Report: Bobby Lashley, Tara LaRosa booked for AFL PPV
August 12, 2008 by Adam Morgan
MMA Junkie is reporting that American Fight League is close to announcing a pay-per-view set for this fall sometime according to Sean McClure, Director of Public Relations for the AFL. Not only that, but both former WWE star Bobby Lashley as well as top female fighter Tara LaRosa have been booked for the show:
“We’ve determined a date, and a location is being finalized,” McClure said. “We’ll announce the details very soon.”
McClure said the PPV fight card will feature many of the organization’s biggest names, including LaRosa, Lashley, UFC veteran and AFL lightweight champ Diego Saraiva, welterweight champ Brent Weedman, middleweight champ George Lockhardt and possibly former UFC fighter Dan Christison.
It will be interesting to see how the AFL approaches the pay-per-view market. No other fight promotion has been successful in that arena besides the UFC and perhaps Affliction and we still don’t actually know what the PPV buyrate was for Affliction: Banned show because Tom Atencio is keeping the information close to the vest. What Affliction had going for it, however, was star power in the heavyweight division and extremely intriguing matchups. That’s something that the AFL doesn’t have going for them.
At this point, they’re riding the backs of Bobby Lashley who is an MMA newcomer, Tara LaRosa, and a bunch of UFC washouts. To me it doesn’t sound like a recipe for PPV success. Lashley has drawing power because of his time in WWE but he’s no Brock Lesnar. And LaRosa is a name that hardcore fans can identify with but she’s no Gina Carano in terms of drawing interest. By all accounts the AFL has been putting on great fights and good shows on a regional scale. But pay-per-view might be too much, too soon.
I dunno, they might succeed. I’d probably be willing to pay a good 15, even 20 sents to see this.
Its a shame the Tara LaRosa doesnt get the same press as Carano. I tell you what I am putting my money on Tara if they ever fight.
This is gonna be such a trainwreck.
You say your name is Adam Morgan and you like MMA
I say your name is Adam Morgan and you’re a BATHTURD
Hey Rich don’t be a cheap ass. 50 cents to a dollar sounds more reasonable on a night that dosen’t have CSI, Law & Order, Mixed martial arts or Boxing shows on. Then I’m intrested in paying a $1.00 for it. Mayber a Dollar and Ten cents if they add a Big name fight to the card.
AFL needs to realize that they can be a successful regional promotion, but they don’t have enough name talent to ask people to pay for it. This is going to be bad, I just hope it doesn’t put the company out of business. My interest in seeing Lashley fight, isn’t enough to make me pay to watch it.
how much money would UFC make if they did Lashley vs lesnar?
they could call the event.
UFC ## “Payday”
I’m sure due to ppv fees this isn’t possible, but if they were able to only charge $5-10 they might be able to get 50k buys.
They don’t even have the roster close to that of Strikeforce or Elitexc. How would they expect to pull any type of money on this. Nobody cares about Tara Larosa or Bobby Lashley. I had never even heard of him until i heard he was gettin into mma.
I can’t imagine this doing even 10,000 buys, not with the amount of free MMA fans are privied to currently.
this is dumb.
why not put this on hdnet.. they have better shows then this everyweek