Fedor Vs Andrei Arlovski

[Kerranger]

Looks like its going to be Fedor Vs Arlovski on an Affliction card in Oct/Nov, a New Year's Eve match with Dream, and Fedor Vs Barnett back with Affliction in the spring.

The one with Dream could be against anyone, as Dream isnt finished with their tournaments yet, but they have a number of good fighters. Fedor vs Crocop 2 would be a great fight, and a big draw and moneymaker for Dream.

No matter what, sick matchups coming up.

[Fallen]

I thought Crocup was in the same boat as Couture. Licensed for more fights.

[Bregus]

He's signed with Dream and could fight... but he just had knee surgery.

[Kerranger]

Yeah. I dont know whats up with the knee surgery, as far as how fit he is at the moment. Id love to see it though. I think he would have to take out Overeem first.
Dream doesn't have very many heavyweights at the moment who can rival Cro-cop or Fedor. But they do quite a bit of cross-promotion and sharing, so that makes speculation almost impossible until they officially announce it.
I'm also interested to see what opportunities Dream and Affliction both present to UFC fighters whose contracts are running close. I personally cant stand the UFC, but most of the good fighters had to end up there due to no other org being able to rival them, as far as match-making, money and exposure. Now there are choices, and i wonder who will jump ship.

[Bregus]

Mirko says he'll be fighting by September. I don't know when the tournaments start. Dream is pretty much shit, but Affliction has a huge chance. The payroll for Banned was 3.5 million. Josh Barnett and Matt Lindland got payed more than Forrest and Rampage just did. Throw in the fact that Dana White is a fucking conceited asshole that treats his fighters like shit and runs the UFC like he is god.. Go Affliction!!

[Kerranger]

With Trump and Co as backers, they dont need to worry about capital, and he has stated just that. He knows how to raise money and get investors, and has the contacts to get them the exposure they will need. As far as the payroll, those were some pretty hefty bonuses those guys were getting on top of the payment for the fight. I think Tim Sylvia got 800k just for fighting and losing badly. Arlovsky made something like 250k as a BONUS for winning. Thats some serious money for fighters. On top of that, since at least some of them have non-exclusive contracts, like Fedor and Vitor Belfort, they have the opportunity to fight in other events, and make even MORE money.

[Apathy]

I don't understand why everyone still goes crazy over CroCop. He got rolled twice in the UFC by nobodies. Makes me always have to play the antagonist when people bring up how great PRIDES heavyweights were. I guess it's kind of a name thing?

I thought you'd like this Kerranger:
http://www.cagetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/affliction-salaries.jpg

Big money yeah, but they barely made it up in buy's and advertising, tbs. They can't promise every fighter the amounts they paid out to the bigger names (ironically UFC). I like the idea of competition, but this was kind of a balls-to-the-wall everything we got one-time shot. It was good, but what's going to happen the second, third, fourth time?

[Kerranger]

I dont really go crazy over Cro-cop. He did have a bad run in the UFC. I still like watching him fight though, win or lose. And hes still a damn good heavyweight. That chart makes me wonder why Fedor got paid less than half as much as Sylvia did...Im sure theres something in there that was not talked about.
Apparently the original idea was for Affliction to do three shows...and then see what happens. The vice-president is aware people tend to lose their ass on these things, and they actually counted on losing money the first time around. They made back a little over 2 million at the gate. And they just said pay-per-view buys were a lot more than they thought, up over 100,000. So thats at least 100,000x 39.95. So youre looking at just over 3m made back, after the fighters were paid, plus advertising and whatever else they had that was bringing in money. The exposure for it wasnt even all that good. The next couple of shows will determine what happens, as far as their profitability i guess. Its just a wait and see thing.

[Apathy]

Don't believe the gate amounts - you can be sure many 'favors' were handed out by the company itself, a very common practice.

Sylvia got paid more because he's the bigger US name. Same with Arlovski. I have no problem with them jumping ship, but I don't think any startup is going to knock UFC out of its spot as top competition/big money, at least not for 3 years (not 3 years from now, 3 years of business).

[Kerranger]

Oh for sure. Theyre not going to knock them out of the top spot for a long time, if they even stay in business past their three shows. Just because i have great hopes for them, obviously doesnt make it so. I like the fact that it was all made possible by Dana White being a prick though. What a kick in the balls.