FWIW re: Affliction, most reports from people at the show were very favorable. The negative reports come mostly from people that watched the PPV. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Oh, I rode Eddie Alvarez this entire tournament, so thanks to him for making me money. Bad beat on the final, but whatever. Eddie's definitely in my top 10 favorite fighters at the moment. So exciting.

Just finished the Dream fights. I was way pissed that Alvarez didn't get to fight. He had a great comment though something like, "I don't need my eye because Aoki can't hit anyway."

Hellboy timed his punch perfectly and Aoki chose the wrong side to dodge to. Sucks they didn't have a clean angle of that shot though, because it looked devastating.

Akiyama in the gi was pretty sweet too and he used it to perfection.

All in all a great card! Looking forward to the MW tourney to finish! Jacare will take care of business!

Can't wait to watch the whole event to hear that comment, so bad ass.

Well it wasn't as mean as I put it... I rewatched the interview and he said, "I can see out of my eye fine, and I told them he (Aoki) isn't a puncher, he's a submission guy, so I don't have to worry about it getting hit."

Still pretty funny though.

Did they announce the MW GP matchups yet? I really, really hope they don't put Manhoef up against Jacare right off the bat, I want to see Jacare vs. Mousasi

Affliction salaries are up as well:

http://mmajunkie.com/news/4859/affli...rolls-tops.mma

800k for Sylvia just to show is ridiculous. Rothwell at 250k probably made about 10x what he has in the past. Lindland at 225k to show and he can't even draw viewers when fighting Fedor. I'm not sure they can keep paying these kinds of ridiculous salaries and last for too long. If Arlovski or Sylvia headline an event (except vs. Fedor), it will get hardly any buys and those guys are making 500k and 800k to show?

wtf, fedor paid 300k while sylvia got 800k? whaaa?


affliction can't be that stupid, they really can't.


how was fedors base not 1 mill?

I'm sure Fedor got some bonus or ticket/PPV cut.

The salaries are without a doubt ******ed, though. 300k for Lindland? Seriously?

There's very little chance Fedor didn't make over $1m through PPV percentages and other bonuses. Just because it isn't reported doesn't mean he's not getting the chedda'.

I'm sure Fedor probably got a million dollar bonus that isn't listed. If you noticed on the PPV they kept saying something to the effect of Affliction and M-1 Global present and M-1 Global is the company that owns Fedor.

Yoshihiro Akiyama aka Choo Sung Hoon entrance Dream 5
turn your volume up

OMG BELLAGIO THEME!

EDIT: OMG BAS SINGING!

Was going to say the same thing about it being out of line...more than double the fighter pay of the Griffin-Jackson card as a whole. What was Tim worth for that...250K? I'm not uber familiar with Lindland...would 75K have been right considering his name and experience or more? As Mikey said...there had to be some PPV bonuses in Fedor's deal. I'd say Forrest and Rampage probably had the same thing...giving them the chance to make another 250K or so for their fight.

UFC headliners almost always get a cut of the PPV deals - Chuck, Tito, Rampage, Randy, etc make around $250k in base salary, but the PPV cut is where the bread gets buttered. Tito and Chuck both made over $1m for their UFC 66 fight with the PPV included. Plus Dana and the Fertittas hand out some pretty fat bonuses from what I've heard; word is GSP got $500k after the 3rd Hughes fight.

Easy to see why AA got $750k and Tim $800k - Affliction tried to buy the UFC's best, and now that there's a $1m difference in ticket sales and fighter payroll, you tell me how they'll stay in business.

The whole Affliction business model is just completely flawed. It was the same thing with BodogFight. I'm not sure if those salaries were as outrageous (doubt it), but that promotion ended up losing $38 million by the time they closed their doors. With the salaries Affliction is paying they would probably have to be getting at least a few hundred thousand PPV buys just to breakeven, maybe even a half million. I guess we will have a better idea when Affliction 1 buys are released, but I doubt it will be 100k+, so how long will Affliction keep losing large sums of money before they give up?

Dana White is really a friggin' genius IMO. He knows exactly which fighters he needs to hang on to. He knows which guys have a bright future, can draw fans, etc. Sylvia is not even that exciting a fighter and for a 2 time recent title holder probably draws as poorly as could be expected. Tito is washed up, the fans were starting to lose interest in Arlovski a bit (but the old AA might be back). Dana has held on to all the key cogs while allowing Affliction to grossly overpay for a handful of guys who aren't gonna draw the numbers Affliction needs to stick around longterm. I mean you really have to question whether Affliction know the first thing about running a fight promotion the way they're handing out huge contracts to guys like Sylvia and Lindland who quite frankly are very boring fighters.

just because a fighter is making more than what you are used to seeing people in the UFC get doesn't mean they are overpaid. if you don't think competitive and transparent fighter pay is a good thing i really don't know what to say to you. just because the UFC can get away with paying main card fighters 15k and explaining it away with undisclosed "bonuses" doesn't mean that it is fair or right.

i will say though that lindland is obviously grossly overpaid, i really don't think there is another fighter with as much name recognition that i enjoy watching fight less, the ufc not signing him is a great business decision no matter how hard a time they have finding mw competition for silva

MegaFossil,

You're underestimating how popular Arlovski is. Dana has already gone on record saying he made a mistake in how he handled him, and was desperately trying to get him back.

they could of saved a few bucks by not hiring Megadeath.


As far as AA, his last couple of fights ended with the fans booing because he wouldn't press the action. Before Sat, I thought it was a direct correlation with him shaving the carpet off of his torso. He looked so much meaner all primitive looking

You can't compare the business models of UFC and Affliction. UFC makes money with ppv, tickets and some merchandising. Affliction sells clothes. If they gain a few percentages in market shares and increase their "coolness factor" then it is worth it to drop a few million on mma cards.

The problem I see with Affliction's salaries is that they could have gotten most of those guys for much, much less, and they have now set a bad precedent for themselves. 800K for Sylvia is just ridiculous.

I saw his last UFC fight in Columbus, and he got the loudest ovation outside of the main event, and arguably got a bigger reaction for his finish than Anderson (though it's close). I've never been a big Andrei fan and never realized how popular he was until then. The guy is one of the biggest draws for sure.

what is ridiculous is that fighter's get paid poorly enough that it is even possible for you to think this, 800k for someone fighting in the main event of a ppv should be standard, not eye-opening. i really think people here are not giving the fedor/sylvia matchup the credit it deserves, you know damn well it's a much bigger draw and compelling fight than a significant number of the past year's UFC PPV main events

everything that makes ppl question the ufc and their slave contracts is a good thing.

Affliction spent over 3.3 million for talent alone. Add in expenses to cover referees, judges, security, medical, building rental, catering, ring and lighting equipment, working ring and tech crew, TV production people and satellite equipment, cost of sellable merchandise produced for sale, announcers, etc....you're easily around 5 million total in expenses.

They'd have to do 125K in PPV buys to break even

He's the female draw, no lies. Every girl I know that watches UFC drools openly when he is fighting.

Ray