Ozzy Ozbourne at Affliction: Good or Bad?

August 25, 2008 · Filed Under Affliction 

Recently Affliction has announced that Ozzy Osbourne, a heavy metal legend, will be performing at the next Affliction event “Day of Reckoning”. The event is scheduled to take place on Saturday, Oct. 11 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas where the heavyweights Andrei Arlovski and Josh Barnett is the main fight.

The first Affliction event, “Banned,” which was on July 19, featured musical performances by Megadeth, however this drew some mixed reactions, especially from the audience watching on ppv.

Is Ozzy Osbourne’s upcoming performance at Affliction 2 be good or bad for the event?

Here is a quick look:
Good
Target audience – Affliction shirts are strongly influenced by Heavy Metal music and caters to Heavy Metal and Ozzy fans.
Brand – Affliction’s brand as the Hardcore style is strongly enforced.
Differentiation – No one else it doing it, and can also be considered as bonus for PPV and in-arena fans.

Bad
Alienates Fans – MMA fans who hate heavy metal will not like it.
Distraction – A heavy metal concert doesn’t really belong in MMA fight event. It can conflict with the main purpose of the event, which is the competition of top level athletes.
Cheap – this can also be considered as a cheap ploy to make it seem that Affliction is giving more to the viewers.

Conclusion:

It’s obvious what Affliction is trying to do. They are known for their bad-ass t-shirts which are clearly influenced by heavy metal music. So it would make sense to include a mini heavy metal concert in their events, right?

Yes, I think Affliction should continue to be doing this. They have built a very successful brand on their t-shirt style and now are doing something different in their events.

Heavy Metal is a HUGE part of Affliction’s image and continues to drive more people to them.After all it’s their event.

Affliction’s July 19th event was great, and the band Megadeath didn’t really distract from the fights. If anything, it was better watching a band than some commercials or filler video. The band’s performance was not the main attraction and served as a good intermission between fights.

Although heavy metal music is not for everyone, its important to note that as MMA fans, want to see the best MMA fighters fight each other. Period.

Affliction needs to focus on this, and that ultimately MMA fans, regardless of their individual music preference, would only care about the fights. After all is Affliction’s main goal to sell heavy metal concert tickets or sell the MMA fight tickets?

IF they keep bringing us great fights like Sylvia vs Fedor and then MMA fans won’t mind whichever band they decide to stage.

Comments

One Response to “Ozzy Ozbourne at Affliction: Good or Bad?”

  1. Affliction and Golden Boy partnership, will hybrid MMA-boxing event be a good idea? | MMA Monkey on September 15th, 2008 2:17 pm

    [...] fans, Affliction needs to decide what they are trying to do. So far they have added on a lot: an Ozzy Osbourne concert and now… [...]

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