Article by: “The Fight Professor” Stephen Quadros

Even with seemingly unstoppable and successful entities like the Ultimate Fighting Championship, who are hitting home runs every time at bat, the business of professional mixed martial arts is a volatile, high stakes affair that is not for the feint of heart. UFC president Dana White best summed it up when he once said (something to the effect of) ‘whoever can take the most pain’ wins. Whether or not one rolls the dice or plays blackjack in actuality, figuratively the MMA fight promotion game is one for gamblers, specifically high rollers. And the highs can be statuesque while the lows can be damning.

At the moment, the UFC stands indisputably erect at the top of the MMA heap, the self-cloning engine that all talents, both lowly and upper echelon, are instinctively magnetized toward like homing pigeons. And why shouldn’t they be? Its not hard to understand that aligning ones self to a goal of “success,” like fighting on television in the Octagon, translates into money, which in turn theoretically means stability, etc., because at the moment…the UFC is (almost) THE only game in town.

But is that a good thing? To the UFC, yes; to the sport of mixed martial arts; that’s debatable.

Many have tried to stake a claim in this “new” sport and many have failed. The questions are always: “why” is it so difficult? Why can’t just ANYBODY do this? Or do companies who start with flawed business models to begin with, even deserve to succeed?

I think some people looked at events like the UFC on television, and from the outside felt that being a successful fight promoter would be easy. But many have found out the hard way that that is not the case. The behind the scenes workings of the fight game are incredibly complicated and political. And if you don’t have a sense of the sport’s history, both good AND bad, then you’d better “check your ego at the door.”

A common mistake is that a new promoter, who ‘may’ be a fan from watching MMA on TV, and who doesn’t know the “business,” other than learning what an armbar is or which champion they are ‘supposed’ to swoon over by listening to commentators, reading websites or flirting with people on chatrooms, doesn’t know who to ask for advice when things, other than what they ‘learned’ through these simpleton methods, need to be decided. Things like who to hire for your staff, when all the people who solicit you look and sound the same because amidst your pursuer’s self-hype you are not familiar with anyone’s “real” previous contributions to the sport, whether positive or negative, or their track record because YOU are in fact new and inexperienced.

It soon becomes like a high school kid who’s a virgin, talking about sexual escapades with a pimp. That high school kid wants that pimp to think he’s cool, while the pimp only want the kid’s money and will say anything to get it. Then there’s fighter or TV contract issues, venue and fighter booking and scheduling problems, last minute injuries, whether real or caused by a better monetary offer from a rival promoter, other organizations trying to make life difficult for you by stealing your fighters with lofty promises they have no intention to even keep, and things like that. These issues and more need to be decided…on a daily basis.

Unsuccessful promoters usually listen to whoever is aggressive in pursuing them or flattering them. These types of opportunistic people, who pursue new promoters because they smell money, usually have an agenda separate from doing what is good for the sport. Also, being a new promoter who is in want of personal attention is like walking down a desolate street with hundred dollars bills hanging out of your pockets and fending off all your “new best friends.” And don’t get confused; I’m not talking about Dana White either. He’s a successful promoter who has worked extremely hard to get where he is and is a product of experience. As a new promoter you WILL be pursued and you will be forced to make smart decisions or you will quickly be out of business. A large part of being a success is choosing whom to surround yourself with…and keeping that circle small.

Which brings us to Affliction, who I was NOT necessarily referring to in the previous two paragraphs. Can they sustain an MMA fight company with their current plan based solely on live gates and pay per view? Hopefully they can, but the odds are indeed long. We will have to wait and see what the second Affliction event pay per view numbers were to fully answer that question.

And on a side note and to the shock of many, there are still those outside the MMA “lifestyle” bubble who hope that the sport itself slips forever into darkness…or even off a cliff. Take for instance the digs spewed in the direction of the Honda Center by veteran announcer Larry Merchant during the live HBO telecast of a world welterweight championship fight at the nearby Staple Center between Shane Mosley and champion Antonio Margarito, which happened on the same night as the Affliction show:

“Oscar De La Hoya … is in nearby Anaheim where his company got a five-million dollar fee from a T-shirt maker so that he can be personally involved in the promotion of a mixed martial art show,” said Merchant during the HBO broadcast. “It would take that much to get me to go to one of those things.”

