Five Ounces of Pain broke a story today that Affliction is in negotiations to run a free television show opposite UFC 100:
Sources have informed FiveOuncesOfPain.com that Affliction Entertainment is currently engaged in preliminary discussions regarding the possibility of promoting its third-ever event on Saturday, July 11. Such a booking would put the promotion in direct competition with the UFC’s historic UFC 100 pay-per-view event.
There are a couple ways to analyze this news.
It’s a threat: After their first show, Affliction initiated negotiations with the UFC to close down their MMA promotion in exchange for getting back in the Octagon and a few other concessions. The deal was famously killed by Todd Beard. After their second show, top executives at Affliction again tried to bring the UFC to the table. They did it through a mutual partner rather than directly, allowing them to deny ever talking to the UFC. The UFC never responded with any interest. This news could be an attempt to bring the UFC back to the table.
It’s an advertisement: UFC sources tell me that Andrei Arlovski’s contract with Affliction is a “pay or play” contract, and it is heavily rumored that other top stars have similar contracts. These contracts are more like typical pro sports contracts, they guarantee payment even if they don’t fight. Since Affliction will have to pay these salaries anyway, it makes no sense to not have a show and actually have them fight. If they can get on network television, they could possibly do a lot to help their brand recognition. They already have to pay this, and are going to try to maximize exposure on the way out.
It’s a publicity stunt: It’s possible the news is nowhere near confirmed, and they floated this rumor just to get their name back in the news. It’s hard for me to believe NBC or ABC would pay anything significant for an Affliction show, and doing it on HDNet makes no sense at all.
It’ll be interesting to see if Dana White can resist focusing on Affliction and instead stick to promoting his own show. Affliction will be hoping that White turns his ire toward them to raise publicity about their show.Something tells me Dana can’t resist.