LOOKING AT A POSSIBLE UFC/AFFLICTION PROMOTIONAL BATTLE
By David Tees on 6/16/2008 6:11 PM
On Saturday July 19th, the clothing line turned MMA organization, Affliction, will hold their debut event featuring Fedor Emelianenko and Tim Sylvia in the main event. Ever since the announcement of the debut event a few months back, the UFC has been relatively silent about their new opposition. That silence was broken recently when rumors started spreading that the UFC could be running a live event on Spike TV as opposition to Affliction’s debut.
Even more interesting is that the proposed main event of the UFC live event would be Brandon Vera moving down to the light heavyweight division to take on Wanderlei Silva. This would be a hard main event to put together, because Brandon Vera just fought at UFC 85 in June, while Wanderlei Silva fought last month at UFC 84.
Main event withstanding, this could be a big blow to the upstart Affliction promotion, because they would be going head to head with the UFC. However, this is not the first time the UFC ran head to head with other promotions to thwart their potential success. Last month, Spike TV and the UFC ran the Chuck Liddell documentary “Ultimate Iceman” opposite of the Elite XC debut on CBS.
That first attempt to thwart another promotion was a failure for the UFC, as Elite XC did phenomenal television ratings opposite the UFC. There are many additional factors that will be playing a role in the UFC versus Affliction battle that weren’t there during the Elite XC opposition. Those additional factors are live event versus live event, pay-per-view versus cable television and Fox Sports Net.
Affliction and the UFC are both putting on live events, with the UFC purposely running as opposition to the long awaited Affliction event. Let me first mention, this isn’t the first time two or more MMA groups have run against each other, but this is the first time that two groups of this magnitude are opposing one another. Right now, the UFC is the undisputed king of the MMA universe and clearly they must view Affliction as a viable threat, why else would they try to run a live event on the same night.
Just look at the star power that Affliction is delivering, Tim Sylvia, Fedor Emelianenko, Matt Lindland, Andrei Arlovski, Renato Sobral and others. These fighters, along with other MMA fighters, delivers a lot more star power than most MMA organizations do when going against the UFC. From a live aspect, both organizations would be potentially running against each other by being one state apart as the UFC is rumored to be holding their show in Las Vegas, Nevada and Affliction will be running in Anaheim, California.
One potentially huge advantage the UFC has is good old fashioned money, because the UFC will be running on free TV, while Affliction will be on pay-per-view. As of this writing, Affliction has not named a price that fans will have to pay to view the event, but rumors circulating that the show will cost fans about forty dollars.
I look at it like this, if you are the average American MMA fan and you have forty dollars, will you put that money into food/gas/other bills and watch the free UFC show or spend that money on Affliction and put the food/gas/other bills on the backburner? The almighty dollar could be playing the most important role in this potential battle between the UFC and Affliction.
Also, the other factor could be the former home of TNA Impact!, Fox Sports Net, as they will be airing two preliminary Affliction fights (Paul Buentello vs. Aleksander Emelianenko & Vernon White vs. Antonio Rogero Nogueira) for free. Lets make the assumption that the Fox Sports Net broadcast begins at 9pm EST., which would presumably mean that the Affliction free broadcast would begin the same time the free UFC broadcast would begin.
I bring this up because if you are on the shelf on which event to watch and the free Affliction fights are more exciting then the UFC fights, some potential viewers may put off the UFC and put the money into the Affliction pay-per-view. Also, there are rumors that the remaining Affliction preliminary fights (four total) could be airing for free on the internet, which brings up and interesting premise not seen since the days of the Monday Night Wars.
Affliction could pull a WCW Monday Nitro and begin one hour before the UFC begins and get the viewers to not even tune into the UFC. This could be even a bigger factor than the money situation I mentioned earlier, because if Affliction convinces the “on the fence” MMA fans who are undecided on which show to view, the hour head start could possibly convince more fans than just about any other method.
The next month in the world of mixed martial arts could be a very interesting one, as the MMA equivalent of WWE versus WCW may begin as Affliction and the UFC are seemingly going to battle with each other.
You can contact David Tees at bigtees360@yahoo.com
