Affliction VP Tom Atencio has taken all of the shots from critics of his Affliction "Banned" in an interview yesterday he hinted at possibly signing future fighters that are not happy with their organizations. Atencio may have used this as a way to jab back at the UFC and Dana White after all the talk about how they were supposed to flop.
"A lot of the guys are telling us they’re not happy with the way they’re being treated by whatever promotion it is they’re with now, and they’re looking at us as a possibility when their contracts run out,” Atencio said. “They’re telling us they want to be treated as equals and not as just workers and nothing more. It’s all about relationships and I have great relationships in this industry.”
As we all know Georges St.Pierre was rumored to have lost out on over $75,000 in sponsorship money when the UFC banned all their fighters from wearing Affliction after Randy Couture resigned from his deal with the UFC. The UFC believed that the clothing company was partly owned by Couture. Other fighters including Chuck Liddell, Tyson Griffin, Rampage and Karo Parisyan all wore Affliction in the past and could not possibly be happy losing sponsorship money. This is not to say they will leave but perhaps Atencio is using "Banned" as a stage to show fighters that his company is willing to pay what the UFC will not. If you sit back and think about what fighter was ever paid out $800,000 when the payouts were revealed? Nonetheless; for a loss in under a minute?