Affliction Entertainment, best known for their universal clothing apparel on the backs of the most popular mixed-martial-arts fighters from around the world, apparently seem poised to for one last ditch effort in promoting MMA fights and competing with the Ultimate Fighting Championship for MMA supremacy.
Despite surprisingly stellar profit margins yet meager pay-per-view buys from their last two fight cards, Affliction plans on counteracting the UFC's historic 100th multi-main-event mega-bash in Las Vegas on July 11 with one of their own dull, so-so main-event fight night either on free basic cable or network television, possibly even another costly PPV venture.
Considered in some circles to be the best mixed martial artist alive, Fedor Emelianenko expects to headline, what could possibly be the third and final fight act for the struggling T-shirt vendors-turn-fight-promoters, when he defends, for the second time, his World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts (WAMMA) heavyweight championship possibly against top contender Josh Barnett.
No other fights have yet been announced, but judging from their past two cards, fans can expect knockouts, blood, submissions, and more knockouts.
Affliction: Banned, the organization's very first foray into the MMA PPV world came back in July 2008 when "the last Russian emperor" submitted former UFC heavyweight champion Tim "Maine-iac" Sylvia with a rear-naked choke after only 36 seconds into the first round, thus securing the newly created WAMMA heavyweight title.
Other brand-name fighters on the main card that night included former UFC castaways, Josh Barnett, Andre Arlovski, and current Strikeforce light heavyweight Renato "Babalu" Sobral.
Both Barnett and Arlovski knocked out their opponents in the second and third round respectively. Sobral earned a unanimous decision.
The problem with Affliction PPVs, as has been proven in their previous two cards—whoever fights Fedor, loses and loses quickly.
That's not saying Barnett, who's beat top fighters during his days in the UFC, will not give the champion, Fedor, a run for his money. According to the WAMMA rankings, both fighters rank No. 1 and No. 2 respectively, yet who wants to actually watch Fedor fight Barnett in Affliction?
If Affliction, who has had Fedor fight on their only two cards, plans to stay buddy-buddy with WAMMA and help legitimize their belts and rankings, and keep the fans happy, they can't have both Barnett and Fedor fighting on the same card but against different opponents.
Sure, them in separate matches makes for a more star-studded fight card, but the chances of another early knockout from Fedor risks the entire card being a bust.
When it comes to selling a MMA PPV, Emelianenko has not been a money-making machine, which is another reason the upstart promotion may be heading toward the final days as a direct competitor for the UFC.
In addition to a possible Fedor vs. Barnett title bout, Affliction must schedule many, many other great fights on this card, which they have done to a certain extent with their other two PPVs, to have any chance of drawing fans away from the UFC's landmark occasion.
Even if Affliction opts to broadcast a jam-packed fight card on free network cable, similar to what UFC has done in the past, that still will not guarantee them much, if any, success.
Casual fight fans tune into a free MMA card, if the letters U—F—C precede the name. But Affliction just doesn't have that brand recognition and so they need well-known fighters like Tim Sylvia and Paul Buentello or even boxers to attract both die-hard and casual fight fans, or this will definitely be their third and final MMA card.
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