Mike Chiappetta • E-mail

Just a few days from now, mixed martial arts upstart Affliction and kingpin UFC will have the biggest head-to-head MMA battle in the sport’s brief history when they run competing shows in neighboring states.

Affliction’s show, entitled Banned, is a pay-per-view, headlined by a heavyweight match between Fedor Emelianenko and Tim Sylvia and taking place in Anaheim, California, while the UFC counters with a free show on SpikeTV featuring Anderson Silva moving up a weight class to take on James Irvin from Las Vegas.

Affliction has recently been turning up the heat on their public relations efforts in hopes of getting the biggest possible audience. Their fighters have been doing the media rounds, they’ve enlisted business tycoon Donald Trump in hopes of generating mainstream interest, and they bombard reporters’ email inboxes with press releases.

But is the word truly getting out the way they’ve hoped?

Last Thursday afternoon, Trump and Sylvia took part in a conference call to hype the card, and Trump touted the event’s success, saying, “We’ve sold out the arena, and very quickly. A lot of people were surprised at how quickly, but it sold out.”

Someone either gave Trump the wrong information or he’s not quite as in the loop on Affliction as they try to lead us to believe, because the event is not sold out. Affliction VP Tom Atencio reported last month that the show had sold 7,000 to 8,000 tickets, and a quick check on Ticketmaster shows seats available at every price point including in large blocks. (A message for Affliction requesting ticket sale information went unreturned.)

That’s not to say that Affliction: Banned won’t have an impressive turnout. As it stands, the show will likely surpass the ticket sales for May’s EliteXC: Primetime show, which drew 8,033 to Newark, New Jersey’s Prudential Center, and had much more in the way of promotion, including the muscle of the CBS network.

“From what I understand, the Affliction guys have no interest in competing with the UFC,” said Sylvia. “They’re not out there to take over the business of the UFC. They’re not out there to compete with anybody. We’ve all become close friends and they sponsored a lot of us fighters, and they’re like, ‘we’ve got the money, we’ve got the backers to put on some good shows… They’re kind of putting friendships first and business second.”

Affliction, which was founded as a clothing line in 2005, almost immediately forged relationships with top MMA fighters, including Sylvia, Randy Couture and Georges St. Pierre, and the early exposure of the brand on UFC broadcasts helped it grow. The outgrowth of their dealings with MMA ultimately led to the recent formation of a fight promotion. But the UFC scoffs at their chances of success.

UFC President Dana White, who has taken to calling Atencio “T-shirt guy,” thinks the group is headed for disaster, and is glad to help guide them in that very direction. His first offensive was putting together a hastily arranged show on Spike. In advertising it, the UFC has made a point of emphasizing you can watch Silva, the man considered the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter “for free.”

Video   Heavyweights collide Andrew Falzon from MMAPayout.com examines the dueling July 19th fight cards. Can Affliction compete with the UFC? NBC Sports

“These guys are spending $4 million on salaries. That means you had to make $8 million before taxes,” White said. “That’s a lot of money. That’s a lot of t-shirts. These guys don’t know what they’re doing. They have no clue what they’re getting themselves into.”

Affliction’s financial gamble is indeed significant. They are attempting to enter an already busy market with a pay-per-view out of the gate. And in the process, they have reportedly put together the most expensive event – in terms of fighter salary – ever.

But as fans of the New York Yankees can tell you, outspending your competition doesn’t ensure victory.

Ironically, at least one UFC fighter had planned to be at the Affliction show before his plans changed.

James Irvin had tickets to be at the Affliction show before getting the offer to fight Silva on Spike. He’s now headlining the competition.

“It seems like two companies pitting themselves against each other,” Irvin said. “I fight for the UFC, and I don’t think there’s anything else close to the UFC. I hope that we walk away with the better fights and telecasting, and that it looks a lot more professional.”

Still, Irvin declared the Affliction event, “a wonderful fight card.”

With former UFC champs Josh Barnett, Andrei Arlovski and Vitor Belfort on the card, as well as other solid veterans like Matt Lindland, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Renato “Babalu” Sobral, few hardcore fans would disagree with Irvin’s description, but the question is whether the casual fans who make or break a pay-per-view’s fate will shell out $39.95 to watch an event highlighted by Sylvia, who has never truly been a fan favorite, and Emelianenko, who though considered by some the best heavyweight ever, has fought almost exclusively overseas.

In the past, when Emelianenko has been featured on U.S. pay-per-view, it has never been with much success. While he was with PRIDE, the biggest U.S. pay-per-view buyrate with him as a headliner was 55,000 buys. Later, he briefly signed with Bodog Fight, who was attempting to do the same thing as Affliction in launching a successful fight company on a national scale. In April 2007, with Emelianenko as the headliner, the company put on its biggest marketing push, but his match against Matt Lindland resulted in a disastrous 13,000 pay-per-view buys, and the promotion was soon scrapped.

Still, Affliction insiders seem to believe a combination of their name talent and popular brand will bring awareness to their show.

“Tom [Atencio] has done an amazing job,” Trump said. “I was just talking to [TV producer] Mark Burnett and mentioned Affliction, and he mentioned, ‘wow, are they hot?’ He asked me about the MMA. He wasn’t aware of my partners, but when he heard Affliction, he really thinks they’re a great company.”

It’s also an upscale company, in that T-shirts retail for upwards of $50, and are mostly sold in higher-end retail stores like Nordstrom, meaning a large segment of the population might have no brand awareness of the label.

Affliction hopes to stage up to two more shows in 2008, but even Trump seems to hedge his bets on the company. When asked his future with Affliction MMA, he said, “My long-term plans? We’ll take it as it goes. This first fight has been amazingly successful. I hope it’s going to be a great evening of fighting. I think it will.”

So July 19 should be a fascinating case study on American MMA, and whether the sport has room for another major promotion. In reality, the UFC is alternately at the heights of its power as well as in its most vulnerable position. Never have they received so much mainstream media attention and put on so many successful shows, but the competition is also the strongest it has ever faced. Not only is Affliction taking on the UFC head-to-head, but EliteXC is nearing its second CBS show as well.

The landscape of the sport could change dramatically, or UFC can increase its stranglehold.

“They don’t get it,” White said. “I love this stuff. I live it every day. These guys who are T-shirt guys or whatever they do, they think they’re going to show up and compete with us doing it part-time? It’s not going to happen.”

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