Affliction VP Tom Atencio has indicated that a major announcement will be made on Saturday’s Casamayor/Marquez boxing match. While Affliction is a minority sponsor of the event, the setting of the venue is curious and has led to speculation on a couple of fronts. Bottom line, the setting of the announcement seems to suggest:

1) Affliction has worked out a partnership deal with HBO

3) Some combination of the above

While an HBO TV deal would be beneficial, a relationship with Golden Boy Promotions could in theory be a game changing arrangement. As the old saying goes “the devil is in the details” and much depends on the nature of the potential partnership.

Golden Boy was mentioned as a potential partner in Affliction’s MMA promotional efforts way back in March of this year. Nothing materialized, and Affliction ended up promoting their first event on their own. Meanwhile, Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaeffer and Oscar De La Hoya backtracked on their earlier interest in getting into the MMA business, suggesting that they wanted to wait for the sport to mature and shake out and that in the near term they were better off sticking with their core competency of promoting boxing.

Then again, things move quickly in the fight business and what may be true one day might not be the case the next. Furthermore, its never easy to tell whether things are statements of fact or merely tactical negotiating maneuvers being played out in the public. While Schaeffer said a month or so ago that Golden Boy’s MMA interest was on the back burner, that may have changed–or it might have just been a bargaining ploy. Keep in mind that several weeks ago both Schaeffer and Bob Arum were saying that the De La Hoya/Pacquaio fight was dead in the water. A couple of weeks passed and lo and behold the fight is scheduled to take place on December 6th in Las Vegas.

With their primary revenue stream–Oscar De La Hoya himself–nearing the end of his fighting career Golden Boy could certainly use some new ones. And a partnership with Affliction–best case scenario at least–could be a win/win all around. Affliction has demonstrated that they can put on a first rate MMA event, but they’ve also appeared somewhat clueless about the promotional aspect of the business. Golden Boy, clearly, is one of the best at this.

In any case, we’ll keep our ear to the ground. Stay tuned to THE SAVAGE SCIENCE for the latest news….