Affliction and Golden Boy Form Partnership
Affliction and Golden Boy Promotions today announced a “strategic, multi-level partnership between the two companies that will bring the popular Affliction-brand to the world of boxing and entertainment”.
“We have been talking to Affliction over the past several months to figure out a partnership that will take advantage of the expertise of both of our companies,†said Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer. “We have found the solution and are extremely excited about starting this partnership immediately.â€
“Golden Boy Promotions is the top boxing promoter in the world and we look forward to working with them on future projects,†said Tom Atencio, Vice President, Affliction. “With our companies working together, it gives Affliction another vehicle to deliver our products to our core customers, as well as utilizing Golden Boy’s promotional expertise to further our efforts in Mixed Martial Arts.â€
Earlier this year Affliction and Golden Boy, which was started by former boxing champion Oscar De La Hoya, previously engaged in negotiations but the two sides were unable to reach an agreement after reportedly squabbling over control.
The partnership includes:
- For major Golden Boy Promotions fights, Affliction will create a signature Affliction shirt sold on-site and at retail outlets nationwide.
- Affliction will become the official apparel licensee for the Golden Boy Enterprises-owned Ring Magazine, and will adorn t-shirts and other apparel with the iconic Ring logo and classic Ring Magazine covers.
- Golden Boy Promotions and Affliction Entertainment will promote events that will feature both first class boxing matches as well as top notch MMA bouts on the same cards with the inaugural event planned for 2009.
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This sounds like it’s going to help keep Affliction afloat. Although it needs more fighters that aren’t heavyweights.
I still dream of having Gran Prix tournaments for all the empty WAMMA belts. And invite fighters from all promotions.
And that’s the end of AFFLICTION right there . Who the hell wants to watch boxing and MMA on the same card ? if it was kick boxing and mma that would have been cool but not like they are planning .they must have been in really bad shape to do this … why not have a baseball game or bowling aswell
GONZO
Believe me man ….. this is the worst idea in history of promotions
IMO … atencio is now a tatooed penis with ears
Terrible move on Affliction’s part. Boxing was used as a good/bad example by the UFC and they were very successful. Now Affliction is going to partner up with Golden Boy Productions and bring in the worst influence and business partner possible. The only people who like the idea of MMA and boxing on the same card are people from the world of BOXING. MMA fans are doing fine without boxing…. we don’t it for our entertainment. The world of boxing community likes the idea of boxing/MMA combo fight cards because then they don’t have to watch their sport take the back seat to a newer more exciting sport(MMA). Boxing is not dead by any means as many have said. However, boxing has never had a rival combat sport to compete with like it does MMA.
Affliction is BAD for MMA. Their ways of promoting with BS and their business dealings disgust me as a fan. I’ve followed Affliction from the start and find them pathetic, desperate and clueless. I don’t care if Fedor does fight Arlovski now. I WILL NOT PAY! Affliction does not care about MMA AT ALL. They care about money money money and I will not give any of mine to them. F YOU Affliction for bringing poison to the world of MMA! I hope Oscar takes you guys to the cleaners and F’s you over!
Dr. Doom,
IMO……You just said the funniest thing here all week.
Are tney gonna have their boxing matches in the oversized ring as well?
I agree that this will be an even bigger flop than an average MMA card. For the most part boxing fans aren’t MMA fans and vice versa. So why would I spend $40 to watch half the fights. Not to mention the difference in rounds meaning the card is gonna feel off balance. I got $100 says we look back at this event and say this was truly the begining of the end.
Sounds like another boxer losing his hard earned money on a bad investment…
Buddy,
I would assume so…..I don’t know how they would go about changing the ring size unless there is some special way we don’t know about. Good point. Boxing may just get more dancing boxers and boring pace added to it.
KOuch,
Not watching TUF 1 marathon?
Southworth is on….
