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<h3><a href="/go=news.detail&gid=182596" target="_blank">
Tom Atencio details Affliction's final hours
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<strong class="ArticleSource">[mmaweekly.com]</strong>
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TOM ATENCIO DETAILS AFFLICTION'S FINAL HOURS
"We were scrambling looking for a fighter, quite a few guys stepped up to the plate who were wanting the fight. Guys were doing it for a reasonable amount of money, too, which was cool, but just after talking to Showtime, after talking to everybody involved, it just, we couldn't have done it," Atencio commented. "It was a bummer, probably one of the worst things that's ever happened to me."
While much of the MMA world immediately pointed the finger at Barnett for the positive test, Atencio says at the end of the day, it's just business and he holds no ill will towards the former UFC heavyweight champion.
"Could things have been handled differently? Yeah, for sure, but it wasn't and it is what it is. I just move on. I don't look at the past. I only look at the future," Atencio said about the Barnett situation. "Now it's time to turn this around and start sponsoring fighters and get back to what I was doing. I think it's good. We sponsor a lot of great fighters, and a lot of fighters were bummed out when we left the arena and now we're back."
The head of the Affliction fight promotion also says that he has spoken with Barnett about the situation since the event was canceled, and all in all he chalks it up to bad timing for everything.
"I've spoken with (Josh) since and he apologized and, like I said, I even told him it would have been nice to have known ahead of time so I could have at least prepared. So I could have at least said when I found out I have no one to blame but myself now, but the bottom line was I had no clue," Atencio stated. "I had no idea."
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LOL @ Josh being innocent.
KneeUppercut - Wait... Josh apologized? I wonder for WHAT, since he stated that he was innocent and had nothing to apologize for in a previous interview?
It's probably common knowledge that so many guys use. Atencio might be saying "i wish he would have told me in advance" because maybe josh knew he didn't cycle correctly or something.
The above post is purely speculation and I do not know for a fact that Josh actually used intentionally
Can't help but feel a little bad for Atencio. He doesn't seem like a bad guy, and his MMA-intentions appeared good and honest. Not saying he made all the right moves, but he seemed to have a wholesome respect for the sport and its athletes.
Seems like a cool dude aside from the horrible aesthetics of his products, but the Affliction MMA promotion was a horrible business venture from the beginning.
reading that i understand a little bit how atencio is so succesful... not bitter or pointing fingers just thinking of ways he could have done better and looking positively towards the future
can you imagine if he had dana's way of dealing with things... the amount of finger pointing and F bombs would have been astronomical... shit, he would have invented new cuss words just for the interview.
I just hope he reveals some of the details of working with Vadim and M-1.
I never had a problem with Tom Atencio the person, and I can't imagine that most hardcore fans do either. I don't like Affliction clothing and I don't wear it, but I don't begrudge them for their success. Clearly, they hit a niche that at least some found cool, so that part of the business is fine.
Tom Atencio the promoter, on the other hand, was just a very naive strategist who didn't do enough effective planning on his end to make things work. He has great leadership ability for a clothing company. His leadership ability for a fight promoter is awful. This is actually probably a compliment...outside of maybe Scott Coker, successful fight promoters are confrontational, egotistical jackasses who spend time plotting grandiose business schemes in the hopes of crushing the competition...and hopefully the fighters and fans get what they want in the process. I mean, I like Dana White, but Dana would suck as president of the UFC if he didn't have an aggressive streak to run certain competitors down. I never got the feeling that Atencio was comfortable doing that...which is the problem, sadly. It's not "put on the best show and let the fans decide." If the best and most successful organization was based only on that, Pride would be crushing the UFC in competition right now.
I think he's better off where he is, and I have no doubt of his love for MMA, even after this disaster. He took a huge risk with Affliction MMA - I just don't think it was planned well enough beforehand. Chalk it up to experience though...let him move on.
And for those with the pie-in-the-sky perfectionist view of, "well, all he did was give us dream cards," remember, all he gave us were TWO dream cards. Great stuff to see, I definitely enjoyed it, but if you go out of business after only a couple of cards, well, you can't really give consistent quality to MMA fans. One thing that consumers (cause that's what we really are as fans, let's be honest) have an enormous need for is dependability. It's great if you can get me a hovercar, so I can jet around and show everyone how awesome it is...it's not so great if the thing breaks after a day and I can never ever use it again, because there's no repair option. Similar type of idea.