keys and cel and bombing out to meet their crew at the bar, or some chick at a movie or mall or something?
Just a thought…
A few likely. Espeacially the bums over at sherpup.