Nokaut's Exclusive Interview with Affliction Vice President
Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 4:42 pm
Nokaut's Exclusive Interview with Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio [Jun 16, 2009]
Randy Harrison
To call Tom Atencio a busy man these days would be a huge understatement. Not only is the Affliction Vice President immersed in plans for the company's third MMA pay-per-view event "Trilogy", on August 1st in Anahem, but he's also in training for his second professional fight against Randy Hedderick as part of the Ultimate Chaos event. That event, which takes place on June 27th in Biloxi, MS, will not only feature Atencio on the card, but other Affliction-contracted talent like Chris Horodecki, Gilbert Yvel and Pedro Rizzo, with Bobby Lashley and Bob Sapp set to clash in a heavyweight main event.
Despite everything that he had on his plate, Atencio was more than happy to sit down with Nokaut.com to discuss a variety of topics including the beginnings of Affliction MMA, the cancellation of the original Day of Reckoning event, his upcoming fight, his hopes for the future of Affliction and much more. It was a very entertaining interview to ask the questions on and Atencio didn't shy away from anything, so without further delay, here's our exclusive interview with Affliction VP Tom Atencio.
Nokaut.com: Tell me a little bit about your background growing up and what types of things you did pre-Affliction.
Tom Atencio: Basically, I just grew up in Orange County, the youngest of five kids so I always got beat up by my brothers. I had a huge family, being Mexican there's a big family and I was the youngest of them too, so everybody used to beat me up. Started training martial arts as a kid with my best friend's older brother, then met Joe Moreira about fifteen years ago when he first moved to California and started training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with him. He introduced me to Marcus Vinicius from Beverly Hills Jiu-Jitsu and trained there for a little bit and then Joe introduced me to Marco Ruas. Marco was the one that really got me into Vale Tudo and MMA and really learned to appreciate it there and that's when I fought four years ago. Now, with Tracy Hess and Subfighter Gym here in Lakewood, CA and Rafael Cordeiro is also one of my coaches.
Nokaut.com: And that's how you fell into being a fan of MMA then, through the connections you made in your training?
Tom Atencio: When I started sponsoring one of my best friends Justin Levens, who recently passed away, he was one of the first guys I started sponsoring when we started Affliction and then it just kind of grew from there and I met guys like Rampage, Josh Barnett and Randy Couture and it just kind of snowballed from there.
Nokaut.com: How did the Affliction brand come about and was there any idea that it would become as big as it has?
Tom Atencio: (laughs) No, no clue. My partners Todd and Eric started Affliction and brought on board two other partners and myself. We've all been in the clothing industry for years in one aspect or another and so I've had other businesses that have failed in the clothing industry so I've always been in the industry as well as my partners and I think it was just a combination of all of us together that made it so successful. Each of us had their own job and we all did it really well and it came together and all of the stars aligned.
Nokaut.com: What was the impetus for launching Affliction's MMA promotion and take me through the process of that.
Tom Atencio: You know, that came about because we were banned by the UFC. When Randy had his issues with the UFC, they decided to ban Extreme Couture and when they banned that, they also banned Affliction. We told them that they were two separate companies and that even though Randy was a partner in Extreme Couture, he wasn't a partner in Affliction. They decided to let us go ahead and do another fight and then rumors started with the photos of Fedor and Randy together for the commercial that we were putting together, rumors started that we were going to put together our own organization and once that happened they decided to ban us completely. So then we just decided to start our own organization to help the fighters that have helped us.
Nokaut.com: So it's a situation where rumor dictated reality in that case?
Tom Atencio: Yeah, it really was.
Nokaut.com: Were there any times where you wondered "What am I doing here?"
Tom Atencio: Oh, of course. I think any time you take on a new business venture you always have doubts and you always wonder what you're doing. It's like jumping into the pool deep end first, you just kind of go "What the hell did I just do?", so yeah, of course.
Nokaut.com: With two events down and the third on the way, what do you feel like you've learned while moving forward?
Tom Atencio: I've learned not to give the media too much...(laughs). No, I'm just busting your balls. You know, I've learned a lot actually. I've learned that a budget is very necessary and that you're not giving too much without getting what you need from the fighters. Figuring out who's going to be loyal, who's not so loyal. A lot about the back end and time schedules, making sure everything is done in advance. Our first event was the first time we had ever put anything on. It's not like we came from smaller shows or anything like that. I used to be a fight photographer so I saw the back end, but I was never really worked in the back end of an event. Now, seeing how it runs and how chaotic it can be, I've really learned a lot.
Nokaut.com: Is there any worry that by starting the promotion at such a high level that if the promotion falls to a more regional level like Strikeforce used to be, that it could be considered a failure?
Tom Atencio: No, because I think you need to establish yourself somewhere. Strikeforce established themselves in San Jose and had a huge following and once they built that up, they started branching out and going everywhere else. You can see by their last show that they're doing extremely well and the same goes for us. It's easier when it's in your backyard, I can only imagine how much more difficult it's going to be when we go somewhere else or we go overseas somewhere. Logistically it's just going to be much more difficult. Right now, it's easy. I wake up, go to work, handle everything, if I need to go to the Honda Center I can go there since it's right in my backyard. Yeah, everything comes into play because then I'm staying in a hotel and not at home so everything changes. I think you need to establish yourself first and then start branching out, just like anything else.
Nokaut.com: Affliction had quite a presence at the last Strikeforce event, with Andrei Arlovski fighting, and Josh Barnett and Fedor interviewed by Mauro Ranallo on Showtime. How essential is this type of cross-promoting for the survival of promotions not named the UFC? And can we expect more fighter lending?
