Although Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio is tight-lipped about specific sales totals for the Jan. 24 "Affliction: Day of Reckoning" event, he maintains sales are "comparable" to its first show that took place in July 2008.
However, despite his satisfaction, many reports in the past week have pegged actual sales numbers for the event at just 1,500 to 2,000 of the 15,000 available tickets for the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.
"That's absolutely not true," Atencio today told MMAjunkie.com (
http://www.mmajunkie.com). "One hundred percent inaccurate."
During conference calls in December and then again just last week, Atencio said he was "real happy" with the pace of sales for the event. Despite his satisfaction, rumor of poor sales persist. (Honda Center representatives declined to comment.)
By the time the Jan. 24 HDNet- and pay-per-view-televised event concludes, Atencio predicts sales totals for "Day of Reckoning" will be similar to those from the July 2008 "Banned" event. According to the California State Athletic Commission, "Banned" drew 14,832 spectators (11,242 paid) for a live gate of nearly $2.1 million.
The organization will use a similar seating configuration for the second show, and Atencio said that in the weeks leading up to "Day of Reckoning," sales figures have mirrored "Banned."
"I don't want to give out exact numbers, but it's very similar to the first show," he said. "And I'm very happy with the ticket sales at this point."
"Banned" featured a main event of longtime PRIDE heavyweight champ Fedor Emelianenko vs. former UFC title-holder Tim Sylvia. For "Day of Reckoning," Emelianenko takes on another former UFC champion, Andrei Arlovski.
Although the upcoming event's complete fight card is just as stacked as its predecessor, "Day of Reckoning" hasn't generated the buzz that "Banned" did. Much of that initial publicity stemmed from the UFC's decision to broadcast UFC Fight Night 14 (headlined by pound-for-pound king Anderson Silva) for free on Spike TV on the same night as "Banned." The "UFC vs. Affliction" storyline generated a lot of headlines, but the second time around, the UFC and Spike TV have quietly scheduled a replay of "UFC 91: Couture vs. Lesnar" to counter Affliction. Without the public bickering, Affliction hasn't seemed to generate the headlines the first show did.
Additionally, "Day of Reckoning" faces major competition in its Jan. 24 time slot. The UFC has scheduled pay-per-view events for both Jan. 17 and Jan. 31. (The Jan. 31 event, UFC 94, features a mega-fight between UFC champions Georges St. Pierre and B.J. Penn.) The WEC, a sister promotion of the UFC, also decided to hold a rare Sunday card in San Diego – one day after "Day of Reckoning" – on Jan. 25.
And if that weren't enough, Golden Boy Productions, which announced a partnership with Affliction in late 2008, will host a boxing event the same night as "Day of Reckoning." Antonio Margarito defends his WBA welterweight boxing title against Shane Mosley at a Golden Boy show at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, which is just 30 miles from Affliction's event. Additionally, Staples Center officials recently opened up a slew of $25 tickets for the event.
Still, Atencio sees "Day of Reckoning" emerging as a successful event.
"If we're as successful as the first [show], and I'm sure we will be, then I'm going to be real happy," he said.
