Fighters Lose in More Ways Than One

Jay Hieron was all set to meet British fighter Paul "Semtex" Daley at Affliction: Trilogy.

The former IFL Welterweight champion and member of Xtreme Couture had already put in the work and gotten prepared when news of Affliction's collapse came yesterday afternoon.

While the MMA world is trying to forecast who will land where, which fighters will fill current vacancies on other cards and everything else, one very salient point that is being somewhat overlooked was underscored by Hieron in an interview with 5 Ounces of Pain:

“We all put everything on hold… paid a lot of money for training… and I have a lot of bills and no paycheck.”

As much fun as a may be to speculate about a possible storm of Affliction-contracted fighters now descending upon the UFC, sometimes real life is what needs to take precedent and this is one of those times.

In addition to losing an opportunity to further showcase his skills and push his winning streak to six, Hieron also loses out on a paycheck, as does everyone else.

Though there are opportunities out there for Hieron - he stated in the interview that he was interested in taking Joe Riggs' place opposite Nick Diaz on the Strikeforce card - it still doesn't change the fact that after putting in months of work and stacks of cash to training and prepare, Hieron and everyone else on the Affliction card is left with a pocket full of lint and a hand full of bills.

Clearly, the rapid demise of Affliction could not have been foreseen.

As I said on the latest Watch Kalib Run podcast, if you had told me a week ago that in the span of seven days Josh Barnett would test positive and Affliction would not only cancel their show, but cease operations as a fight promoter, I would have called you crazy.

But that is exactly what happened.

We can't change the past, but we can certainly use it to help us improve the future and this situation offers an opportunity to once again look at how fighters are compensated.

I don't mean in the sense of "fighters need to be paid more" or stirring up conversations about a Fighters Union or things of that nature. While those big picture issues certainly need to be discussed, more immediate and smaller scale possibilities are out there.

For instance, a fighter's "show pay," the dollar amount agreed upon for the fighter turning up and taking part in their scheduled fight, is all but guaranteed. If you're in the building the night of the fight, you're getting a paycheck.

Outside of last minute injuries sustained in training, 99.9% of fighters contracted to fight are going to turn up, so would providing a portion of that "show pay" in advance be an option?

In smaller shows and fringe promotions, the answer is obviously no, as finances are just not readily available to meet that kind of monetary demand. But what about in organizations like the UFC and Strikeforce?

Even if the total amounted to a combined $100,000 for a 50% payout of a fighter's "show pay" in advance, that number isn't going to cripple either of those organizations, but having that money would make a world of difference in the fighters' lives.

Obviously, the situation is more complex than it reads; provisions would have to be made in regards to injuries and wording introduced into contracts to ensure said fighters would pay back any advanced money should they fail to meet their obligations, but the base idea has legs, does it not?

While Tom Atencio has certainly lost a slew of money in the brief time that Affliction was been in the promotions game, he also has a lucrative clothing line to help buoy his financial situation and a newly-inked deal to bring that clothing line back to the Octagon.

But for fighters like Jay Hieron, this is how they make their living.

Fighting pays the bills and when a much-needed paycheck is suddenly taken off the table, all those bills don't just disappear.

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As Affliction Crumbles, White Wins Again

Like it or not, it's time to give it up to Dana White.

His detractors will say that he enjoys the failure of his competitors too much and while it may certainly be true, you have to give the guy credit for what he has managed to accomplish with the UFC.

The current buzz around the MMA world is Josh Barnett's removal from the Main Event at Affliction: Trilogy on August 1st and who his possible replacement might be. Regardless of who fills in to fight Fedor, there is a good chance this will be Affliction's last show. Another one bites the dust.

Meanwhile, Dana White and the UFC are standing stronger than ever.

On the heels of the second-largest gate revenue in the company's history, White has the UFC positioned to break into the mainstream media and garner the kind of coverage not yet afforded to Mixed Martial Arts in North America.