Azn,
I got $500 to add to your $100. Remember how you felt during Tim Sylvia fights or the time Kalib ran from Quarry the whole match? Eveyone better be ready to relive those experiences if they choose to watc Affliction cards of the future. It seems that Affliction does not have even ONE person affliiated with them who knows the first thing about MMA. The regulars here could do a better job running the company…..or at the least have a better idea of how to deliver MMA to the fans.
DIETRICH,
I’LL have to check it out. Right now I got CAL and Maryland…….so good to have football back.
Its funny cause MMA fans boo when they stalk each other for more than a minute. Can you imagine a MMA crowd watching guys throw a few punches then clinch. I was a big boxing fan till I got into MMA. Since ive watched the 1 boxing match Del la Hoya Mayweather fight. And I was bored out of my mind all the dancing and holding. Horrible move affliction. They would have been better off dealing with pro elite.
maybe we should bombard affliction with resumes and cover letters saying how we could do a better job than the higher ups… and turn affliction around to actually make money…
like what dana white and zuffa did for the UFC
I come from a family of boxing lovers. I am the odd man out as an MMA fan and I know I am going to hear, “This is great. Told you this would happen.” As if it’s a good f-ing thing! This won’t work. MMA fans will be looked at as disrespectful when all they really want is for the pace of the fight to speed up. Boxing got the nick name the sweet science to cover up the BS dancing that takes place and bores people to death. Rocky Marciano said it best: “Why waltz with a guy for 10 rounds when I can KO him in 1?
Could be interesting. But I think it will come down to Boxing “cashing in” on the fame and strength that MMA has come to achieve.
I can see that they are trying to get more people to notice MMA to generate more fans.
I don’t see what good this can do for MMA. I don’t think our sport needs anymore exposure to gain new fans. If you watch Boxing, then trust me, you would have checked MMA out after hearing all the hype for it. Does this mean that we could potentially see (for arguments sake) a Ricky Hatton fight on the same card as a Fedor fight?
When I watch MMA, I am usually pretty happy with the whole card. Even if a fight doesn’t seem good on paper, I would put my money on it that the guys would go out there and deliver an entertaining bout. That being said, When I watch a Boxing show, I pretty much don’t bother with the under card’s as they don’t seem to have entertainment value. I only want to see the Main Event.
So all I can see happening here is Boxing’s attempt to get a few more cheers and all round atmosphere on there shows.
In all honesty, look how far MMA has come in the last 5+ years. Do we really need to be dragging the ever declining sport of Boxing around with us? Talk about dead weight!
Sounds like you made the better pick. The interview thing is ok…Footage is on Spike website. The Nogueira-Mir preview they ran late last night was better…
Side Note Prayers are with any posters in Texas right now…
Affliction is just dumb! They are so f-ing stupid I cannot get over it. DANNYBOY! Where are you? Put a positive spin on this one for me please. Most people argue that we need more than one MMA promotion and I agree. Affliction is getting off track of being an MMA promotion doing this though. After losing $7million they are transforming into two sports for financial help. JUST DUMB!
Dietirch,
Good call.
I wish everyone in Texas the best and I feel for anyones loss.
This will last for 1 show.
C’mon guys. You had to know something like this would happen after the first “cheesy” show. That Mega Death band playing during the show was stupid and showed Afflictions bad taste. I am acutally suprised they did not team up with the WWE instead of boxing, since the first Affiliction show looked like a WWE promotion. Dumb! May be this will convience Fedor to join the UFC. Boxing is boring and teamed with MMA fights will mean the show will last 12 hours. If they put the MMA fights first then we can turn it off when the MMA fights are over. This sucks!
I say we get behind these guys — Strikeforce,DREAM and elite XC . Elite just needs to do some more cross promotions with the CBS deal and people will watch here in the US. thats their golden ticket in this threesome , the power of nationally televised cards . DREAM sounds like it’s doing ok in Japan and Strikeforce has some really good fighters up and coming .just check out Young guns 3 card .And with their canadian TV deal they have added 35 million new viewers .They have what it takes to really compete with the UFC if they stick together.
