My Thoughts On Affliction Partnering With Golden Boy

When I look at Affliction, I think to myself…Why even bother? I think its time they realize they are completely out of their element and stick to making t-shirts.

could not agree more, my girl still wants me to buy her affliction shirt! She wants to wear them to every UFC PPV we watch…. Just wish she understood the MMA landscape but nothing is better than taking that shirt off each and every PPV….

One quick question what shirt is the next best to buy? Seems to me a I see a lot of girls out with afflication shirts….

I recently bought my girl a Tapout “Believe” tank top. Looks great. She also has a Warrior Forest shirt. Affliction shirts look good but I can’t see myself wearing one until they get their act together… even if GSP is a God to me.

I myself bought the new UFC dragon tee that Kenny Florian is seen wearing on the UFC Season 1 reunion.

I had a feeling that Oscar was going to jump into the game when I saw this video last week:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PODVNxjWSMo
Personally, I feel that in order for Affliction to survive and increase their buys, they need to sign quality fighters in different weight classes, not just have them all in one. As for mixing MMA and boxing, I agree that it will draw more fans from outside the MMA fan base, but the majority of hardcore MMA fans will not purchase the PPV to watch mediocre boxers as well as the same MMA fighters fighting at every PPV. Also, I know Trump and Oscar have some deep pockets, but they are not as deep as the Fertittas (they each have a net worth of just over a billion). Going $44 million in the whole was something that Lorenzo and Frank could do with out it really effecting them. I dont think Oscar and Donald will want to keep backing Atencio once loses start to get anywhere near that dollar amount.

I think the importance of this deal lies in the clothing aspect. I’ve already touted this angle in the comments section at BE and Five Ounces of Pain, but in short, Affliction is going to be able to provide T-shirts, etc. for Golden Boy events and Ring Magazine (which Golden Boy owns). This should be a decent source of revenue for both companies. I don’t really think co-mingling boxing and MMA will work on this large of a scale, but this gives Affliction some kind of return on their promotional venture. This is mentioned in an article at ESPN.

So basically in the grand scheme of things…Dana White is right…they want to sell more t-shirts?…lol

that sounds like a pretty expensive and elaborate plan to sell a few more shirts. Doesn’t make sense really…

What about Affliction promoting MMA makes sense? My take on it is that they’re minimizing the damage and cost exposure at this point. Affliction thought they could pay some established stars big money, and use these names to draw fans and become successful quickly. They got more than they bargained for in the way of resistance to their product.

I certainly don’t think this was the grand scheme when they decided to promote the first event on their own. Affliction realizes they need help. I don’t think this help from Golden Boy is enough to make them a viable MMA promotion, but it does give them an in into the boxing market. Golden Boy has little at risk, but they gain a merchandising component and some exposure to MMA.

Without HBO, the long-term prospects for this partnership don’t look that promising. Although this isn’t a game changer for Affliction, I do think it’s a good decision to run back to their core business – selling T-shirts.

“I do think it’s a good decision to run back to their core business – selling T-shirts.”

I agree

I agree with pretty much all of the above.

To me Affliction’s biggest weakness was banking their success on a small amount of big name fighters. Plus overpaying them and then overpaying the fighters they have to bring in to fight them.

I don’t see how this will fix that problem. To me this means they will bank on an even smaller pool of fighters. The other fighters will get picked up by someone else. Then Affliction will overpay to bring in a lower-tier of fighter to face those top guys they kept but nobody will be interested because it’s not a meaningful fight. It will be a big name against an unworthy opponent probably. I don’t see how they will turn that into a PPV draw.

Plus I don’t see the top name boxers wanting to give up any portion of their pay to supplement the MMA fighters pay. I mean a big boxing PPV has a history of being a big draw. Affliction has 1 very suspect PPV result. How do they fairly split the revenue from such an event? From Affliction’s 1 PPV I would have to assume for them to break even they are going to have to take an unfair portion of the revenue from a combined card.