Despite his polarizing personality and heavy reliance on The F Bomb, White has succeed where so many others have failed and that is worthy of recognition in my books.

Affliction's pending demise only further underscores how impressive the success of the UFC as a brand and company truly is. Despite an impressive roster and bi-annual cards stacked to the rafters with talent, Affliction couldn't make a dent in the UFC's stranglehold on the PPV market.

While Affliction certainly succeeded where the UFC failed in landing Fedor, the end result may actually be more beneficial for the UFC when all is said and done.

Paying opposition to get obliterated by "The Last Emperor" cost Affliction a ton of money; Tim Sylvia earned $900,000 for 37 seconds of work, while Andrei Arlovski pocketed approximately $2.2 million for his brief Affliction career.

Meanwhile, Emelianenko's name has slowly began to gain recognition in North America among the casual fan, and just in time for a potential move to the UFC. Funny how that worked out ...

From the moment I heard of Affliction's foray into the promotion business, it sounded like a bad idea to me. Honestly, it sounded like Tom Atencio wanted to get into a pissing contest with Dana White.

Since then, he's called out White and challenged his image as a tough guy, stepping into the cage himself, as if to prove how tough and committed to the sport he is. Now he's on the brink of being out of the promotions game altogether.

Then there is White.

Love him or hate him, his shrewd business tactics and decade of work to build the UFC is paying off in spades, with the future looking brighter than ever before.

New markets continue to open. PPV numbers continue to soar. Life has been pumped back into The Ultimate Fighter series. Toys and video games and trading cards are hitting the shelves and flying off of them just as quickly.

Eleven days from now, Tom Atencio will be back mass-producing ugly t-shirts.

Dana White will be busy continuing to build the UFC Empire.

Your winner, by knockout, and still champion of the world ...



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Supremely Talented, Surprisingly Unknown

This is Fedor Emelianenko, the guy Dana White guaranteed would be in the UFC in the future and arguably the best fighter in the entire world.

Up until Saturday night, a huge portion of the fight fans out there had no idea who this man was. Then they Google'd him.

"The Last Emperor" hasn't lost a fight in eight years and some, myself included, would argue that he hasn't lost a fight ever. The one tick he has in the loss column came from a controversial stoppage way back in 2000 to UFC veteran Tsuyoshi Kohsaka.

Since then, pure dominance ... and shocking anonymity.

Hardcore fans know Fedor Emelianenko.

Guys like me who watch old fights on YouTube and think long and hard about buying the UFC DVDs that are for sale at the video store for $5. But I'm not the average fan.

To the average fan, Fedor Emelianenko is a name they have heard from their crazy, hardcore friends like me or the numerous times Dana White has mentioned him on his video blog. He's outside of the UFC and therefore, he's irrelevant.

I know that isn't the case, as do the large number of people who have probably stopped reading to go and tell me I'm a moron in the comments section before seeing where I'm going with this.

There is no question that Emelianenko is one of the three best fighters on the planet today and easily the best heavyweight. Again, he hasn't lost in eight years.

But while that certainly speaks to his dominance, it also greatly speaks to the inability of Affliction and M-1 Global to make this man a household name.

Take the most dominant athlete in any sport and that is who Fedor is to Mixed Martial Arts, minus the publicity.

Emelianenko's current 26-fight winning streak is the Joe DiMaggio 56-game hit streak of MMA. You read that right: I said it's the 56-Game Hitting Streak of Mixed Martial Arts.

But while even the most casual baseball fan and many that are completely uninterested in sports altogether know of DiMaggio's display, in a time where Mixed Martial Arts is (in your best Dana White voice people), "the fastest growing sport in the world," more people could pick out Kendall Grove from a police lineup than our version of "The Yankee Clipper."

While some of that falls on the fact that a great deal of "MMA fans" are actually "UFC fans," how Tom Atencio and company haven't jammed this man down the public's throats in the last year is beyond me.