Think about it .. between the three org,s they rule the TV . HDnet ,TheScore,CBS,Showtime plus japanese tv …I’d say they have a wicked chance
Dr Doom, this is a business. If I’m strikeforce (who is doing very well) why would I help these 2 guys, especially Elite who is my chief rival. Not to mention the differences between the 3 org’s. 2 fight in a cage, 2 allow elbows to down opponents, and Dreams rounds are different. You guys need to get pass this “lets have everyone be friends and do what’s right for the sport” mantra. You want to see all these fighters come together then you need a monopoly. Plain and simple, cause this cross promotion stuff won’t happen.
KOuch, don’t keep it all inside. Please tell us how you feel about Affliction. Don’t mix words. Just be honest.
I believe Affliction makes the finest t-shirts. They are made from the finest cotton on the planet and may very well be good for the environment. They are reasonably priced, so every blue collar man can buy 4-5 everytime they go to Nordstram’s.
sincerely,
“The Donald”
anzstar-inc
WTF are you talking about ? They cross promote all the time …..strikeforce with elite and DREAM has had three elite xc fighters on their cards already . So unless you really dont watch this stuff that is well known info right there .There is no monopoly needed .. so ………….anything else ?
Its one thing to borrow a fighter, its another to utilize another companies resources. Elite XC isn’t sharing air time on CBS with strickeforce on a cross promoted card, not to mention NBC already has a deal with strikeforce. But when I say cross promotion I mean it has both their name in the title (elite XC/strikeforce present: when worlds colide, for example) and you will never see a champion vs champion match like what I was assuming you were also talking about. cause that just makes one companies champ less credible.
Maybe they’ll have a boxer and an MMA fighter fighting each other… The boxer will get to rest after 3 minutes while the MMA fighter has to keep fighting for 5 minute rounds… nah… that doesn’t make sense… I wonder what they’re trying to do here.
Boxing and MMA on the same card… Will it be free to watch? If it is, I’m not sure it’s worth the price.
Afflicition should take a look at the WEC. They won’t have any big guys in their promotion. Could Affliction be more marketable if they had only big guys? HW, LHW and MW. They could cut the small guys loose and pick up a few more big guys and maybe put some interesting fights together. The problem that I have with Affliction right now is they don’t have a big enough stable of fighters to have interesting match-ups, but if the reduced the number of weight divisions that would mean more money to get more fighters for the divisions they’d have left. It might be worth the effort or they could sit back and wait till they run completely out of credit.
DolfanG- I really don’t think you could build around a HW divison. Its hard there isn’t as many top notch guys that can put on a great show. Most of the HW matches I’ve seen the guys are sloppy and look more like Roy than Cheick. With the lighter weights they tend to have more explosive fights making it an eaiser watch for fans who don’t know the fighter by heart.
This sounds like business decisions made by “businessmen” who took too many shots to the head.
Dana White predicted Affliction would be bankrupt by the end of the year. Looks like that prediction may be postponed until 1st quarter of 2009. Dana also made a pretty funny comment about how much Affliction lost on the first card and how many shirts they would have to sell to recoup the costs of Affliction 1.
Who thought this would be a good idea?
Dear Donald,
I do not like Affliction’s t-shirts. They scream metro sexual.
KOuch,
Hahaha metro-sexual hahaha.
Buy Tapout, better shirts, a hell of a lot cheaper. Affliction is dead this cements it.
When I saw atencio on inside mma he came across as a talker and not a doer .Not to mention the earings he had , kinda GAY !!!!! It’s one thing to plan a single show but if thats all ya got then goodbye AFFLCTION . Wasnt really too big on their format anyways . Even WAMMA was the ****s , one guy gets a belt and they are supposed to represent MMA ??? send their stars to strikeforce and make the ring into a bandstand .
aznstar-inc prefers bowling to MMA ….. he wrote me an email proclaiming so . He must like Atencio’s earrings …… hahaha
its funny , if you go to sherdog there’s a pic of atencio with a big smile announcing the deal …. wont last long .Especially when noone wants to pay
Haha that’s cute Dr. Doom. Shame you don’t have an argument to make. I was looking forward to an intelligent response.
