Affliction: Banned

I purchased the Affliction: Banned MMA ppv. It had several fights that I was very interested in seeing and being a MMA fan who enjoyed Pride I hoped to see a resurrection of sort for non-UFC staged fights. What I got was a very mixed bag. While the top 4 fights on the card delivered the undercard was spotty and could have been cut to get the ppv down from a length of nearly 270 minutes to a more manageable 180. What was most disturbing was the production value. Considering Donald Trump poured some resources into this and the plethora of 'stars' and other interest this show received I really would have expected more. The average UFC show on Spike TV has much better, sound, video and announcing. The fighters walked out to awkward introductions and approaches to the ring and had to dodge a microphone set right at the top of the ramp. Why was there a microphone you ask? Great question... because it should not have been there. The microphone belonged to Megadeth. Who thought to themselves 'lets book a band no one has thought about in a decade to receive prime time exposure on our MMA event'?! They played 3 times and that only lengthened an already long show. If you are going to bring in outside entertainment (and I have never seen this work when tried in pro-wrestling or sports in general outside of the Super Bowl) at least bring someone in that people would be excited to see.

On the plus side, it is obvious that the strenght of the heavyweight MMA world lies in the Affliction camp. Fedor, Arlovski and Barnett each had impressive outings and make for some compelling matchups. With the possibility of Couture being thrown into the mix it is obvious that there is a good series of fights to be made.

I was particularly pleased to see Fedor come out and dominate in the manner he did. Of course watching Silva just destroy his competitor on the opposing UFC show will leave the pound for pound designation out there in limbo.

I hope Affliction succeeds. The competition is good for the sport and it is nice to see the ring as well as the octagon in play. They really need to up the production value though or it will simply appear to be a bush league side show to the mainstream UFC.