MMA Affliction For Mma

On Saturday, fans of MMA will have a rare opportunity: They can watch the best fighter in the world on television without having to buy his bout on pay-per-view.

That fighter, the Ultimate Fighting Championship star Anderson Silva, will have a match on basic cable because the established UFC wants to deliver a knockout blow to the upstart Affliction MMA organization, which will show its first pay-per-view program that night.

At first glance, this looks like welcome news for consumers: Fans are accustomed to paying $50 to watch high-caliber fighters like Silva, and competition has led UFC to cut its prices. But none other than Donald Trump, who is promoting Affliction, says the head-to-head match-up between UFC and Affliction may portend something few fans want to see: a time when the sport's best athletes fight for separate organizations.

Here's the promotional video for the July 19 UFC Fight Night on Spike, featuring a main event of Anderson Silva vs. James Irvin:

After the jump is the promo for Affliction: Banned on pay-per-view the same night, and we ask: Who's got the better video?

Affliction has announced the TV broadcast team that will work its debut show on July 19, and it's a good one.

Jay Glazer, best known as the NFL information man for Fox Sports, will do the blow-by-blow commentary. In addition to being perhaps America's top sports journalist, Glazer has long been a mixed martial arts enthusiast, and he's a great choice.

Joining Glazer in announcing the fights will be Frank Trigg, the veteran UFC and Pride fighter. Big John McCarthy, the original UFC referee, will work as a commentator and conduct post-fight interviews, and Michael Buffer will make the introductions and lend his signature "Let's get ready to rumble" to the festivities.

All in all, it's clear that Affliction assembled its announcing team the same way it assembled its card of fighters: Paying as much money as necessary to get the best people available. We'll find out in two weeks whether that translates to a successful show.

UFC's decision to run a live show on Spike opposite Affliciton's PPV debut on July 19th has nothing to do with Affliction. That's Dana White's spin on things, anyway. He told SI.com that he's simply giving the fans what they want and that Anderson Silva wants to fight more and that it is in no way, shape or form counter-programming.

He's also got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. UFC isn't giving away a Silva fight for free because they love their fans so much. The first light heavyweight fight for Silva, one of the biggest names in MMA, would be a draw for a future PPV and the choice to put it on Spike is clearly meant to drive a dagger into the heart of Affliction. Tom Atencio, Affliction's VP, spoke to MMARated and sees it the same way.

"It's just an example of how they want to control everything but at the same time it's flattering as well. I guess they do view us as threat...absolutely."

It's damn hard to see it any other way. UFC ran their own offerings against Elite XC's first CBS show and are now doing the same thing against Affliction. It didn't hurt Elite's ratings but that was free against free. When you're choosing to spend $50 or not, the decision is much different. Flattered as Atencio may be, he can't be thrilled about the hit his company is going to take because UFC feels threatened by them.

Every time I point out how much money the Affliction mixed martial arts promotion is going to lose with its debut show on July 19, I get responses from passionate MMA fans telling me how I don't understand, how much great talent there is on the Affliction show, and how Fedor Emelianenko is the best MMA fighter in the world.

To which I say: I do understand. I'm well aware that an undercard featuring Andrei Arlovski, Josh Barnett and Matt Lindland is outstanding. I know all about Fedor. I got up early on New Year's Eve to live blog his last fight. You don't have to convince me that Affliction is going to give us a night of great fighters.

What you have to convince me of is that people are going to buy the show. The last time Fedor was on pay-per-view, 12,000 Americans bought it. Let's say this Affliction show is so good that they get five times that many pay-per-view buys. That's still 60,000. That represents a huge loss of money for Affliction. And now that Anderson Silva is going to be on Spike the same night, 60,000 is very optimistic.

Maybe Affliction is willing to lose a fortune on this card. Fine. Good for them. I'm all for companies pouring money into MMA. But if you're heading into a show knowing you're going to lose a fortune, why not put it on basic cable, where you'll at least expose a larger number of fans to your product? Fedor is a great fighter, and it's a shame that hardly anyone is going to see him.

UPDATED: UFC appears ready not just to take on the upstart Affliction mixed martial arts organization, but to try for a first-round knockout.

MMARated.com and F4Wonline.com are reporting that UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva -- widely regarded as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world -- will fight on Spike on July 19, the same night that Affliction has a pay-per-view show.

The reports say it will be Silva's first fight at light heavyweight, and that his opponent will be James Irvin. According to MMA Rated, Silva is not planning to relinquish his middleweight belt. He'll fight Irvin at 205 pounds and then cut back down to 185 for a middleweight bout down the road. Hermes Franca vs. Frankie Edgar is reportedly part of the undercard.

