Fight of the Night: UFC vs. Affliction
Jason Probst Jul 17, 2008
This Saturday, mixed martial arts fans have the kind of choice that
would’ve been a pipe dream just a few years ago -- deciding which
of two major events to watch.
The head-to-head duel between Affliction’s “Banned” pay-per-view and the Spike-televised UFC Fight Night is the opening shot in the not-so-silent war over who will dominate the MMA market -- a battle whose casualties have tolled a considerable body count of expired promotions in recent months.
From the IFL to Yamma and a raft of other doomed organizations, the
honeymoon period of promotional newcomers with deep pockets and
heady expectations has been tampered down by the hard realities of
a market that seems more bearish than bullish these days. Like the
dot.com phenomenon in the late 1990s that begat the
venture-capital-fueled crash of 2001, potential investors in MMA
promotions are seemingly realizing that it takes a lot more than a
slapdash approach to capture the eyeballs -- and dollars -- of the
MMA fan base, one which existed for years without mainstream
attention until 2005.
Now that the once homely sport has blossomed into a potential fiscal princess, turned-down suitors only spell out the hard realities of throwing too much effort into the courtship for little if any gain.
In June, the UFC’s decision to pit Anderson Silva (Pictures)-James Irvin (Pictures) against them on cable, thereby subverting Affliction’s buy rate for the debut show, was seen as dirty pool by some. But that kind of sentiment only overlooks the natural dynamics of capitalism and the battle for market supremacy. Whether it’s Microsoft versus Apple, GM versus Ford, or McDonald’s against Burger King, self-interest often translates into crushing the competition by any legal means (and, sometimes, more than that). Sometimes it’s launching an ad bragging about how you do something the competition doesn’t (BK’s “flame broiling,” for example). Or jacking the other side’s user interface and calling it your own (summed up via “Windows 95=Mac 86”).
The truly stupid move, in terms of pure Darwinism, would be for the UFC to stand idly by and not challenge Affliction right out of the gate. An alpha male in the wild doesn’t putter around and allow a younger rival male free reign to get stronger and mount a potential challenge.
Plus, by potentially killing Affliction off early, the UFC stands to avert a large-scale bargaining war for talent. It may not be the best thing for fighters, but the effort should be a boon for fans, at least in the short term, until this thing is settled and the market stabilizes. Silva-Irvin may be one of the shortest headline bouts in recent memory, but it will surely be the best investment on the dollar-per-second basis the UFC has ever made. By kneecapping Affliction and dissuading future challengers, they’ve saved themselves a lot of potential trouble.
Whatever MMA fans decide to watch on July 19 (or tape while watching the other), some good things do emerge from this duel. First, MMA promotions will have to adjust on the fly to provide solid programming. Another suitor in the MMA game, Elite XC, showed that kind of thinking after its May 31 show on CBS.
While the Kimbo Slice-James Thompson (Pictures) bout was a fairly rousing if controversial fight for how it ended, the promotion immediately set a July 26 rematch on CBS of the superior fight on the May card -- Robbie Lawler (Pictures) against Scott Smith (Pictures). Their back-and-forth slugfest ended in a no-contest, but it was the kind of legitimate bout that satisfies both new and hardcore fans. The adjustment in making them the main event of the July 26 show is the kind of intuitive thinking that will be required of any promotion challenging the UFC’s supremacy.
Naturally, the UFC announced it would be re-airing UFC 84 on July 26 on Spike -- just a friendly reminder to Elite XC, of course. It has all the stylings of “The Godfather,” except UFC President Dana White is sending Elite XC this as a gift instead of a wrapped-up fish.
The honeymoon is over, folks. All challengers will be targeted for termination, with extreme prejudice, to boot.
That’s because slapping a card together with a few random fighters duking it out just won’t do it anymore. The market has clearly revealed its own limitations, as expressed during a June media conference call with IFL President Jay Larkin.
Cash-strapped and unsure if the promotion will hold more shows, Larkin, a longtime boxing executive with Showtime, was quite frank in discussing the challenges of marketing an upstart MMA promotion in today’s market.
“I have my theories, and some may not be the kind of thing people want to hear. I think that there is a halo effect over the UFC, and there are fans of the UFC who are not necessarily fans of MMA,” said Larkin when asked about the IFL’s downward decline after a seemingly auspicious start. “But they appreciate the UFC product, and not necessarily the quality of the fights. They have good nights and bad nights like everyone else. I believe there is an element of the fan base that believes if it’s not the UFC, it’s crap. And that makes it very difficult to operate in a business environment.”
Translation: Any new promotion that emerges will have to offer the kinds of fights that have the “water cooler” factor. Fights that get casual sports fans interested in MMA and wanting more from that promotion. Slice’s ear-popping stoppage of Thompson was an impressive comeback for Kimbo, but the circumstances surrounding it didn’t help CBS’ debut telecast. Smartly, Elite XC downshifted into offering Smith-Lawler II as its next main event.
