Affliction had its second event ever this past January and MMA fans have been desperately waiting for the third. For all of the MMA fans out there who saw both shows, many can say that the fight cards lived up to the hype.
There is no question that Affliction does hold some of the best heavyweight fighters in the world, but is that good enough to compete with top organizations like the UFC? Vice President Tom Atencio explains how he wants to take things one step at a time, especially with the third event they have planned for the near future. Fedor Emelianenko vs. Josh Barnett is the only official bout for the next Affliction event, but there is absolutely no official date for the Affliction 3 show just yet. It seems like Atencio wants to take things slowly in order to prevent some sort of downfall that other organizations have gone through in the past such as EliteXC and PrideFC (sold to Zuffa in 2007).
Here’s a snip from Vice President of Affliction, Tom Atencio:
“There’s things I’ve made mistakes on I try to fix them. I’m trying to be methodical about everything. I’m just trying to make sure that whatever we do, we’re doing it right. And then on the other hand, sponsors and everybody else are treating it like it is my second show and trying to make me prove myself, and that’s what I’m doing. So I’m kind of between a rock and a hard place. It’s only my third show. It’s not like I’ve done this before. It’s not like we come from another organization of smaller fights. This is right out of the gate, we showed up, we did a huge show, we did a second huge show, now I’m just trying to figure out how we do our third show…. [I have learned] a lot [from the first two shows]. The production, making sure everybody’s there on time, making sure everyone flies in on time. There’s just a lot of stuff that — not that I didn’t know, it’s just that there was definitely a learning curve. Not to mention fighters’ purses. Pay-per-view. Not that I didn’t think about it, it’s just very involved.”
