Golden Boy, Affliction team up to bring top-level fighters together on same card

[Deeznuts]

LAS VEGAS -- Golden Boy Promotions, one of the leading boxing promotional companies in the world, is branching out into mixed martial arts, CEO Richard Schaefer announced Saturday at a news conference at the MGM Grand.

Golden Boy Promotions, which is promoting the Joel Casamayor-Juan Manuel Marquez lightweight title fight here on Saturday night, took a break from boxing to talk MMA in announcing a partnership with Affliction, a fledgling MMA promoter and apparel company known for its hip T-shirts.

"We have started looking at mixed martial arts and we finally decided to throw our hat into the mixed martial arts ring," Schaefer said. "I think there are some tremendous opportunities for crossover promotions and to team up with an iconic brand such as Affliction is a big step for us."

Golden Boy and Affliction will partner 50-50 on at least four pay-per-view shows next year that will include boxing matches and MMA fights on the same card. Smaller promoters have paired the two sports on cards, but never at the top level.

"We're looking to put together top MMA fighters as well as top boxers in one night. I think the two worlds have finally merged, and this is a perfect example," Affliction vice president Tom Atencio said.

Affliction, whose apparel is popular with many MMA fighters and boxers such as Kelly Pavlik and Bernard Hopkins, promoted its first MMA event July 19 in Anaheim, Calif. A second show was scheduled for Oct. 11 in Las Vegas but postponed because of lagging ticket sales.

The main event was supposed to be a heavyweight match between Andrei Arlovski and Josh Barnett with the winner expected to face Fedor Emelianenko.

When the card was called off, Golden Boy attempted to have Arlovski-Barnett rescheduled as part of the Oct. 18 Pavlik-Hopkins HBO PPV card. However, co-promoter Top Rank and HBO rejected the overture.

"They presented us with the option and we respectfully declined," HBO PPV chief Mark Taffet told ESPN.com.

As part of its deal with Golden Boy, Affliction will produce a line of event T-shirts for Golden Boy fights to sell at retail locations and at the fight. The first fight it will make shirts for is the Dec. 6 match between Golden Boy boss Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao. In addition, Affliction will become the official apparel licensee for Ring Magazine, which Golden Boy bought last year. It unveiled several sample T-shirts featuring old covers of Ring magazine, including ones of Sugar Ray Robinson.

ESPN.com

Wow

[Silencers]

It's a good business decision.

[Deeznuts]

good business yes, bad for boxing I think so, if its slowly creeping up taking over boxing shows I thing there is something to worry about here

[MJ406]

I think at first because of all the publicity it'll get a lot of media attention and the first show will probably do well on PPV

but IMO because of "inter mingling" so to speak of the 2 sports this hybrid will have trouble past the 1st two shows because

1. Affliction was trying to open as a strictly MMA promotion, so sure adding GBP does help Affliction as far as promotionally + financially but Boxing and MMA on the same card means less MMA, as they'll have to cut down on the # of MMA fights in order to make room for the boxing ones.

and secondly, boxing has enough trouble making worthy PPV's month in month out as is. How realistic are the expectations going to be for this 1st Co Promotional MMA/Boxing PPV to equally balance enough fights where it can be a good overall event?

It'll be interesting to see, but I doubt that this whole Boxing/MMA same show idea will last very long.

[Kakutogi-Gumi]

I wouldn't say it would be bad for Boxing exactly. I do think that both parties really need to sit down and think while planning this. They need to help the boxing fan along as well as the MMA fan in trying to "coexist".

If I were in their shoes....I'd work an ad campain that would possibly ease in everybody. Maybe have a top boxer and a top MMA fighter discuss the differences with their sports and how they also relate. Put it up on the web in a series of installments.

Also, what do they put in their programmes? If you can sneak in the rules of MMA and boxing followed by a brief five page bio of MMA, I'm sure it might go well.

If I were running the card, I'd try to pair really good striker (bonus if they have a boxing base) with very good grapplers. Barnett/Arlovski is a step in the right direction. LeBanner/Silvia would be good too. I'd also look into get a fight with Rogerio Nogueria as well.

[Kakutogi-Gumi]

For anyone still following this, word is that Fedor will be facing the winner of the Arlovski/Nelson fight happening this weekend on CBS. It will be for the WAMMA title on Jan. 17th.

[LEFTYGUNZZ]

I think at first because of all the publicity it'll get a lot of media attention and the first show will probably do well on PPV

but IMO because of "inter mingling" so to speak of the 2 sports this hybrid will have trouble past the 1st two shows because

1. Affliction was trying to open as a strictly MMA promotion, so sure adding GBP does help Affliction as far as promotionally + financially but Boxing and MMA on the same card means less MMA, as they'll have to cut down on the # of MMA fights in order to make room for the boxing ones.

and secondly, boxing has enough trouble making worthy PPV's month in month out as is. How realistic are the expectations going to be for this 1st Co Promotional MMA/Boxing PPV to equally balance enough fights where it can be a good overall event?