Terrible. Affliction is a steaming pile of dung.
aznstar_inc
I hear what you’re saying and I don’t disagree. I was just thinking about a possible marketing tool since the WEC won’t feature any HW fighters. Afflicition already has too many big name HWs. They can’t afford the ones they have now. If they add any more fighters, they won’t be able to afford any big names. The thing is their stable is so small they don’t have the opportunity to offer a lot of different match-ups.
DolfanG- I agree that it looks to be afflictions best option to have any long term stability. I was just saying if it were up to me I would’ve focused on the lighter weights if I was starting a company up. But Yes affliction need to grab any credible heavyweights, especially cause its the weakest UFC divison by far.
Metro…LOL
Exactly. Additionally, the UFC and WEC have such a huge cadre of the lighterweight fighters, it would be hard to make inroads starting in those divisions.
Of course I agree with you that the WWs on down are a lot more action.
affliction just shot themselves in the foot!
Ooo this doesnt sound too clever. I think Affliction are in trouble. And I really dont see the boxing and MMA on the same card working out. Most hardcore boxing fans dont like MMA (or more accurately, that MMA is p1ssing on its parade, but thats a different matter). If at least half the crowd are boxing fans, when the MMA is kicking off it will be as quiet/empty as a funeral wake. Which is apt because a funeral wake is exactly where Affliction is heading…
The idea of mixing MMA with boxing is a good way to introduce the sport to the hardcore boxing fans. As much as we love MMA, the PPV sales do not even come close to that of a top boxing promotions. Here are the numbers for 2007.
• 1. Boxing: Oscar De La Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather, May 5: 2,400,000
• 2. Boxing: Mayweather vs. Ricky Hatton, Dec. 8: 850,000
• 3. WWE: Wrestlemania, April 1: 760,000
• 4. UFC: Chuck Liddell vs. Quinton Jackson, May 26: 675,000
• 5. UFC: Tim Sylvia vs. Randy Couture, March 3: 540,000
• 6. UFC: Couture vs. Gabriel Gonzaga, Aug. 24: 520,000
• 7. UFC: Liddell vs. Keith Jardine, Sept. 22: 475,000
• 8. UFC: Tito Ortiz vs. Rashad Evans, July 7: 425,000
• 9. UFC: Anderson Silva vs. Travis Lutter, Feb. 2: 400,000
• 10. UFC: Georges St. Pierre vs. Matt Serra, April 7: 400,000
If Affliction/Golden Boy can have MMA matches during the large boxing promotions it can convert a lot of older the fans that still believe MMA is “cock-fighting with humans.” Once they see there are rules and it’s a sanctioned sport, they will respect it more.
The latino market will explode, if they fall in love with MMA, like they did with boxing.
At the end of the day, though, the UFC will capitalize with more PPV buys. Because they have the best fighters and the most events.
Gonzo while I agree that this a good way to reach a different segment of fans I do have to say that I don’t believe it will work. Their isn’t a really large hardcore boxing segment anymore under the age of 40. And basicly if your 40 or over you aren’t gonna learn to like something new. MMA owns the 18 to 25 demo, so the fan base is set to grow anyway. My issue with this is affliction has yet to prove itself as even a credible MMA show yet, so going out and trying to expand its audience that they don’t really have is almost laughable. Also HBO declining to put dre and barnet on the october boxing card is a sign about what hardcore boxing fans think of this sport.
As for ppv buys Yes, Floyd did great in those 2 fights. But last week inside MMA had the figures for the year in total PPV buy’s for MMA, wrestling, and boxing as a whole. MMA was way ahead with 3 mil total wrestling had 2 mil and boxing had a mil. So once again the market is in love with MMA, and adding 25 to 30K buys of possible boxing fans won’t mean much. affliction just went about this business the wrong way and continue to dig a hole they won’t get out of.