I actually thought that comment was high comedy when Merchant said it. Howard Cosell lives! No, he wasn’t kidding and yes, there are still people out there who DON’T like MMA and Larry Merchant is one of them. Larry’s venomous rhetoric echoes that of his broadcast partner Jim Lampley, who once said that MMA fighters are “not athletes” and super-human boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr., who furthered the theme with, “These (MMA fighters) are guys who couldn’t make it in boxing, so they do (MMA).” I respect Lampley, Merchant and Mayweather for what they have done, and continue to do in boxing and, even though I don’t agree with their viewpoint on mixed martial arts, I support their right to voice there opinions. I’m an MMA fan…AND a boxing fan. But that’s just me I guess…

Affliction “Day of Reckoning” - Saturday, January 24, 2008, Honda Center, Anaheim, CA

When I first arrived at the Affliction: Day Of Reckoning event I noticed the sparse crowd on hand for the opening bout at 4:30pm, a surprisingly entertaining shootout between Brett Cooper from Antonio McKee’s Bodyshop Fitness and Patrick Speight from San Diego (Cooper won the battle of fistic attrition at 4:10 of round 2). I wondered to myself, “Will more people show up?” But I had forgotten that usually when I attend a live event, I am working on the broadcast, wearing headphones, worrying about my hair or the show opening and not concentrating on one of the peripheral realities of live fight events: people show up fashionably late, usually before the main 4 or 5 fights - there were 11 contests on this particular occasion. And sure enough, by the time the seventh

or eighth bout was beginning Anaheim’s Honda Center was packed to the rafters. The California State Athletic Commission reported the attendance at 13,318 for a live gate of $1,429,557. The fighter salaries on the other hand came to a little over $3.3 million (see breakdown at the bottom of this article).

One thing of note, there was a who’s who of celebrities and personalities present including: Donald Trump, Oscar De La Hoya, Jason Statham, Chuck Zito, UFC “interim” (gag) heavyweight champion Frank Mir, UFC matchmaker Joe Silva, former Pride heavyweight champion Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira, WEC big wig Scott Adams, Caol Uno, “Kid” Yamamoto, Bill Goldberg, Royce Gracie, Rodrigo Gracie and many more. I was particularly thrilled as a kickboxing/Muay Thai aficionado to see Rob Kaman and Ernesto Hoost palling around. When I approached my two old friends, Robbie turned to me and said, “Come on Stephen, make this match – Kaman/Hoost III!” We all laughed…

But putting the social and digit elements aside, I thought for an instant, “Why do so many people attend live events like Affliction, what is the bottom line? Answer: action – fight entertainment. And the stars must have been lined up just right because what people were in store was a night of conclusive fight competition that featured two undercard fights that went to unanimous decisions, three submissions/two from chokes/one from strikes, 4 technical knockouts and two outright knockouts. If you liked an international cast of characters with dramatic, diversified finishes, then this was your show. Let’s examine the top three matches of the evening…

Vitor Belfort vs. Matt “The Law” Lindland

Vitor Belfort had long ago slipped from being the “Phenom” to being Mr. “On Again, Off Again.” Right when you thought he had harnessed his inner demons, he would slip and slide (the Brazilian had lost 5 out of 8 fights between 2004 and 2006) and right when you were ready to write him off, well, he’d deliver an electrifying display.

Speed is the one element in all sports, especially professional fighting, that conquers all else and in many ways it is a God given talent. Vitor Belfort was blessed with the fastest hands in the sport’s upper weights. And that speed would be needed tonight in Belfort’s first foray into the middleweight division against one of its most dangerous competitors, Matt Lindland. I personally thought, based on Vitor’s decision losing effort to Lindland’s training partner Dan Henderson in October 2006 that he would be ripe for the plucking for the Olympic silver medal-winning wrestler. I was wrong. Vitor uncorked that euthanizing left hand and put Matt to sleep at: 37 of the first! And it was one of the more brutal knockouts I had seen in a while too. There was a moment of fright when the downed Lindland couldn’t seem to fully regain consciousness. He finally got up and was later checked at the hospital, where he was deemed to be fine and was released. Meanwhile many fighters at middleweight were experiencing a suddenly, involuntary shaking of the knees: Vitor at 185, lookout!

Josh Barnett vs. Gilbert Yvel

Former UFC heavyweight champion Josh “The Babyface Assassin” Barnett had always showed a complete toolbox when it came to meeting challenges in MMA. His foe, Holland’s Gilbert “The Hurricane” Yvel, was regarded as a one-trick, albeit dangerous pony, with much-feared Muay Thai striking but no, or very little ground game. And sure enough Barnett had the fight on the floor in a snap and mounted a constant onslaught of strikes on Yvel. But to the surprise of many this mismatch went on quite a lot longer than people expected. Finally, after absorbing a career high amount of ground and pound percussion, Gilbert tapped out at 3:05 of round three. Barnett would logically seem to be the challenger of the winner of Emelianenko/Arlovski.

Fedor Emelianenko vs. Andre Arlovski

When the Affliction MMA brand debuted in January 2008, it showcased a man who many, including myself, feel is the world’s greatest mixed martial arts fighter, Fedor Emelianenko. After he pitched a 36 second shutout against 2-time UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia, Emelianenko seemed to silence some critics who felt he had been coasting on a diet of freak show matches, with the likes of Zulu, Naoya Ogawa, Mark Hunt and Hong Man Choi in the more entertainment based Japanese marketplace. The cave-in he forced upon big Tim was nothing short of breathtaking.

