Who's Afflicted Now?

Dennis Bernstein, MBA
www.scoremedia.org
Photos: William Trillo
 

Anaheim – If UFC President Dana White was concerned about the Affliction organization’s MMA card prior to Saturday night, he had more concerns early Sunday morning. The show, called Banned as an acknowledgment to the banishment of Afflicted gear from the UFC octagon by White, was a rousing success.
 

From the choreographed introduction of the fighters with Megadeth providing heavy background music to the increasing heat brought as the card drew to a crescendo with Fedor Emelianenko dispatching former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia in a mere 36 seconds, the event was a winner.
 

And while White did surface in Southern California this week, it was to bail out of jail one of his stars, Quentin “Rampage” Jackson out of jail after a Rampage on the highways of Orange County. Had he stayed and watched his former golden boy, former UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture smiling in the Affliction ring during an interview with his “enemy”, former MMA Big John McCarthy, you’d understand if the UFC president had this thought cross his mind.

White and the UFC ain’t the only game in town anymore.
 

 When the official numbers were in at the end of the night, this card outdrew any of the three UFC produced shows at the Honda Center, with an announced sellout of 13,988. I’ve been to about half a dozen UFC event over the past couple of years and while many of the components of the Affliction card mirrored what you’d see during a night at the octagon, the new guys on the block showed that it’s not a secret formula to put together a successful MMA card. The top rows of the Honda Center were filled to the rafters and while the initial undercard matches were under whelming, Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio initial foray into matchmaking struck gold with his final three match ups.
 

In a rematch from seven years ago, Josh ”Baby Face” Barnett put away Pedro “Rock” Rizzo with a big right hand.
 

Keeping the momentum going, Andrei “Pit Bull” Arlovski looks as if he’s regained the form that MMA fans knew from his UFC days, dominating former IFL heavyweight champion Big Ben Rothwell in a second round stoppage.
 

 

 

 

 

With the crowd stoked over the Arlovski performance, Emelianenko made his case for the best pound for pound fighter in the world with his flawless domination of Sylvia.
 

Despite UFC’s attempt at counter programming their version of the best pound for pound fighter in Anderson Silva, a one time move to 205 (Anderson said afterwards he’d continue to campaign at 185) and a tepid undercard really couldn’t compare in stature, the Affliction card was a PPV event, UFC’s offering was more DVR.
 

Atencio, who’s taken the high road when jabbed verbally by UFC’s White over the past two months, expressed relief and satisfaction afterwards. And make no mistake, this was not a one off promotion for their clothing brand, you’ll see another Affliction card sometime down the line. “I'm a T-shirt guy, and now I'm a promoter as well. Now I can take a deep breath, all I can say is, 'Wow.' It was amazing. There's competition now. That's all I can say. We didn't start out to do it. We didn't start out to do anything. We just wanted to do what we do and do it well. I think we did a good job. We were looking at about 630 or 650 closed-circuit orders (on top of the pay per view), which I think is a great indicator of how many people wanted to watch it. If fans are going to the bars and they're telling the bars and the restaurants that they want to see it, then they buy it. If they don't, then they're not going to buy it. I think it's a big success, you saw the crowd here (in Anaheim)." But Atencio refused to take any particular glee in silencing the UFC doubters by closing with these words, “You can't take anything away from the UFC. They built the industry. You can't take anything away what they did. But just like in any business, like I said before, if people are happy, then they're going to work harder for you. That's our motto. It seems to work."While it’s ridiculous to say that this night would be the tipping point to UFC’s demise, it’s fair to say that there are enough quality fighters in the MMA universe (and that White has pissed off enough people over the years) to create a strong secondary rival for the leader in the sport. Throughout the 1960’s, the American Football League was never considered competition for the NFL until a QB from Alabama named Joe Namath guaranteed a win over the allegedly invincible Baltimore Colts. Just a few years later, the two leagues merged and someday we may look back on this night in the same light.
 

FACES IN THE CROWD

Along with the Couture appearance, Affliction showed the ability to draw some celebs to the event as well, going as far as to station a red carpet VIP entrance just outside the media entrance. While I just missed to the cut off for celebrity status, the other names were impressive. Donald Trump, a financial backer of the venture, was seated next to Jenna Jameson and Tito Ortiz, a reunion of sorts from their Apprentice days. A good number fighters surfaced as well; James Toney, Winky Wright, WBC 154 pound champ Sergio Mora and Zab Judah, obviously not training too hard for his match in two weeks against Joshua Clottey at the Palms in Vegas.