In regards to the hispanic market, boxing is something that is a cultural thing. You can’t just change that with a few PPV’s. if MMA really wants to reach the latino market they need a real latino fighter to market to them. No Roger Huerta will not sell, he’s to american to be embraced by mexico (just like Oscar). Hell I have a 17 year old kid that works for me 6 ft 155lbs. He’s mexican and has a ameture boxing record of 6 and 2. I’ve been trying to sell him on learning MMA at this local gym, but he’s not really into it cause he was raised to appreciate it. There is a reason Bisping is on every UK card and a reason they never go to canada without GSP or atleast a few canadian born fighters on the card.
I think the hardcore boxing fans are already here. Ring and other magazines have been running competition stories for years.
Competition in the Business sense that is…
Gonzo,
Ragarding the HIspanic/Latino community you used a BIG “IF.” MOst likely MMA will work south of the border but you are right….”IF.”
Older boxing fans are not going to change their opinions on MMA. I’ve gone round for round in debates and conversation online/offline every which way I could. Boxing has been around for over a hundred years and MMA is a barely developed fetus at this point. I feel something being missed with the PPV numbers is the amount of events. Sure, the UFC does not get all the big PPV buys in comparison to boxing but the UFC does deliver great fight cards every month….sometimes twice….and they have a great reality competition show that shows fighters working their way up in the promotion. Far better than The Contender in ratings. Boxing has one or two decent fights a year and people still do not know who Kelly Pavlik is. For those of you who don’t, he is the USA’s greatest boxer at the moment. Pacquio is without a doubt or argument a badass dude. De La Hoya on the other hand is trying to make his last bit of moey before retirement, moving onto f-ing Affliction over and attempting an assualt on MMA. Seriously, I am waiting to hear a dumb ass remark from De La Hoya that flips the F out of MMA fans. De La Hoya is a homo. Boring to watch and lady like. In my opinion, it is pathetic that this is the best the world of boxing could present and this fight says a WHOLE lot about the current state of boxing. I think I will be attending a SJ Sharks game that evening instead of sitting bored watcing two men dance. Nothing against Paq……De La Hoya is my problem. This match up is worse than Tito vs Ken 3 in my opinion. I don’t want to talk boxing though. Just making a comparison. I’d rather watch mediocre MMA fight cards every month than a hyped up boxing card that fails miserably and bores me once or twice a year.
aznstar_inc and KOuch you have made great points. Long term, I don’t know what will happen with Affliction. Short term, any new fans they bring to MMA, will belong to the UFC too.
KOuch, you forgot to mention De la hoya’s Not so #1 dance hit album.
Dana promised us a Mexico PPV in 2007. I would enjoy watching that live, instead of a UK PPV at 3pm or a free tape delay. We need a more pure Mexican bad-a$$ MMA fighter to come to America. Basically a Mexican born and bred GSP. And when he gets his title shot, hold it Mexico City. Also have Tito and Roger on the card wouldn’t hurt.
UFC 99 Mexico vs USA
What do you think? I’ll pay 45 pesos for that.
It look like Tito Ortiz Claims To Have Signed With Affliction
u guys are a bunch of grumpy old men.
any way to give xposure to mma is a plus at this point.
i think the way to go is to make a number of smaller local competitions, ex. for every city, or gym against gym.
also, they should try harder to involve local businesses, ex. gyms, clothing, nutrients, etc.
also we could tie it with strength/ performance competition: lifting, arm-wrestling, pure grappling, kick-boxing. maybe a mini-olimpics?
how about more challenge fights:
boxer vs wrestler,
sumo vs grappling,
aikido vs wrestler etc.
This is so, so disapointing!
I love MMA but hate boxing.
This concludes with one person who would have ordered all affliction cards now ordering zero.
Good job guys (not!).
UFC 99 Mexico vs USA!!!!!!!!
GRRRREAT IDEA!!!