What a douche.

It was a great night of fights for both boxing and mma. I wish merchant would retire already.

It probably took Merchant about 45 minutes to say all that.

LOL. merchant is a moron.
and still only 10% the moron that lampley is.

LOL. merchant is a moron.
and still only 10% the moron that lampley is.

Boxing and MMA are 2 different sports….who cares what anybody says…..who won the Mosely fight?

ne1 know name of Gilbert Yvels entrance song?

A little off topic…..

Atencio interview from Jan. 27th. Sounds a little better than the last tidbit that mania posted…….

MMAInsider: So, how do you feel about the second show?

Atencio: It was work. (laughs) I can honestly say that without the guys that helped me here, Tracy and Shannon and everyone else that’s involved, it would have never happened. But aside from that, we made it through, and I’m extremely happy. The fights were awesome, and the event seemed to go pretty well. There were a few glitches, and this is only my second time. As a team, we’re still learning.

MMAInsider: Then you’ve got this Larry Merchant throwing some crap your way.

Atencio: Yeah, it’s just like anything else. You have people who are completely myopic and they’re not open to anything, and I think that was his way of trying to hurt us, because (allegations of a $5 million payoff to Oscar De La Hoya) are completely false.

MMAInsider: What are some of the roadblocks you encountered on the way to the show?

Atencio: I think it’s just the B.S. of rumors, and having to squash that. And they’re so minimal, it really doesn’t matter, but it’s wasted time. Like the ticket sales, the whole 1500 seats sold, then I heard Arlovski broke his hand the week before. It’s just petty little rumors.

MMAInsider: You ever feel like you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t?

Atencio: I always feel like that. Always.

MMAInsider: There was a report on Yahoo! Sports that your paid attendance was 8,946 for a live gate of $1,512,750. Are those numbers accurate?

Atencio: Not to my knowledge. As far as the numbers, I don’t really get into the numbers.

MMAInsider: Is the characterization that Golden Boy does logistics, runs the show, deals with athletic commissions, and Affliction finances the fighter purses, is that accurate?

Atencio: No, that’s not accurate. There’s definitely things they do, there’s things that we’re learning, and that’s why we brought them on board. Things that they’re going to have expertise on that we’re just learning.

MMAInsider: How does this partnership work, then?

Atencio: They’re handling the back end, the deals, the negotiations when it comes to things like Showtime, and pay per view, and we’re doing the marketing — what we do well. The matchmaking we do because they come from the boxing industry. If we start doing boxing shows, they’ll handle the matchmaking for the boxing.

MMAInsider: Is Affliction in charge of the fighter purses?

Atencio: Yes, we are.

MMAInsider: What are the chances of putting on Arlovski vs. Sylvia now? It would seem like those two have a built in storyline and rivalry.

Atencio: It definitely does seem like one. I’m still trying to catch up on my emails alone. I have 500 emails that I have to catch up on. I’ve got a lot going on.

MMAInsider: Is Fedor vs. Barnett a lock?

Atencio: I’d like to think so, but I haven’t even sat down with them and discussed it yet.

MMAInsider: Will your next event be in July?

Atencio: We’re shooting for it, we haven’t finalized it though. I take it one fight at a time. I just want to focus on each show at a time until we become seasoned at this, and then I’ll be able to feel more comfortable to give dates. I like to take things slow. I want to make sure we’re doing everything right, and when we’re not, to fix whatever we’re doing wrong.

MMAInsider: Well, you mentioned seasoning, and one of the main things that people are looking at is your payroll. You’ve said in the past you want to make sure fighters don’t look at you as a cash cow. You have most of these guys to three-fight deals, and originally, you said you wanted to put on three fights and no more. Is that one of the things you want to look at moving forward as a promotion?

Atencio: Well, just to correct you, I absolutely choose to stay in this. But the reality of it is — whether we do — it really comes down to finances. But having said that, the shows are successful in other ways than just that. Our plan is to have four fights a year with Golden Boy, M-1, and Mr. Trump, that’s our plan right now. I’m just taking it easy because I want to make sure that each event is methodical on our side. I just don’t want to get ahead of myself, get cocky, get arrogant, because I’ve seen what happens when people do that, and I like to learn from other people’s mistakes. Hopefully, I can continue to stay grounded and do that.

bro do you really need to say that in every thread

Merchant must of had 15 gin and tonic again that night.

Thats right looser back peddle. You are a scumbag thats on your way out. I would pay good money to see Helio choke him out.

sHEEEYIT! If Merchant is now asking for a $100K appearance fee per the rest of the sherdog article, I’ll cut a deal at half that amount and make even more retarded statements to garner headlines at the next Affliction event!

mma is growing and growing really fast…but to tell everybody its taking over is far from financial facts….which is pacman got 12 million dollars..mayweather got 20 million….delahoya got 50 million…and mma is still in the150t to 500T mark….so why is that..did research in a boxing website and it tells me its the worldwide market is where boxing gets its cash….but boxing promoters(unlike Dana) dont brag about it because they wanna keep a low profile on how they earn..for example mayweather vs hatton got 800thousand ppv from the u.s but what they didnt tell us i that it got 1.4 million ppv buys in the u.k(excluding other countries who buy tv rights)…. but if it was dana who was in that situation he would anounce that they had 2.2 million ppv buys in total