Future of Affliction is uncertain

Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio isn't overly enthusiastic about a third show for Affliction. The struggling MMA promotion had a fairly decent showing this past Saturday as Andre Arlovski failed to put a dent in Fedor's unbeaten record. There were also a number of other exciting fights from Vitor Belfort knocking out Matt Lindland in horrific fashion, to Josh Barnett beating Gilbert Yvel. Nevertheless, the promotion (which first made its money by selling t-shirts) is bleeding money. While the fighters certainly love their inflated salaries (Arlovski made 1.5 million for the fight), the very thing that's attracting fighters to Affliction is hurting the companies bottom line.

When asked about the possibility for a third Affliction show, Atencio was quoted as saying:

“I just don’t want to get ahead of myself. I’m just not that guy. Until we get things finalized and until I have 10 fights under my belt, I’m just not gonna be that guy. You don’t know what’s going to happen in this industry, the economy is not doing well. These guys are the ones. These guys are the warriors. They put their lives on the line and fight and train hard. Hopefully, there’s someone out there who can give them another home and hopefully that will continue to be us.”

That doesn't sound too promising to me. While Affliction certainly made a decent amount of money from Saturdays show, some estimates indicate that on the whole, the promotion might have lost almost 2 million dollars when it's all said and done. It doesn't take an economics major to figure out that that's a business model that can't sustain itself.

Dana White has said that he'd be shocked if there's a third Affliction show. And the way things appear to be going, I'd be shocked as well.

This opens up an interesting question, though. Where would all of the Affliction fighters go, in particular Fedor. Supposedly, the UFC offered Fedor 1.2 million bucks to fight for them, but the 2 sides couldn't work out contract particulars such as whether or not Fedor would be allowed to continue to compete in Sambo tournaments etc. These hypotheticals, however, are a little pre-mature, but if something happens, the sooner the better. We've seen how long Elite XC is dragging their feet while a number of great fighters on their roster are stuck with nowhere to go. Hopefully if Affliction closes up shop as a fight promotion, the fighters will soon land themselves another gig, preferably with the UFC, since that's where the bulk of the fighting talent resides these days.