The event will apparently be part of the Spike UFC Fight Night series.

Affliction's July 19 show is in serious trouble. Although Affliction has put together a good card, headlined by Fedor Emelianenko, it's going to lose a fortune if there's a UFC show headlined by Silva simultaneously. Very, very few people will pay to see Affliction if Silva is fighting for free. Affliction may want to consider canceling.

This morning I noted the report that UFC wants to put a live fight between Wanderlei Silva and Brandon Vera on Spike on July 19 in an effort to undermine Affliction's pay-per-view debut.

But Dave Meltzer of Yahoo reports that Silva's camp has turned it down, saying the Axe Murderer, who last fought at UFC 84 in May, can't be ready to fight in a month. So it appears that Silva won't be on a Spike card -- unless UFC President Dana White can find a way to persuade him.

But that doesn't mean the Spike card won't happen, as Meltzer reports that other fighters are being approached about the possibility of doing the show. It's not clear how likely it is for a live UFC show on Spike is, but it certainly hasn't been ruled out.

If it does happen, the Affliction show will be a bust. I don't know if I'm quite as pessimistic about Affliction as Michael Rome of Bloody Elbow, who says Affliction is likely looking at less than 40,000 pay-per-view buys, but I do think that the folks at Affliction had better be prepared to lose a lot of money on their first show.

If getting good talent, headlined by Fedor Emelianenko, is seen as the first step in a long-term effort to create a strong MMA organization, fine. But if Affliction thinks it's going to turn a profit on its July show, Donald Trump is in for a very unpleasant surprise.

Last week I noted that UFC could put a serious hurt on the upstart Affliction mixed martial arts promotion by putting a show on Spike on July 19, the same night that Affliction has its first pay-per-view.

I suggested that Brock Lesnar would be a good headliner for such a card, but that is apparently not going to happen: UFC says it's committed to keeping Lesnar on the UFC 87 card in his hometown of Minneapolis.

However, there are more indications that UFC is, in fact, getting ready to put a show on Spike July 19. Sherdog is reporting that UFC has tentatively scheduled a show on Spike in Las Vegas, with Wanderlei Silva taking on Brandon Vera in the main event.

For UFC, it makes perfect business sense to take on Affliction in this manner. Affliction is going to have an awfully hard time selling Fedor Emelianenko for 50 bucks when UFC is offering Silva for free.

UPDATE: Report: Wanderlei Silva Turns Down July 19 Spike Show; Will UFC Still Take on Affliction?

Elite XC returns from its trip to network television tomorrow night with a card from Honolulu on Showtime. The main event will feature lightweight champion K.J. Noons against the veteran Yves Edwards. That match will be preceded by an undercard featuring Nick Diaz vs. Muhsin Corbbrey, Murillo "Ninja" Rua vs. Tony Bonello, Rafael Feijao vs. Wayne Cole and Dave "Pee Wee" Herman vs. Ron Waterman.

We'll be talking about that card at 1 p.m. today during a live chat. We won't limit the discussion to that show, however, so feel free to drop by to talk about Donald Trump's foray into the MMA world via a stake in Affliction, Dana White's still mysterious announcement, the potential demise of the IFL and anything else on your mind.

So drop by at 1 where we'll be chatting after the jump.

UFC is the undisputed champion of mixed martial arts promotions, but there are a few organizations that are trying to put some chinks in UFC's armor. EliteXC got a prime time network TV deal, and Affliction has a pay-per-view show next month -- headlined by Fedor Emelianenko -- that will have every bit as much MMA talent on display as a typical UFC pay-per-view show.

But UFC President Dana White could take a huge step to undercut Affliction and show that UFC is still the dominant dog: He could take the Brock Lesnar-Heath Herring fight, which is currently scheduled for UFC 87, August 9 on pay-per-view, and move it to July 19 on free TV or basic cable (most likely Spike), head to head with Affliction's pay-per-view show.

That would crush Affliction. Although I was skeptical about Lesnar when he first signed with UFC, he's undeniably a big draw. He's well-known from his days in the WWE, and MMA fans respect his background as an NCAA wrestling champion. Emelianenko is a much more accomplished MMA fighter than Lesnar, but among American fans, Lesnar's name is bigger than Fedor's, and if the choice is between watching Lesnar on basic cable or paying $50 to watch Fedor, for most fans, that's an easy choice to make.