The competition in MMA is heating up, not only in the ring or cage, but in the business side of things as well. With the UFC holding the torch, many other fight promotions are attempting to get on board with the worlds fastest growing sport. Organizations like Affliction have an up hill battle against the ruthless business tactics of the UFC’s President Dana White and are having to fight tooth an nail to keep their head above water. A recent article on MMA Junkie brought question to whether or not Affliction’s up coming fight, “Trilogy” could make or break the promotion. If it makes it, we could have some great competition among MMA promotions. If it breaks it, the UFC will be able to focus all of it’s attention on the destruction of any other competitive MMA promotions out there.
MMA Junkie:
Affliction’s event next month is dubbed “Trilogy.” A more accurate moniker might be “Finale.”
Rumors have swirled in the mixed martial arts industry about the promotion’s ultimate demise ever since its first show a year ago. However, Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio and the upstart organization have persevered, largely on the back of Fedor Emelianenko. The Russian heavyweight headlined Affliction’s first two shows and will do so again on Aug. 1 against Josh Barnett.
Atencio acknowledges that the promotion’s future hinges on this show. It must outperform Affliction’s previous events in order to secure the future of the organization.
“It does, to a certain extent,” said Atencio. “You can’t continue to lose money. So yeah, it really is an issue of, if we do better, then we’re going to move forward, and I’m really confident that we’re going to do better.”
