The UFC has a problem on it's hands. Division stagnation.

Everyone knows that this problem has occurred in the middleweight division with a dearth of challengers to fight Anderson Silva. The UFC was much ridiculed for putting an overmatched Patrick Cote in a title fight with Anderson Silva. They're facing the same problem with the upcoming Thales Leites fight.

Due to poor matchmaking in recent events, after Thiago Alves, the welterweight division will be facing a similar lack of challengers for GSP's welterweight title (I'm assuming that GSP beats Alves. No easy feat but after tonight's performance...).

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In no way am I saying UFC Primetime isn't good. It's an engaging program and a great step forward for the UFC and the sport in general.

But somehow I felt that it didn't seem as epic as 24/7. I just re-watched Pacquaio-De La Hoya 24/7 and it was amazing. Even though I knew that De La Hoya got pounded on by Pacquaio, just by watching 24/7 you feel so engaged with the fighters and their lives - much more so than Primetime.

I'm really not sure why. I have no idea why the atmosphere created by 24/7 is better than that of Primetime. It could be down to the fighters themselves, De La Hoya and Pacquiao have more 'interesting' stories than GSP and Penn do at this point in their careers. Pacquaio particularly because of the Philipines element (the whole country loves him and top Filipino government officials are on the show).

The music in Primetime is great...but somehow 24/7 seems even better.

Just can't put my finger on it. Any ideas?

Due to the original negative response to this post because of my liberal use of hyperbole I've decided to slim this post down to a shortened and more realistic version of the events as I see it.

In a nutshell - Affliction have solid plans for a third event but have not yet announced their plans because they are hoping that MMA will be legalized in this legislative session of the New York State Legislature.

Because of Golden Boy's pre-existing relationship with Madison Square Garden management and Donald Trump's personal relationship with the CEO and controlling family of the owners of MSG, Affliction stand a good chance at leaping over the UFC and booking the Garden before the UFC does.

If this scenario plays itself out, Affliction would be more likely to garner mainstream media attention and would have to be taken more seriously as a competitor to the UFC.

For my original post (hyperbole included!) read below.

Since Day of Reckoning, it seems that the potential of a third Affliction show moves closer and closer to reality. Recent articles by MMA Payout and other blogs have shown that more and more fans are starting to understand how in the context of their t-shirt business, Affliction can lose 1 or 2 million dollars on a show and yet still keep holding events. Whilst I agree, I think that Affliction also have a master plan for

Following Banned which was held on July 19, 2008, Tom Atencio was pretty quick to announce Affliction's second PPV event would be scheduled for October 11, 2008. Looking back through the archives of BE, I confirmed that the original announcement of Fedor-Arlovski was reported by Kevin Iole on July 24, 2008.

Tom Atencio and his gang knew exactly what they were going to do as soon as Tim Sylvia tapped out.

However interestingly enough, following Fedor's KO over Arlovski, Affliction have been awfully quiet. The main talking point has been the snide remark made by Larry Merchant, which has turned out to be been a blessing in disguise for fans, revealing details of the previously opaque relationship between Golden Boy and Affliction. Most importantly Golden Boy have stuck by Affliction and denied Merchant's remarks. The boxing promoter seems to be committed to their MMA partner.This has led me to the following inference:

I highly doubt that Affliction don't know when they plan to hold their next event. They know.

According to NBC New York the NY State Legislature will vote at some point next week to legalize MMA across the Empire State. Might beating the UFC to Madison Square Garden be Affliction's plan to send their promotion into the stratosphere?!

First of all Golden Boy Promotions probably have an extremely good relationship with the management of the Garden, having held numerous events there including 2007's fight between Shane Mosley and Miguel Cotto and various other significant fights throughout the years. One must imagine that despite Dana White's best efforts, he would be second in line for booking the venue if the other call came from Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer.

As should be obvious by now, my theory is that Affliction are hoping that MMA will be legalized in New York soon, which will allow them to jump the gun on the UFC and be the first MMA promotion to host an event at Madison Square Garden. One must figure that Donald Trump, as influential an individual as there is in his home town of New York City, has his eyes and ears inside the workings of the State Legislature and would be able to know in advance of anyone connected to the UFC whether or not the UFC's best efforts at legalizing MMA in New York City were successful. Jsut like Lorenzo Fertitta was instrumental in getting MMA regulated in Nevada, NYC is Trump's turf. New York City is a long way from Las Vegas.

By the way, Madison Square Garden is owned by a company called Cablevision. Aside from being the 5th largest cable company in the US, Cablesvision own the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers. And whilst it's a publicly listed company, Cablevision is substantially owned and controlled by members of the Dolan family, including Chief Executive James Dolan. Who just so happenes to be great friends with another New York City high flying business man. One Donald J. Trump.

Relevant Links

Legalizing MMA in NYC: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/sports/more/New-York-Could-Legalize-MMA-Next-Week.html

Cablevision: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cablevision_(US)

Trump and Dolan: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/08/nyregion/08cablevision.html

Great acting by Tom Atencio ("I want to have fun!"): http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2009/1/28/738827/fiveouncesofpain-com-inter

P.S. If this hold true, Affliction will definitely achieve mass media coverage for their event pitting the 'unbeatable Russian' Fedor against the 'All-American and youngest ever UFC Champion'.