The history of market battles suggests that most dwindle down to a two-horse race. Coke versus Pepsi. HBO versus Showtime. And on and on. And while the emergence of other promotional entities would mean more money for fighters, it would also move MMA closer to the nightmarish reality of boxing, where the best matches are not made because of promotional impediments.
Right now, Emelianenko’s absence from the UFC is a troublesome glitch in the mind of the devoted fight fan, but an increased frequency of these does not help the sport. The kind of doublethink required to follow boxing is a taxing process -- it doesn’t take Super Bowl teams years to find each other, as it would Miguel Cotto-Floyd Mayweather, or as it did with Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson. If MMA fans are subjected to the same hang-ups on a larger scale, it’s definitely a case of success breeding alienation.
Take non-UFC stalwarts like Cung Le (Pictures) and Jake Shields (Pictures). If they keep beating people in the next year or two, it could be frustrating to see them operate in the diminished talent pool that isn’t the UFC’s. A boxing fan knows exactly how that feels.
MMA has largely embraced the best principles of boxing’s golden eras -- tough fights, quality-in-volume on cards and active competitors -- while eschewing the destructive tentacles that have mangled the sweet science and crippled its appeal. There are no major sanctioning bodies (though WAMMA is maneuvering for power). Managers rarely if ever get to play games by naming opponents. Networks don’t have the exclusive deals with fighters that allowed Roy Jones to beat up hapless mandatory challengers for years on HBO and get paid more than an entire UFC card costs.
Boxing is no longer on network TV while MMA is, and today’s casual sports fan probably could name as many active MMA fighters as boxers, if not more.
The sport is still in the nascent phase of its success, and whoever emerges over the next few years will remember the tenets that got MMA here -- tough fights and a talent base built on a distinctly established pecking order.
Whoever emerges from the dust could take a few lessons from boxing -- a sport whose power brokers got drunk on the hubris of short-term monopolies that simultaneously fattened a choice few bank accounts while giving the fan diminished returns on his dollar.
Regardless of who the perceived winner is July 19, and in the coming months and years, it’s because they want your attention and your dollar. The big mystery is what the victor(s) will do to keep getting those returns once the battle is largely won and the market solidifies. Until then, the whims of the fan have the enhanced attention of the power brokers.
Enjoy it and the coming programming boon that is geared toward capturing your interest.
The head-to-head duel between Affliction’s “Banned” pay-per-view and the Spike-televised UFC Fight Night is the opening shot in the not-so-silent war over who will dominate the MMA market -- a battle whose casualties have tolled a considerable body count of expired promotions in recent months.
Advertisement
Now that the once homely sport has blossomed into a potential fiscal princess, turned-down suitors only spell out the hard realities of throwing too much effort into the courtship for little if any gain.
To wit: Brand value, recognizable fighters and multi-outlet
marketing are the key to building success in an MMA promotion. And
right now, the UFC is the sole organization in the industry with
the legs to stand on its own. Affliction is hoping to change that
by putting on a roster of fighters, almost all of them UFC veterans
who’ve since left the fold, and the biggest prize the UFC has yet
to land -- former Pride heavyweight boss Fedor
Emelianenko (Pictures) against Tim Sylvia
(Pictures).
In June, the UFC’s decision to pit Anderson Silva (Pictures)-James Irvin (Pictures) against them on cable, thereby subverting Affliction’s buy rate for the debut show, was seen as dirty pool by some. But that kind of sentiment only overlooks the natural dynamics of capitalism and the battle for market supremacy. Whether it’s Microsoft versus Apple, GM versus Ford, or McDonald’s against Burger King, self-interest often translates into crushing the competition by any legal means (and, sometimes, more than that). Sometimes it’s launching an ad bragging about how you do something the competition doesn’t (BK’s “flame broiling,” for example). Or jacking the other side’s user interface and calling it your own (summed up via “Windows 95=Mac 86”).
The truly stupid move, in terms of pure Darwinism, would be for the UFC to stand idly by and not challenge Affliction right out of the gate. An alpha male in the wild doesn’t putter around and allow a younger rival male free reign to get stronger and mount a potential challenge.
Plus, by potentially killing Affliction off early, the UFC stands to avert a large-scale bargaining war for talent. It may not be the best thing for fighters, but the effort should be a boon for fans, at least in the short term, until this thing is settled and the market stabilizes. Silva-Irvin may be one of the shortest headline bouts in recent memory, but it will surely be the best investment on the dollar-per-second basis the UFC has ever made. By kneecapping Affliction and dissuading future challengers, they’ve saved themselves a lot of potential trouble.
