
(Hey, at least you’ll get to keep those totally sweet t-shirts…)
You may have completely forgotten about it because there’s been virtually no promotional push to speak of, but yes, Affliction will be holding its long-delayed sophomore MMA event just 12 days from now, at the Honda Center in Anaheim. Fedor Emelianenko will face Andrei Arlovski, Josh Barnett will take on Gilbert Yvel, and very few people will be watching.
According to Bloody Elbow, only 1,400 tickets to "Day of Reckoning" had been sold as of last week. (FYI, the Honda Center can hold about 18,000 spectators.) At first, Tom Atencio wouldn’t confirm or deny that figure, but now he’s saying that the ticket sales are comparable to last July’s "Banned" event, where over 6,000 tix had been sold three weeks before the show. CagePotato can neither confirm nor deny how full of shit Atencio’s public statements are.
So, a few things come to mind…
First, if you’re in driving distance of Anaheim, you might want to make it out to "Day of Reckoning," because cageside seats will probably be going for like $40. (Remember last time?) Also, if that 1,400 figure is anywhere close to accurate, and Affliction can only sell a couple thousand more tickets in the next two weeks, and assuming that pay-per-view buys will be as disappointing as the live gate, they will be finished as an MMA organization, guaranteed. Negligible income + the highest fighter payroll in the world = financial ruin. There’s no way they’ll set themselves up to lose another couple million on a third event.
I can’t help but think that for MMA fans, the best-case scenario for "Day of Reckoning" would be if Arlovski somehow managed to beat Emelianenko. Then, the UFC would re-double their efforts to sign him and we’d get to see another world-class fighter added to their increasingly-compelling heavyweight roster. Because it’s not like you’ll ever see Fedor in the UFC, and an Emelianenko/Barnett match in Affliction is far from guaranteed. What’s certain is that MMA fans didn’t latch on to Affliction’s MMA brand like Atencio & Co. had hoped. Will you be watching on the 24th? If not, what’s getting in the way of you caring about Affliction’s product?


Affliction should have started from a television show first, and used it as a promotional tool for their title fights (much like the UFC). But instead of showing us a bunch of bonding homos in a house they should be showing undercard fights and documentaries on their fighters.
That kind of material is far more interesting than the Real World meets gameshow format that is the Ultimate Fighter show .