If they add Tito Ortiz to the roster of the fight card, right bang in the middle of the world's media centre - we could be looking at a serious competitor.

And they would get serious props for outwitting Dana White and the UFC. Be careful what you wish for Dana....

Looks like the Trump partnership, after a lot of hype, might slowly be paying off for Affliction. Larry King did a web only interview with Donald Trump Jr. discussing the Affliction Day of Reckoning Event.

Although it's a web only thing it does help raise the profile of MMA among the mainstream public (Larry King is about as  mainstream as you can get).

Larry did mention it on his show earlier today.

http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2009/01/21/lkl.trump.jr.web.exclusive.cnn

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First things first:

1. I originally intended to draft a post in response to dropkick’s well written but absolutely unrealistic post about Affliction possibly doing anywhere near 200,000 PPV buys.

2. The majority of the BE community has already expressed their belief that dropkick’s hypothesis is unrealistic. Suffice to say that as it stands Affliction will most likely do around 50K – 75K PPV buys if that. They will most likely lose a hefty sum again on this event. If, as mentioned by Michael Rome, Affliction will spend upwards of 2 million on the Fedor fight alone their loss will probably be comparable to their first show.

However – the way for Affliction to move their way into profitability and success is clear:

Sign Kimbo Slice.

I think everyone here has no doubt at all that Kimbo is a huge draw. He is a much bigger draw than both Arlovski and Fedor put together. Despite his loss, Kimbo will still attract media attention and lots of PPV buys. Thus, the Affliction business plan for the next show should be as follows.

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What should Dana White do with Anderson Silva?

Anderson Silva is causing some serious issues for Dana White. His presence has stagnated the middle-weight division and put Rich Franklin into fighter's purgatory. The lack of competitive fights that are available at middle-weight mean that staying at 185 shouldn't be the option that White chooses for Silva. Given all the retirement talk, Dana should try to create a superstar of Silva in his last five fights in the hope that someone will beat him and the star power will be transferred to them. Dana should create a plan for Silva that involves him taking on a host of 205 superstars beginning with Chuck Liddell.

Liddell is still one of the UFC's biggest stars but his invulnerability factor is completely gone following his knock out loss to Rashad Evans. Dana must know that Chuck will never be able to get into title contention again and it’s not even in the UFC's interest in having Chuck win the title. However a fight between Anderson Silva and Chuck Liddell could still sell a huge amount of PPVs. Chuck would come in as the clear underdog (it’s be interesting to see how this effect his training and game plan). As mentioned in an earlier post, I think Silva would defeat Chuck handily and continue building his legacy.

Next Anderson Silva should fight Keith Jardine. Jardine has a pretty high profile but he is unlikely to become a title contender. The storyline could involve the fact that Jardine beat Chuck.

Following this fight Anderson Silva should be pitted against Wanderlei Silva. If Anderson can become the only person in history to beat both Liddell and Wand he will definitely cement his position as one of the greatest fighters ever. Following a win, Dana could start billing Anderson’s mission as taking on the ‘elite of the LHW division’. Dana should sell Anderson Silva’ fights as a mission to prove once and for all he’s the greatest. I feel that the public buys storylines such as when ‘Chuck Liddell is trying to avenge all his losses.’ He could then lay out the final two fights that Anderson Silva could have.

The next fight should be against Quinton Jackson. This would definitely be an exciting fight and a win for either man would make them into a superstar.

Finally Anderson Silva could fight against Forrest Griffin (if he’s still champ at this point). If Silva got this far I’m sure huge amounts of media would follow this fight. Given the right marketing (and the right marketing of aforementioned fights) Anderson Silva would be a bona fide superstar (despite not knowing how to speak English!) and he could challenge for the LHW belt.

Anderson Silva SHOULD NOT fight Shogun Rua or Thiago Silva. I think these two men would have a better chance against Silva than any of the above 5 fighters (except perhaps Forrest Griffin). Also neither of them have a high profile in the US so beating them would not give any noticeable sparkle to Silva’s record. It’s time for White and Joe Silva to start matching the Spider up with the best the 205lb division has to offer. The world needs to see these superfights and marketed well they could create a global superstar. They great thing is that every single one of these fights has the potential to be extremely exciting. Forgot Silva versus Yushin Okami. It is a fight that intrigues me but to the casual fan it would mean nothing. Go for the superfights. Hell if Silva gets through all these guys (and Randy Couture is still champ) let him fight Randy. (Don’t let him fight Lesnar though because he’ll get destroyed. Lesnar is too big and too strong).

I'm not a Silva nuthugger nor do I think he's undefeatable. I would favour him against all 5 men I mentioned above. However more importantly I think the UFC should do this because it makes sense for business and for mixed martial arts fans.

No one at light heavyweight can beat Anderson Silva

This is the first part of a critical analysis of which fighters at any weight class can defeat UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva. As a firm believer that styles make fights, I hypothesize that nobody at UFC's vaunted 205 weight class has the technique and style to defeat Anderson Silva. In a later post I will then move to the heavyweight division and suggest that there are a number of heavyweights who will handily defeat Anderson Silva in the Octagon. Finally I will propose a fighter at 185 whom I strongly believe will beat Anderson Silva. Unfortunately - whether he will ever get a shot at the title while Silva is still champ is highly questionable.

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