Hype: Noun) extravagant or intensive publicity or promotion, Verb) promote or publicize (a product or idea) intensively, often exaggerating its importance or benefits

“The Baddest Man On The Planet” is the kind of title that was originally self-proclaimed by Mike Tyson back in the late 1980s. Few argued with him back then about that moniker. But today, in 2009, many, myself included once again, are calling Fedor Emelianenko this. It’s the kind of hyperbole that the self-effacing Russian would never bestow upon himself.

I tend to find that the ‘noun’ definition fits Emelianenko, where the verb explanation is open to discussion/opinion, especially with a guy who has been given the lofty title TBMOTP. But…no one is unbeatable…

I almost did not write about this event, not because I felt it wasn’t going to be strong, it was. But because so many people have jumped on the bandwagon for Emelianenko, it’s almost created a backlash. One thing history tells us is that the term ‘easy come, easy go’ works vividly for fight fans, and as soon as Emelianenko doesn’t deliver a God-like performance then many will hitch the next train to finding another much talked about fighter to lionize, genuflect to and worship. “Here, let me clean off that pedestal for you…(until you lose)”

The ring announcements and entrances for the main event were spectacular. The crowd was on its feet as Andre Arlovski received an enthusiastic welcome. Then when ring announcer Mike Williams bellowed “FEDOR EMELIANENKO” the audience truly erupted. It was earsplitting. You would have thought that the WAMMA champion was born and raised in Orange County.

Beforehand, I felt that theoretically Andre Arlovski had the perfect physique, style and quickness to upset the world heavyweight champion, Fedor Emelianenko, “if” he could stay focused. Because I questioned Arlovski’s suspected occasional lapses in confidence, I was hesitant to pick or endorse the Belarusian over the Fedor. My brain said one thing, my heart another. Andre has seen some highs in his career, but he has also seen some misfires and missed opportunities. But now it was put up or shut up time…against the best in the world. His boxing coach, the venerable Freddie Roach was outwardly confident. I felt nervous for both of them.

From the opening bell it became apparent that Arlovski would get the best of the kickboxing element of the fight. He pestered Fedor with inside left low kicks and started to find his mark with his lightning fast punches. Halfway through the round, after the clinch proved to be a stalemate, referee Big John McCarthy restarted the two combatants.

Emelianenko started to inch backward from the pressure when Andre connected several times with that long right hand. Then Arlovski pushed Fedor to the ropes with a left front kick and for some reason decided a flying knee. It was like a Guy Ritchie movie where they freeze-frame the action right before something dreadfully wrong happens. And then…it did. Fedor met Andre in mid air with a colossal overhand right, directly on the button: the anti-aircraft punch as I call it. Arlovski was out before his feet came in for a landing! A one punch KO off a flying knee! Unbelievable.

Again the crowd tried to break the decibel record previously set by Deep Purple in reaction to the dramatic, ‘come from behind’ rally by the champion.

I say come from behind because I received a few inquiries days after the event proclaiming that Emelianenko was “losing” the fight and won with a “lucky punch.” Fact: Fedor KO’d Arlovski…at 3:14 in the first round. There is no such thing as a lucky punch in the midst of a fight. Arlovski was in control, but got impatient, made a mistake and got caught. It was a conclusive, uncontroversial victory. The overused Mike Tyson quote applies here: “Everyone has a gameplan…until they get hit.”

If it were a 3-minute fight Fedor would have lost the decision. But…it was a TWENTY-FIVE minute fight. Arlovski looked great…for those here minutes and was executing the perfect game plan. People may have thought they saw an element where they can ‘theoretically’ exploit Fedor in kickboxing mode. Problem is NO ONE at heavyweight is faster or more athletic than Arlovski, so future challengers, plod as they will, won’t be able to capitalize on the blueprint he was ALMOST successful with.

Quick Results w/Financials
*Figures courtesy of the California State Athletic Commission

– Fedor Emelianenko $300,000 (no win bonus) def. Andre Arlovski $1,500,000 (win bonus would have been $250,000) at 3:14 of round 1, defends WAMMA heavyweight championship

– Josh Barnett $500,000 (no win bonus) def. Gilbert Yvel $30,000 (win bonus would have been $9,300) via submission (strikes) at 3:05 of round 3

– Vitor Belfort $200,000 (includes $80,000 win bonus) def. Matt Lindland $225,000 (win bonus would have been $75,000) via KO (punches) at 0:37 of round 1

– Renato “Babalu” Sobral $90,000 (includes $30,000 win bonus) def. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou $50,000 (win bonus would have been $50,000) via submission (anaconda choke) at 2:37 of round 2

– Paul Buentello $90,000 (includes $20,000 win bonus) def. Kiril Sidelnikov $10,000 (win bonus would have been $25,000) via TKO (doctor stoppage) at 4:18 of round 3

– Dan Lauzon $12,000 (no win bonus) def. Bobby Green $4,000 (win bonus would have been $4,000) via submission (rear naked choke) at 4:55 of round 1

– Jay Hieron $45,000 (includes $25,000 win bonus) def. Jason High $10,000 (win bonus would have been $5,000) via TKO (punches) at 1:04 of the first round

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Tags: MMA, Stephen Quadros, The Fight Professor

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