Whatever MMA fans decide to watch on July 19 (or tape while watching the other), some good things do emerge from this duel. First, MMA promotions will have to adjust on the fly to provide solid programming. Another suitor in the MMA game, Elite XC, showed that kind of thinking after its May 31 show on CBS.
While the Kimbo Slice-James Thompson (Pictures) bout was a fairly rousing if controversial fight for how it ended, the promotion immediately set a July 26 rematch on CBS of the superior fight on the May card -- Robbie Lawler (Pictures) against Scott Smith (Pictures). Their back-and-forth slugfest ended in a no-contest, but it was the kind of legitimate bout that satisfies both new and hardcore fans. The adjustment in making them the main event of the July 26 show is the kind of intuitive thinking that will be required of any promotion challenging the UFC’s supremacy.
Naturally, the UFC announced it would be re-airing UFC 84 on July 26 on Spike -- just a friendly reminder to Elite XC, of course. It has all the stylings of “The Godfather,” except UFC President Dana White is sending Elite XC this as a gift instead of a wrapped-up fish.
The honeymoon is over, folks. All challengers will be targeted for termination, with extreme prejudice, to boot.
That’s because slapping a card together with a few random fighters duking it out just won’t do it anymore. The market has clearly revealed its own limitations, as expressed during a June media conference call with IFL President Jay Larkin.
Cash-strapped and unsure if the promotion will hold more shows, Larkin, a longtime boxing executive with Showtime, was quite frank in discussing the challenges of marketing an upstart MMA promotion in today’s market.
“I have my theories, and some may not be the kind of thing people want to hear. I think that there is a halo effect over the UFC, and there are fans of the UFC who are not necessarily fans of MMA,” said Larkin when asked about the IFL’s downward decline after a seemingly auspicious start. “But they appreciate the UFC product, and not necessarily the quality of the fights. They have good nights and bad nights like everyone else. I believe there is an element of the fan base that believes if it’s not the UFC, it’s crap. And that makes it very difficult to operate in a business environment.”
Translation: Any new promotion that emerges will have to offer the kinds of fights that have the “water cooler” factor. Fights that get casual sports fans interested in MMA and wanting more from that promotion. Slice’s ear-popping stoppage of Thompson was an impressive comeback for Kimbo, but the circumstances surrounding it didn’t help CBS’ debut telecast. Smartly, Elite XC downshifted into offering Smith-Lawler II as its next main event.
The history of market battles suggests that most dwindle down to a two-horse race. Coke versus Pepsi. HBO versus Showtime. And on and on. And while the emergence of other promotional entities would mean more money for fighters, it would also move MMA closer to the nightmarish reality of boxing, where the best matches are not made because of promotional impediments.
Right now, Emelianenko’s absence from the UFC is a troublesome glitch in the mind of the devoted fight fan, but an increased frequency of these does not help the sport. The kind of doublethink required to follow boxing is a taxing process -- it doesn’t take Super Bowl teams years to find each other, as it would Miguel Cotto-Floyd Mayweather, or as it did with Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson. If MMA fans are subjected to the same hang-ups on a larger scale, it’s definitely a case of success breeding alienation.
Take non-UFC stalwarts like Cung Le (Pictures) and Jake Shields (Pictures). If they keep beating people in the next year or two, it could be frustrating to see them operate in the diminished talent pool that isn’t the UFC’s. A boxing fan knows exactly how that feels.
MMA has largely embraced the best principles of boxing’s golden eras -- tough fights, quality-in-volume on cards and active competitors -- while eschewing the destructive tentacles that have mangled the sweet science and crippled its appeal. There are no major sanctioning bodies (though WAMMA is maneuvering for power). Managers rarely if ever get to play games by naming opponents. Networks don’t have the exclusive deals with fighters that allowed Roy Jones to beat up hapless mandatory challengers for years on HBO and get paid more than an entire UFC card costs.
Boxing is no longer on network TV while MMA is, and today’s casual sports fan probably could name as many active MMA fighters as boxers, if not more.
The sport is still in the nascent phase of its success, and whoever emerges over the next few years will remember the tenets that got MMA here -- tough fights and a talent base built on a distinctly established pecking order.
Whoever emerges from the dust could take a few lessons from boxing -- a sport whose power brokers got drunk on the hubris of short-term monopolies that simultaneously fattened a choice few bank accounts while giving the fan diminished returns on his dollar.
Regardless of who the perceived winner is July 19, and in the coming months and years, it’s because they want your attention and your dollar. The big mystery is what the victor(s) will do to keep getting those returns once the battle is largely won and the market solidifies. Until then, the whims of the fan have the enhanced attention of the power brokers.
Enjoy it and the coming programming boon that is geared toward capturing your interest.
