Category — Affliction

I should be getting ready for a night of fights, but since that’s not happening… umm… maybe I’ll go see Funny People. I hear it’s good. I like Seth Rogen, not so much Adam Sandler. I wonder how Josh Barnett is spending his day. Oh, look at this, a message on Barnett’s Twitter account: “Finished the comic series ‘Preacher‘ today. I can’t believe it took me this long to finish it but damn glad I did.” Yeah, Josh, Preacher is pretty fucking awesome, like The Outlaw Josey Wales but with angels and demons and drunk Irish vampires and a Kurt Cobain wannabe called Arseface. You know what else is awesome, Josh? A fight with Fedor Emelia-fucking-enko, that’s what.

Was just digging around on the official M-1 Global website – the seventh edition of the M-1 Challenge series takes place in two weeks and I was looking for a little info – and there’s still a strong Affliction presence, including a “Presented by Affliction” logo on every page and the use of Affliction in the titles of this promo clip. The clip was probably put together before the Affliction meltdown but the site is pimping it on the homepage as a way for fans to learn about M-1 Global in the wake of the whole Fedor Emelianenko/Affliction/UFC affair.

So my question is whether Affliction, which has just struck a sponsorship deal with the UFC after ceasing its fight promoting operations, is still affiliated with or sponsoring M-1 Global? Seems strange if that’s the case given the new UFC deal and the UFC’s general (and very specific) disdain for M-1.

This clip also relies heavily on Fedor to sell the brand even though he doesn’t compete in the Challenge series. Oh, and I love how the narration in this clip puts M-1 in the same category as the Olympics and World Cup soccer in terms of significance, spectacle and viewership. I get why they’d try to ally themselves with those events; M-1 Challenge pits teams from different countries against each other in a series of MMA cards. But a lot of MMA fans don’t know anything about M-1, especially if they’re primarily UFC fans.

As for the non-sports-loving general public, who certainly know about the Olympics and the World Cup even if they don’t watch, M-1 probably sounds like a machine gun or an Indy car race or a type of motor oil.

In the interest of equal opportunity after Dana White’s anti-Fedor Emelianenko remarks, I offer this:

Turns out Rich Franklin (25-4 MMA, 12-3 UFC) and Vitor Belfort (16-8 MMA, 7-4 UFC) won’t be having a light heavyweight matchup at UFC 103 as UFC president Dana White had announced on Friday. According to a post on Franklin’s Twitter account, the fight will be a catchweight showdown at 195 pounds as Belfort requested.

This is Franklin’s second straight bout at 195. He fought Wanderlei Silva to a unanimous-decision win at that weight at UFC 99 in June.

Belfort is a former UFC light heavyweight champ whose last two fights were both at 185 pounds and who was also scheduled for a middleweight bout with Sengoku Middleweight Grand Prix-winner Jorge Santiago at the now-canceled Affliction: Trilogy event. The Brazilian Pride veteran has looked very sharp as a middleweight, knocking out Terry Martin in the second round at Affliction: Banned with a flying knee and a series of punches, and destroying Matt Lindland in just 37 seconds at Affliction: Day of Reckoning.

So does this mean the UFC is considering creating a new 195-pound weight class? If so, while they’re at it, perhaps they could consider a super heavyweight class, say 245 and over. As it stands now, there can be as much as a 40-pound difference between two heavyweight fighters, which is a bit ridiculous and remains one of the last side effects of the early single-weight-class days of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Mark Hominick (16-8), a former UFC and WEC fighter from London, ON, who was slated to fight at Affliction: Trilogy, has signed a multi-fight deal with World Extreme Cagefighting and will debut at the organization’s WEC 43 show on September 2.

UFC president Dana White mentioned the signing during Friday’s media call, although no opponent has been scheduled for the featherweight bout.

Hominick returns to the WEC after a 19-month break, having last fought for the organization at WEC 32, where he suffered a first-round submission loss to Josh Grispi. He suffered a submission loss to Rani Yahya in his WEC debut at WEC 28.

Hominick also went 2-0 in the UFC with impressive wins over Jorge Gurgel and Yves Edwards and has won three of his last four fights, including a second-round submission victory over Savant Young at Affliction: Banned in July 2008.

