Jonathan Snowden makes an interesting argument:
The important thing is that someone is willing to pony up to bring two of the world’s best into the ring to test their skills. It’s not my job as a fan (or as a journalist) to make these shows profitable. That’s the promoter’s job. It is the job of the journalists to cover it, not promote the show for the "good of the sport." And if you look back at the history of combat sports, much stranger ducks than Tom Atencio and Affliction have dropped millions of dollars to put on vanity shows for a number of reasons.
In 1974, Mobuto Sese Seko paid Don King millions to bring Muhammad Ali and George Foreman to Zaire for the now famous "Rumble in the Jungle." Seko was a brutal dictator, a man who once had his political rivals rounded up and executed in front of 50,000 awestruck countrymen. He was so despised by many in his own country that he needed no less than three separate special forces squads acting as personal bodyguards. How was he going to make a profit herding his people into the Mai 20 Stadium to watch the fight for free? How will a bad turnout affect Seko’s future shows?
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n the long term, fans will remember the fights that made them feel. No one remembers the promoters, because they are interchangeable. Does it truly matter if it is Affliction, or the IFL, or Showtime, or Mark Cuban, or the Fertittas? It’s the fights that are important, that will stand the test of time. MMA fans and reporters would do well to focus on them and leave the promoters to get ulcers worrying about what will draw. That’s their job. Our job is to watch great fights. Enjoy the show.
I'm sympathetic with Snowden's point. The Ali-Foreman FIGHT is what ultimately matters. Its been the source of great movies, important books and is a cornerstone of the Muhammad Ali legend.
My History of MMA series has been predicated on this notion -- stick to what happens inside the cage/ring, not the bullshit going on outside it.
However, Fightlinker mini-me Shawn Schatzle has a different take:
...when covering a sporting event, you cover every aspect of it. This is the very idea that ushered in the modern era of sports popularity in this country. The reason ESPN has become a staple in the sports industry is because the journalists over there cover every aspect of the industry, from the player’s contracts to the lives of the different personalities involved and, of course, the action on the field or in the ring. And as a fan who would like to see some decent alternative to the Zuffa machine every now and then, that makes me a stakeholder in the Affliction brand — meaning I have every right to be curious about whether the promotion is going to last.
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Ali and Foreman were so huge that promotions or leagues didn’t matter — the names of those two men was more than enough to create a giant spectacle. Very few men in the MMA world are able to attract the type of attention that Ali and Foreman were able to do — and especially not Fedor and Arlovski (At this point, at least. This sport is still in it’s infant stages compared to where boxing was in 1974).
And let’s not forget one major point that needs to be made: hating on morons is the most fun you can have with a keyboard. Atencio and company have been coming out for months talking about their long term success in this industry. Then, you go and look at their fighter payroll and those comments become funnier than watching War Machine try to figure out the directions on a Hungry Man TV dinner.