.....For rest of interview click here
Randy Harrison
To call Tom Atencio a busy man these days would be a huge understatement. Not only is the Affliction Vice President immersed in plans for the company's third MMA pay-per-view event "Trilogy", on August 1st in Anahem, but he's also in training for his second professional fight against Randy Hedderick as part of the Ultimate Chaos event. That event, which takes place on June 27th in Biloxi, MS, will not only feature Atencio on the card, but other Affliction-contracted talent like Chris Horodecki, Gilbert Yvel and Pedro Rizzo, with Bobby Lashley and Bob Sapp set to clash in a heavyweight main event.
Despite everything that he had on his plate, Atencio was more than happy to sit down with Nokaut.com to discuss a variety of topics including the beginnings of Affliction MMA, the cancellation of the original Day of Reckoning event, his upcoming fight, his hopes for the future of Affliction and much more. It was a very entertaining interview to ask the questions on and Atencio didn't shy away from anything, so without further delay, here's our exclusive interview with Affliction VP Tom Atencio.
Nokaut.com: Tell me a little bit about your background growing up and what types of things you did pre-Affliction.
Tom Atencio: Basically, I just grew up in Orange County, the youngest of five kids so I always got beat up by my brothers. I had a huge family, being Mexican there's a big family and I was the youngest of them too, so everybody used to beat me up. Started training martial arts as a kid with my best friend's older brother, then met Joe Moreira about fifteen years ago when he first moved to California and started training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with him. He introduced me to Marcus Vinicius from Beverly Hills Jiu-Jitsu and trained there for a little bit and then Joe introduced me to Marco Ruas. Marco was the one that really got me into Vale Tudo and MMA and really learned to appreciate it there and that's when I fought four years ago. Now, with Tracy Hess and Subfighter Gym here in Lakewood, CA and Rafael Cordeiro is also one of my coaches.
Nokaut.com: And that's how you fell into being a fan of MMA then, through the connections you made in your training?
Tom Atencio: When I started sponsoring one of my best friends Justin Levens, who recently passed away, he was one of the first guys I started sponsoring when we started Affliction and then it just kind of grew from there and I met guys like Rampage, Josh Barnett and Randy Couture and it just kind of snowballed from there.
Nokaut.com: How did the Affliction brand come about and was there any idea that it would become as big as it has?
Tom Atencio: (laughs) No, no clue. My partners Todd and Eric started Affliction and brought on board two other partners and myself. We've all been in the clothing industry for years in one aspect or another and so I've had other businesses that have failed in the clothing industry so I've always been in the industry as well as my partners and I think it was just a combination of all of us together that made it so successful. Each of us had their own job and we all did it really well and it came together and all of the stars aligned.
Nokaut.com: What was the impetus for launching Affliction's MMA promotion and take me through the process of that.
Tom Atencio: You know, that came about because we were banned by the UFC. When Randy had his issues with the UFC, they decided to ban Extreme Couture and when they banned that, they also banned Affliction. We told them that they were two separate companies and that even though Randy was a partner in Extreme Couture, he wasn't a partner in Affliction. They decided to let us go ahead and do another fight and then rumors started with the photos of Fedor and Randy together for the commercial that we were putting together, rumors started that we were going to put together our own organization and once that happened they decided to ban us completely. So then we just decided to start our own organization to help the fighters that have helped us.
Nokaut.com: So it's a situation where rumor dictated reality in that case?
Tom Atencio: Yeah, it really was.
Nokaut.com: Were there any times where you wondered "What am I doing here?"
Tom Atencio: Oh, of course. I think any time you take on a new business venture you always have doubts and you always wonder what you're doing. It's like jumping into the pool deep end first, you just kind of go "What the hell did I just do?", so yeah, of course.
Nokaut.com: With two events down and the third on the way, what do you feel like you've learned while moving forward?
Tom Atencio: I've learned not to give the media too much...(laughs). No, I'm just busting your balls. You know, I've learned a lot actually. I've learned that a budget is very necessary and that you're not giving too much without getting what you need from the fighters. Figuring out who's going to be loyal, who's not so loyal. A lot about the back end and time schedules, making sure everything is done in advance. Our first event was the first time we had ever put anything on. It's not like we came from smaller shows or anything like that. I used to be a fight photographer so I saw the back end, but I was never really worked in the back end of an event. Now, seeing how it runs and how chaotic it can be, I've really learned a lot.
Nokaut.com: Is there any worry that by starting the promotion at such a high level that if the promotion falls to a more regional level like Strikeforce used to be, that it could be considered a failure?
Tom Atencio: No, because I think you need to establish yourself somewhere. Strikeforce established themselves in San Jose and had a huge following and once they built that up, they started branching out and going everywhere else. You can see by their last show that they're doing extremely well and the same goes for us. It's easier when it's in your backyard, I can only imagine how much more difficult it's going to be when we go somewhere else or we go overseas somewhere. Logistically it's just going to be much more difficult. Right now, it's easy. I wake up, go to work, handle everything, if I need to go to the Honda Center I can go there since it's right in my backyard. Yeah, everything comes into play because then I'm staying in a hotel and not at home so everything changes. I think you need to establish yourself first and then start branching out, just like anything else.
Nokaut.com: Affliction had quite a presence at the last Strikeforce event, with Andrei Arlovski fighting, and Josh Barnett and Fedor interviewed by Mauro Ranallo on Showtime. How essential is this type of cross-promoting for the survival of promotions not named the UFC? And can we expect more fighter lending?
.....For rest of interview click here
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