EliteXC joins UFC in banning Affliction
By Jim Murphy May 6th, 2008MMAJunkie is reporting that EliteXC has also banned their fighters from wearing “Affliction” gear. The rationale is the same as the UFC’s–now that Affliction is in the MMA promotion business EliteXC doesn’t see any reason to promote the competition:
EliteXC recently decided that Affliction will no longer be an approved sponsor for its fighters, and a company executive said its simply a matter of the clothing company getting involved in the fight-promotion business.
EliteXC Vice President Jared Shaw told MMAjunkie.com that the Affliction ban went into effect as soon as Affliction began organizing its first MMA show, but he says the company otherwise doesn’t really interfere with fighter sponsorships.
“We don’t really bar anyone,” Shaw said. “We don’t want to interfere with the fighters… but this isn’t a clothing company anymore. They’re competition, and it just doesn’t make much sense to help promote the competition.”
And EliteXC definitely doesn’t interfere with fighter sponsorships, as they’ve not had an issue with Kimbo Slice’s sponsorship deal with Internet porno site “Reality Kings”.
The only other time EliteXC’s fighter sponsorships came under scrutiny was when heavyweight Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson, a former bouncer for a pornography company, was sponsored by one such business.
“It’s adult entertainment,” Shaw said. “We had a lot of discussions about it, and in the end, we decided it was OK. We have no problem with Reality Kings.”
Michael Buffer doesn’t want to plug ‘CumFiesta.com’
My guess is that were the deal with any other fighter without Kimbo’s rock star like level of fame they would have a problem with it. And they probably *should* have a problem with it. I have no issue with dudes checking out porno sites, but I’m not sure that I want them involved in MMA more for the potential PR nightmare that could result than anything else. In theory, I don’t think promotions should interfere in fighter sponsorships but then again most fighters aren’t sponsored by the parent company of “Cum Fiesta” and “MILFHunter”. Besides, it’s a bad precedent that could be emulated by other sports–I don’t want to turn on HBO one Saturday to watch boxing and when Michael Buffer runs down the sponsors hear him give a plug for “cumfiesta.com” along with Budwiser, Affliction, and the Mandalay Bay.
