Sunday, September 14, 2008

MMA: Affliction Cancels October Show

Affliction's second show was scheduled for October 11 in Las Vegas. Last week the company informed the Nevada State Athletic Commission that the show was canceled, and then they listed a new date on their website for January 17, 2009 in Anaheim.

UFC president Dana White said at the press conference that announced the new Randy Couture contract that Affliction would be out of business in January. The way that things are looking now you could call him Nostradamus.

Affliction only exists as an MMA company because they thought that they could book the Randy Couture - Fedor Emelianenko match that the UFC was not able to put together when Fedor turned down a huge money offer(He was offered $2.5 million per fight with a $2.5 million win bonus).
With Couture back in the UFC fold, Affliction has no potential big money fight. January's show should do OK business just because it's theoretically enough time to have Fedor fight on the show(he was off of the October show because he broke his hand when he beat the hell out of Tim Sylvia on the debut show).

Though without TV to support the pay per view, no one is going to know about the show or anything about the people that are on it. It's a show for the MMA diehards who want to see Fedor in action regardless of his opponent.

If the year 2008 has taught us anything about the North American MMA market it's that UFC is the brand name, and people will buy the brand name. The last rating for the prime time EliteXC show on CBS showed that very few people will watch a show just because it is an MMA event, and that show was on free tv.

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