Feb. 10, 2007: The night EliteXC put on their first show. This just two months after ProElite and Showtime announced their partnership in an attempt to take advantage of the ongoing U.S. love affair with MMA.
EliteXC, working very hard with very little, was able to put on a card with stars like Charles Bennet, Renzo Gracie, and Frank Shamrock. Unfortunately, the main event flopped due to a second-round DQ stoppage.
July 19th 2008. The day that the partnership between Affliction Clothing and Adrenaline MMA had all there hard work come to fruition in the form of an excellent mixed martial arts card.
The card featured such stars as Vitor Belfort, Renato Sobral, Matt Lindland, Pedro Rizzo, Josh Barnett, and Andrei Arlovski. The main event of that card was supposed to be the holy grail of MMA. The former UFC champion was pitted against the best in the world, Fedro Emelianenko in a fight that lasted a mere 36 seconds.
Did you see the similarities there? The partnerships between one well-known party, and one unheard of party. The main event level stars stuck trying there hardest to boost the popularity of their fledgling company.
The main event that everyone wanted to see, only to end abruptly leaving the viewer rolling their eyes and turning their backs. The eerily similar beginnings to these two businesses leaves me with one question. Can Affliction go down the same path of EliteXC, yet still survive?
I've been going back and forth for a long time now. One part of me wants to believe that Affliction will succeed, but the other part of me knows the bitter truth.
One part of me wants to know that the UFC will have steady competition, while the other part of me knows that competing with the UFC is the one thing that will kill any MMA organization.
The UFC started the phenomenon known as MMA in the USA. It was the UFC that in 2005 put on a show called The Ultimate Fighter.
On the line was a six-figure contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and the title of The Ultimate Fighter. The show included eventual stars Forrest Griffin, Josh Koscheck, Diego Sanchez, and Kenny Florian.
The show's finale stands in history as the first non-pay-per-view showing of MMA on U.S. television. It drew 1.9 million viewers, shattering all previous expectations.
The Ultimate Fighter put MMA on the map, and made the UFC a household name. To this day you will hear people talking about training in "ultimate fighting."
Can any organization succeed with such a powerhouse standing in there wake? The answer is simple, yes. Can said organization compete with the UFC? Absolutely not.
EliteXC tried to compete with the UFC. They failed miserably. It is hard to believe that an new organization in a generally new sport could get a major TV deal, and squander it before meeting the terms of the contract.
On Feb. 27, EliteXC signed a contract with CBS to broadcast their MMA cards on prime time. If successful, it was thought that CBS would broadcast EliteXC specials every other month on Saturday nights.
Yet just three shows in, Elite XC was forced to cease operations after going $50 million into debt.
As of right now, Affliction is on a slippery slope towards failure. The amount of money they pay their fighters is ludicrous, not to mention a main reason why they are going down.
The payroll for fighters at Affliction Banned topped $3 million. In comparison, at UFC: Ultimate 2008 the total fighter payroll, including bonuses, was just under $1.4 million.
Yet Ultimate 2008 netted just under $3.5 million in total gate, while Affliction got just under $2.1 million.
The total payroll for Affliction: Banned does not even include the money they paid Megadeth to perform, Michael Buffer to do announcements, and the money they lost giving away 3590 seats to help fill the Honda Center.
Where UFC succeeds, Affliction and Elite XC tried to do better. They thought that spending an ornate amount of money would bring them success. The thing about that is, the fans don't see how much you spent. They don't care if you pay your fighters $5 million or $500,000. They pay to see fights.
Elite XC paid Kevin Ferguson (Kimbo Silce) $500,000 to fight for them. In comparison, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, one of the biggest stars in all of MMA, was paid $325,000 to fight at Ultimate 2008.
Affliction paid Tim Sylvia $800,000 just to show up and fight Fedor. The most the UFC ever paid Tim Sylvia in a single night was $200,000. That included a win bonus of $100,000.
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