It'll be interesting to see, but I doubt that this whole Boxing/MMA same show idea will last very long.

Honestly unless you are an avid MMA fan you watch it for the blood and stand up. If you include boxing in the mix of an MMA event and the boxing match out plays the MMA match then you might swing some fans over to the boxing side of things. In the long run boxing has been here for a long time and will out last this current MMA faze....Lefty

[Ryn0]

UGH, MMA and Boxing on the same card? I'll tune out I can't stand groundwork, infact it depends who is fighting I'll watch Silva or Fedor sometimes and guy who are known for stand up game but screw the ground fighters

[Pullcounter]

LAS VEGAS -- Golden Boy Promotions, one of the leading boxing promotional companies in the world, is branching out into mixed martial arts, CEO Richard Schaefer announced Saturday at a news conference at the MGM Grand.

Golden Boy Promotions, which is promoting the Joel Casamayor-Juan Manuel Marquez lightweight title fight here on Saturday night, took a break from boxing to talk MMA in announcing a partnership with Affliction, a fledgling MMA promoter and apparel company known for its hip T-shirts.

"We have started looking at mixed martial arts and we finally decided to throw our hat into the mixed martial arts ring," Schaefer said. "I think there are some tremendous opportunities for crossover promotions and to team up with an iconic brand such as Affliction is a big step for us."

Golden Boy and Affliction will partner 50-50 on at least four pay-per-view shows next year that will include boxing matches and MMA fights on the same card. Smaller promoters have paired the two sports on cards, but never at the top level.

"We're looking to put together top MMA fighters as well as top boxers in one night. I think the two worlds have finally merged, and this is a perfect example," Affliction vice president Tom Atencio said.

Affliction, whose apparel is popular with many MMA fighters and boxers such as Kelly Pavlik and Bernard Hopkins, promoted its first MMA event July 19 in Anaheim, Calif. A second show was scheduled for Oct. 11 in Las Vegas but postponed because of lagging ticket sales.

The main event was supposed to be a heavyweight match between Andrei Arlovski and Josh Barnett with the winner expected to face Fedor Emelianenko.

When the card was called off, Golden Boy attempted to have Arlovski-Barnett rescheduled as part of the Oct. 18 Pavlik-Hopkins HBO PPV card. However, co-promoter Top Rank and HBO rejected the overture.

"They presented us with the option and we respectfully declined," HBO PPV chief Mark Taffet told ESPN.com.

As part of its deal with Golden Boy, Affliction will produce a line of event T-shirts for Golden Boy fights to sell at retail locations and at the fight. The first fight it will make shirts for is the Dec. 6 match between Golden Boy boss Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao. In addition, Affliction will become the official apparel licensee for Ring Magazine, which Golden Boy bought last year. It unveiled several sample T-shirts featuring old covers of Ring magazine, including ones of Sugar Ray Robinson.

ESPN.com

Wow

gbp is trying to cover all its bases. it tells you that gbp doesn't see a boxing revival in the U.S.

[MJ406]

Honestly unless you are an avid MMA fan you watch it for the blood and stand up. If you include boxing in the mix of an MMA event and the boxing match out plays the MMA match then you might swing some fans over to the boxing side of things. In the long run boxing has been here for a long time and will out last this current MMA faze....Lefty

well again the bold is a hypothetical, there's no telling what GB will try to do as regards go toward the boxing half of the MMA/boxing PPV. depends what direction they try to go, big names, or what ever. and it does have to be entertaining/exciting to play out like your scenerio

and even if some fans do swing over to boxing how long will they last? as I really think the lack of Network exposure for boxing, + PPV costs scare away a lot of potential fans. **like if you don't have HBO/Showtime, and don't feel like spending on PPV, your really outta the loop (except for Versus, Fri Night Fights, smaller shows and of course ******ing/youtube)

would you really call MMA a faze though?

because as long as UFC is on network TV, and the PPV's cost less then the boxing ones ... It'll be around for a while.

I'd also like to interject what the above poster said.

"gbp is trying to cover all its bases. it tells you that gbp doesn't see a boxing revival in the U.S."

as long as boxing is mainly dependent on HBO+Showtime+PPV's it really won't have a revival.

sure the DLH/Pac fight will supposedly attract lots of casual fans ... but how does that help the long term boxing landscape. Oscar and Manny make a quick buck and move on to the next fight.