MMA Quick Quote: Elite XCs Gary Shaw doubts success of Affliction/Golden Boy Promotions partnership
By: James Iannotti
“I think they’re in a very tough area. Golden Boy is doing a very good job in boxing. Oscar De La Hoya knows boxing. There’s nobody there that knows MMA. I think Affliction or Oscar, if they’re going to team up, still needs an MMA promoter. Because at the end of the day, it’s the promoter that starts the ball rolling, and starts everybody talking. You know, like me and Dana. I don’t think it’s going to work out. They’re talking about Affliction doing all the boxing gear and everything else. When I looked around the room while they were doing the press conference, there wasn’t one person wearing anything of a shirt, hat or pants that had anything to do with boxing. You go to an MMA event, it’s a lifestyle, everybody is in MMA clothing. I think it’s going to be a lesson to both. I think they’re in for some surprises.”
– Former Elite XC Live Events President Gary Shaw shares his thoughts with Steve Cofield on the recent partnership between Affliction MMA and Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions during a recent radio interview. Obviously Shaw doesn’t think boxing and mixed martial arts can be marketed or promoted the same way as evidenced by his comments about boxing apparel vs. MMA apparel. He goes on to talk more about why he doesn’t think events featuring both boxing and MMA would work out, making actually some solid points. If anybody were to know about the difference in promoting boxing vs. MMA it would be Shaw. He has been a part of both sports at the highest level. Maybe he knows what he’s talking about. Or maybe he’s just bitter about his lack of success in mixed martial arts and doesn’t want to see other people succeed where he did not.
33 Comments »
like me and dana? lol! good one gary. your right on both counts james, he is bitter about failing and doesnt know what he is talking about in most cases, but on this particular point he is right, wich doesnt make him a genius, it just shows that he does have a little common sense. like someone said, this just puts Affliction on life support. they will know die a slow death instead of a fast one.
Here is a short phrase that Im sure Gary is very familiar with and is very fitting to this current conversation:
“Fuck Off You Fat CU*T”
I have choice words for him, but I think you said it best.
55 mil in debt elitexc atleast affliction did ppv buys now stfu gary
I think we know where that money went…Gary ate it.
He is literally resting his arm holding the mic on his stomach so he doesn’t exert any extra energy.
Who does Gary think he is fooling Elite is one of the most laughable org”s there is. Affliction at least puts worthy oponents together. Dana should kick gary’s ass for compairing himself to Dana
Well, I think he probably made himself feel important by putting his name in the same sentence as Dana’s.
sit your fat ass down.
“There’s nobody there that knows MMA.”
Oh, and you do? LOL Gary, you make us laugh.
Damn, this guy is about 1 cheeseburger away from busting at the seams. However this time the tubby b*tch makes some sense.
Affliction now seems to be holding on for dear life. I wonder if Trump has cashed in his chips yet? I can’t see him going down with the ship. As far as co-promoting an MMA event with a boxing event? I know that if I go to see live MMA the last thing I want to watch is a bunch of one-dimensional boxers. The reason I love MMA is because it ISN’T BOXING!
I agree they are two different sports people seem to forget that! It’s like going to see a baseball game with criket mixed in between innings.
This guy gets more ridiculous with every word he says. He was such a great promoter with Un-Elite XC that he got demoted to a “consultant.”
Well how is this partnership going to workout exactly. Boxing/MMA shows together, who will get the main event? boxing or Fedor. If De La Hoya is investing in this he might want to have boxing in the foreground and how is this going to sit with us fans. Personally I think it would be pretty bad to see Fedor as a co-main event and seeing the last fight of the show be a boxing match.
I like boxing and MMA but they are very different, a boxing usually takes about an hour if it goes the 12 rounds and with all the belts out there its a sure thing that all fights will be championship fights and almost always go the distance, so in a 4 hour pay per view we are going to be subjected to two boxing fights for two hours and that does not leave much time for MMA, with all the introductions and fill in there usually is in a show. And this is still with the speculation that the event will be half boxing/half mma.
i agree. ive read just about every mma based web-sites articles on this matter and the replys from the fans are about about a 95% dissaproval rating. thats worse than bush! of course these are mostly hardcore fans, but hardcore fans have alot more to do with making or breaking a new mma org. than given credit for (look at elite xc). i think oscar is just using affliction to help give boxing a bump b/c he cant fight forever and affliction is just using gpd to stay alive and to help with the costs.i like both sports (mma alot more) but the 2 dont mix.