If he was in the UFC, he'd be on the cover of every magazine and video game around. He'd be the Bo Jackson from Tecmo Bowl of UFC Undisputed - totally unstoppable.

Yet here we are, three weeks away from Affliction: Trilogy and the only advertising I've seen of the long-awaited fight between Emelianenko and his close friend and only remaining rival Josh Barnett has been on the tops of taxi cabs.

What makes it even better is that the ad campaign asks the question, "Do you know who I am?"

Here's a newsflash for Tom Atencio: the resounding answer outside of the hardcore MMA community is "No" and that doesn't bode well for your business!

You have the Tiger Woods of Mixed Martial Arts at your advertising disposal and the best you can do is this? Were are the interviews and video blogs and public appearances, especially in light of Dana bringing him up on the weekend?

Sure there has been the obligatory, "Fedor isn't going anywhere" comments, but that means little outside of the community that is already acutely aware of the situation.

Those stuck in the UFC vacuum only know that Emelianenko is on Dana White's radar, not that he's fighting in three weeks, has beaten the likes of Cro Cop, Randleman, Coleman and Nogueira and is the yin to Brock Lesnar's disrespectful yang.

In any other sport, whether we're talking football or basketball, hockey or tennis, the best of the best are put on the biggest stages imaginable. Their image is everywhere and their names are known in households from Alaska to Australia.

But not Mixed Martial Arts.

While every person in the world can identify the gentleman standing up in this picture, very few would recognize the guy sitting two rows back in the red shirt.

He's Fedor Emelianenko and he's one of the best the sport has ever seen.

Never heard of him? I hear that a lot.

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The Fireball Kid is Coming... Maybe

During the media circuit following his win at Ultimate Chaos on the weekend, Affliction head honcho Tom Atencio discussed the inclusion of Japanese star Takanori Gomi on the upcoming Affliction: Trilogy card with MMA Weekly:

MMAWeekly: Any word about Gomi? Any progress with him coming to Affliction?

Atencio: Yeah, we’re still working on it, we’re finalizing everything, but it looks like it’s gonna go through. I’m not 100-percent yet, but we’re still working on it for sure.

Though not yet concrete, the inclusion of "The Fireball Kid" on the Trilogy card is an interesting development, as it comes at a time when Gomi is trying to work his way back to the top of the lightweight ranks that he dominated for so long.

At one point not all that long ago, Gomi was considered the best 155 pound fighter on the planet. He dominated Shooto, emassing a 14-0 record before suffering defeats to Joachim "Hellboy" Hansen and B.J. Penn.

Following the Rumble on the Rock loss to Penn, Gomi moved to Pride, starring in the Bushido series that showcased lower weight class, and resumed his winning ways. In his nearly four years fighting under the Pride banner, Gomi lost just twice, including a submission defeat to Nick Diaz that was later ruled a no contest when Diaz tested positive for THC.

Since then, two wins with World Victory Road at Sengoku 1 and Sengoku 4 are paired with two losses, though one, a split decision loss to Sergey Golyaev, was a controversial judgment.

Which brings us to the possibility of joining the Affliction card and the back and forth taking place in my head about the relative excitement of this announcement.

Had this been two or three years ago, when Gomi was using his ambidextrous striking ability to level opponents left, right and center, I would have been jumping up and down and ordering my first Affliction pay-per-view. But his recent performances have been somewhat uneven and while the decision loss to Golyaev may have been suspect, sometimes that is what happens when you leave it up to the judges.

That is the fan side of me. The overall MMA enthusiast and advocate thinks this is terrific for the sport as a whole. Anytime that you can bring an international star into a new market and further expose the sport and the incredible talents that operate outside of North America, you're doing something positive in my books.

My final judgment will be reserved for a later date, once the signing is official and an opponent has been named.

But as it stands now, I'm excited and you should be too.

The Fireball Kid is coming... maybe.






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