Anderson Silva Wins All Around

Anderson Silva Wins All Around
by Chris F.


The weekend that was supposed to be all about Fedor facing UFC castoff Tim Sylvia, along with a marching band of overpriced fighters was interrupted by the Spider.

Dana White ran his best against, Affliction’s best and came out on top. Not only did Anderson Silva knock out James Irvin he went ahead and put himself up there with other UFC stars as draws. UFC FN 14 drew a 2.1 rating, which is the third highest showing by the UFC on Spike. What does that mean for the UFC?

Anderson Silva is now a star in the UFC, yes even more so than before. A 2.1 rating means that a bunch of people tuned in just to see Anderson Silva for the first time fight for free. UFC has shown a terrific ability to turn their TV audience into PPV buy rates.

Affliction has a somewhat auspicious start. The diehard Sherdoggers loved the PPV. In the end, reportedly the show did about 100,000 buys. Which, is not bad by any means for a company doing a first show.

Here is your problem though. Affliction spent more money on talent that I have ever seen on any card. They threw money around like it was nothing. Fedor, alone, was paid over one million dollars. Guys like Matt Lindland made 300,000, Tim Sylvia 800,000 ( for 36 seconds of work), the list of outrageous payoffs goes on and on.

I understand the theory of spending money to make money, but this is outrageous and could potentially be damaging to the sport of MMA. If guys see they can make outrageous payoffs elsewhere they may leave an organization like the UFC. It’s a disaster area after that, will get one hundred companies and one hundred different versions of champions.

It is great to see guys get paid good money and see good cards, but salaries like this don’t do anything but put you in the red. Affliction may get popular but in doing so it may destroy it self in the same way World Championship Wrestling did.

UFC FN Results

CB Dollaway over Jesse Taylor via submission R1
Brandon Vera over Reese Andy via DEC
Cain Velasquez over Jake O’Brien TKO R1
Kevin Burns over Anthony Johnson R3 via eye poke
Frankie Edgar over Hermes Franca via decision
Tim Credeur over Cale Yarbrough TKO R1
Rory Markham over Brodie Faber via KO R1

Affliction Results

WAMMA Heavyweight Championship: Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia – Emelianenko, SUB (rear naked choke), R1
Andrei Arlovski vs. Ben Rothwell – Arlovski, KO (punches), R3
Josh Barnett vs. Pedro Rizzo – Barnett, KO (punch), R2
Renato Sobral vs. Mike Whitehead – Sobral, DEC
Matt Lindland vs. Fábio Negão – Lindland, DEC
Vitor Belfort vs. Terry Martin – Belfort, KO (punch), R2
Paul Buentello vs. Gary Goodridge – Buentello, DEC
Antonio Rogério Nogueira vs. Edwin Dewees – Nogueira, TKO (strikes), R1