This is actually going to work out against boxing IMO. Boxing is a lot slower and easier to predict the winner. If the co promote then boxing fans will get a straight comparrison of boxing and MMA. Well they can see which has more action and which one they truly like better. Even though Affliction may go belly up this can only help MMA get more fans.
Very interesting point of view, definitely has merit. My main problem with it, is that I refuse to pay $45 or whatever and have half the time taken up with boxing.
CHEF. thats the kicker. and the boxing fans who buy ppvs wont want to see mma matches. i think that there are alot of boxing fans that have converted to mma, but if they havent converted by now, they probably never will. they’ve seen mma and wont convert (mostly old farts). and there is no way a mma fan is going to all of a sudden start to like boxing. boxing is like half a fight compared to mma.
Let me bring a new viewpoint here:
First of all, boxing matches are not slow or easy to predict. The only people who say that are probably the same numbnuts who think they can train for a week and become an MMA fighter.
DLH is looking to get a piece of the pie w/ MMA. He is hoping to keep his core boxing fans and gain the “new” MMA fans.
I hate to break it to you but most businesses do not care about the hardcore fans.
They know they have you in their pocket and that you will not go anywhere.
Successful businesses try to bring in the average consumer because those are the same posers that will buy Kimbo Slice as an MMA God, TUF Season (insert number) dvds, T-Shirts, etc.
What will make or break this is the CASUAL FAN and if they want to spend the money.
OJR. all good points. if the casual fans want to see mma and boxing on the same card, it will be a hit. it all depends on how they set it up and the match-ups they produce and wether the “casual fan” is willing to pony up $45 to $55 bucks for it. they are only planning on putting on an event every 3 months, so they should be able to put on the best match-ups possible. im still pretty skeptical about the whole thing. only time will tell.
That’s a really good point by ‘diablo’ — it’s all going to come down to how this thing is structured, and given the format of both sports, I don’t think there’s going to be enough patience from fans to sit through an entire card… but why should the promotion companies care about this. All they want to do is fill venues and sell PPV’s — with 2-3 marquee match-ups between the two sports on each card, mission accomplished.
GoldenBoy already has some of the best boxers out there, if Affliction retains their talent and continues to consistently add fighters from other failed promotions, I think this could work out for them from a business standpoint.
Gary Shaw needs to realize he’s lost all credibility in the MMA world — the guy’s an idiot.
While I dont think Gary is the best person in the world.. This is actually one thing I agree on with him..
He is absolutely right. MMA & Boxing are to different sports. They need to remain seperate for the intergrity of each sport. And just because MMA has rules that say you can punch a guy in the face, it is still entirely different than boxing.. Boxing more often than not is about or leads to a point style of fighting, thus the reason we see so many fights going a full 12 rounds. It’s becoming harder and harder in boxing to finish fights..
Why is Gary Shaw still speaking to the public about MMA? The guy is a joke. Gary Shaw hasn’t been right about anything because he always intergects that he knows how to promote MMA. That ruins any comment he makes thereafter.
i think if gary shaw found a treadmill, he would be in for a surprise too
….or a diet soda.
Where’s my friggen Doughnut!
How many months is he preggers?
19 months
hahaha
If he didn’t compare himself to dana, I would have said that he did something right.
wow, he is fat.
i hope elitexc dies out soon so that jake shields can head over to the ufc and start beating some quality opponents. kimbo can go too and get beat up by quality opponents.
Wow. look at that sh*t locker he has.
The dude is the real life Jabba the Hutt, evil laugh and all.
The best thing that ever happened to Dana White’s popularity is Gary Shaw.
good point. shaw makes dana look like ghandi. nobody rocks the 80s jumpsuit quite like shaw does though.