White also revealed that L.C. Davis and Javier Vazquez have also signed WEC contracts while Paul Daley, Ben Rothwell, Chase Gormley, Dan Lauzon and Rafaello “Tractor” Oliveira are now with the UFC. Lauzon will likely face Oliveira at UFC 103. Both fighters were originally on the Affliction: Trilogy card, with Lauzon scheduled to face Hominick’s London training partner Chris Horodecki and Oliveira set to meet Takanori Gomi.

Oh, and White has no interest in re-signing former UFC and Affliction heavyweights Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski. No kidding.

Dave Meltzer over at Yahoo! Sports is reporting that Josh Barnett’s B sample has also tested positive for a banned steroid metabolite, according to the California State Athletic Commission.

Barnett’s initial failed drug test two weeks ago led to the cancellation of the August 1 Affliction: Trilogy event in which he was to headline in a bout with Fedor Emelianenko. And while of lot of people blame Barnett for the complete collapse of the Affliction promotion, it’s become clear that Affliction was already looking for an exit strategy via deals with Strikeforce or the UFC before the first test came back.

Barnett, who previously tested positive in 2001 and 2002, was the first MMA fighter tested out of competition in California under new regulations, while the steroid he used usually clears the system in 10 days, meaning that under the old system that would’ve tested him on fight day his sample probably would’ve come back negative.

And now, maybe, I can stop writing about Barnett, Fedor and steroids for awhile. That would be nice.

Or, more accurately, not much news:

The UFC has signed Affliction fighter Vitor Belfort and he’ll face Rich Franklin at 205 pounds at UFC 103, replacing Dan Henderson, who will have the next crack at middleweight champ Anderson Silva. The winner of UFC 101’s Nate Marquardt vs Demian Maia is also “in the mix.”

Tito Ortiz is officially back in the fold after receiving an offer he couldn’t refuse. While most speculated he’d face Franklin at UFC 103 it looks like his post-back surgery tune-up will likely come at the fists of Mark Coleman (exactly as I predicted here last night) sometime in November or December. Ortiz, who was also on the line, says he’s willing to move up to heavyweight and fight Brock Lesnar if he can dominate at light heavyweight first.

White says they offered Fedor Emelianenko everything except the co-promotion deal with M-1 Global: “These guys are going to come in and co-promote? How are they gonna co-promote anything? I’m going to give them 50 percent of my business? For what?”

White is also still talking a network TV deal, saying he’s “confident” it’ll happen. But when is White not confident about anything, like signing Fedor?

And yes, because UFC 100 had more than 1.5 million pay-per-view buys, White is going to make good on his promise to base jump off the top of the Mandalay Bay. “I’m gonna jump off that fucker. And I’m not looking forward to it.”

Sherdog has posted a video interview with Strikeforce’s answer to Dana White, the very low-key Scott Coker, about the whole Affliction-Strikeforce-Fedor Emelianenko business. The biggest insight Coker offers is the sense that he doesn’t really have a strong grasp of the state of the sport of MMA and the players involved (e.g. he suggests Fedor should face a Strikeforce fighter he’s never fought before, perhaps Fabricio Werdum, but then asks the interviewer to correct him as to whether Fedor and Werdum have ever fought. Ah, no Scott, Werdum hasn’t fought Fedor, but he did beat his little brother, Aleksander Emelianenko). And you wonder why no one can compete with the UFC…

A Fight Network-produced look at Affliction, from images of death on T-shirts to deadly knockouts to death throes to just plain dead.

The L.A. Times is quoting an unnamed source claiming that Fedor Emelianenko has signed a contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship. The story goes on to state that it’s expected UFC president Dana White will announce the deal at a Friday press conference. Unless Fedor beats him to the punch since he has a press conference scheduled for Wednesday in Anaheim, CA. (the L.A. Times makes no mention of this presser).

Unnamed source? Hate those. But the deal has been all but inevitable since Affliction folded last week. Now we can start tearing apart the Fedor vs. Brock Lesnar heavyweight bout that White has always said would be the Russian’s first fight in the UFC. So, who’s gonna win? Well, besides the fans who have been clamoring to see Fedor in the UFC for years.