Affliction Banned From EliteXC, Loses Arena For First-Ever Event
Affliction, the clothing company turned upstart MMA promotion, has now been banned as a sponsor from EliteXC, after receiving the same treatment from the UFC earlier this year:
“Since Affliction is starting their own MMA organization, both the UFC and EliteXC have now decided that its fighters cannot wear the clothing line during its events. The primary concern of the fighters is that they lose a large stream of income, as sponsorships sometimes exceed the money that they would receive from even the fights themselves.â€
The EliteXC banning isn’t the only roadblock Affliction has hit lately, as it was also reported that the company had indeed lost out on a partnership agreement with Oscar De La Hoya’s “Golden Boy Promotionsâ€:
“The two sides couldn’t reach an agreement however, and parted over control issues. De La Hoya officially confirmed that he was taking his hat out of the MMA ring for now in order to focus on building the sport of boxing.”
Lastly, Affliction seems to have soured their broadcast deal with HDNet, which in turn has caused some venue-fumbling for their inaugural July 19 show:
“…A proposed deal between Affliction and HDNet appeared to have fallen through. As a result, Affliction was not able to finalize an agreement to book the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, Texas for its first show. The event, which is slated to be headlined by Fedor Emelianenko taking on Tim Sylvia, could now be held at The Pond in Anaheim, Calif., instead.”
Tough week, Affliction.
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The way I see it, the people behind Affliction should have been ready for issues like these. They went from sponsor to promoter and that is a great achievement. However, I do not believe this move was made without Affliction knowing they would be stepping on toes of other promoters. It does seem a little shady to be sponsoring fighters in one promotion only to start your own promotion that would have never been built without the bigger promotions showcasing sponsored Affliction fighters. Best of luck to Affliction but with this rough start I cannot help but question their business model, business plan and the people running the show. It does not seem like a strong company. Perhaps they produce Sylvia v Fedor and a few other catchy matches but that will be it. I do not even care to see Sylvia v Fedor because Sylvia is boring to watch. Affliction will pick up the UFC left overs just like Elite XC but probably fail in the long run. I just see Affliction throwing together 2-3 big fight cards with a bunch of popular fighters before they crash and burn. There will be more than 3 Affliction shows….just the quality of fight cards will suck after the first 3.
I would have to agree with you on that KOuch, it is only a matter of time before the funding is gone. I don’t think some of these new promotions realize how much money has to go into these events before you really start to see a ROI. I do like there clothing designs though.
Oh, indeed….very nice clothing. They should have stuck with the clothing sales. I admit the fight card looks great to the average fan because of the names on it but Affliction looks to be suffering from some sort retard disease with all their other actions.
I agree with you. There is zero chance of survival for Affliction as a MMA event host. They should have absolutely stuck to clothing because now that will suffer substantially as well. Watch and see, both will be gone with in the next 2 years.