Category — Affliction

Now that Brock Lesnar is the undisputed UFC heavyweight champ UFC president Dana White has no choice but to bring Fedor Emelianenko into the organization.

Emelianenko, who fights for Affliction, is widely considered the best heavyweight and one of the two or three best pound-for-pound fighters on the planet. He’s a former PRIDE heavyweight champion, has a 30-1 record and carries back-to-back Affliction wins over two former UFC champions (Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski) into his Aug. 1 battle with another former UFC champ, Josh Barnett.

If White wants to capitalize on Lesnar’s success, wants to keep pushing him as the best heavyweight in the world, he has to set up a fight with Fedor. The fans want it, and I’m pretty sure Lesnar wants it, given his ego. Hell, even Time freakin’ Magazine wants it. And now White himself is saying he wants it, too.

“Eventually, Fedor’s going to be here. I want Fedor. I want him to come to the UFC and everything else. [Lesnar] just became the heavyweight champion. We’ll end up getting that deal done. And then we’ll do Brock vs. Fedor, and it’ll be a huge fight,” White said during the UFC 100 post-fight press conference.

White has tried to land Fedor before but it’s never come together. White usually blames Fedor’s managers for demanding too much money or too many concessions (like a one-fight deal or an ability to also fight outside the UFC). As a result, White has often criticized the fighter, going so far as saying Emelianenko “sucks” while mocking past opponents such as giant kickboxer Hong Man Choi and Matt Lindland, who normally fights at middleweight.

Still, on Saturday, UFC principle owner Lorenzo Fertitta addressed the signing Fedor with the L.A. Times.

“Right now, Fedor’s completely irrelevant to the public,” Fertitta said. “His pay-per-view numbers have been 12,000, 30,000, and now Affliction is saying he’ll get 100,000 [against Josh Barnett]. I’ll take the under-70,000. We average 500,000 buys and we expect 1 million for this one. Fedor wants to use UFC for a fight to be relevant, and then leave and do his own thing. That’s not our business model.”

“We spend more money for marketing than anyone has ever spent on Fedor,” Fertitta said. “If I bring in Fedor, we’ll make him the most recognizable face in MMA, but we also want to recoup on our investment. You wouldn’t sign Tom Brady for one game. So why do I want to sign this guy for one fight?”

Good point. So bringing Fedor into the UFC is far from a done deal no matter how badly the fans, Lesnar or White want it to happen.

And what if Barnett somehow manages to dethrone the Last Emperor at Affliction on Aug. 1? Does that mean we’ll see him back in the UFC? White says not a chance. The reason? “No one’s beating down my door to get Barnett,” White said.

Sam Stout’s Adrenaline MMA pal Mark Hominick (16-8) finally has an opponent for his Affliction: Trilogy bout next moth. The former UFC and WEC fighter will step in against IFL veteran Deividas Taurosevicius (10-3) in an undercard featherweight matchup that was first reported by ESPN’s Between Rounds radio program.

The Aug. 1 event’s main event is a five-round heavyweight title fight between WAMMA champion Fedor Emelianenko and Josh Barnett.

Hominick, who trains under Xtreme Couture’s Shawn Tompkins and is also an instructor at Xtreme Couture Toronto, makes his second appearance for Affliction. His first fight, at Affliction: Banned in July 2008, saw him submit Savant Young in the second round. Taurosevicius, meanwhile, makes his Affliction debut. Great name, btw, Taurosevicius. Sounds like the dangerous end of a nasty bull.

The UFC wants you to believe that the UFC 100 clash between Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir will be a battle to determine the best heavyweight fighter in the world. Never mind that WAMMA heavyweight champ Fedor Emelianenko is widely considered the best pound-for-pound fighter bar none. (At the very least, he’s top-three.)

Well, there seems to be a campaign – call it underground, call it viral, call it brilliant corporate counter-marketing, call it whatever – to give fans attending UFC 100 free Affliction T-shirts, Affliction being the rival fight organization for which Fedor fights. The plan also involves getting fans to chant Fedor’s name during the live pay-per-view broadcast, which may necessitate Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan amping up their banter to 11 to drown it out.

Here’s a link to the video of Chris Horodecki submitting William Sriyapai at last weekend’s Ultimate Chaos event that I wrote about a few days ago. A solid puncher not known for his ground game, the Polish Hammer looked pretty confidant in this one. He faces Joe Lauzon (a far bigger test than Sriyapai) on the next Affliction card in August. Horodecki was to have fought Lauzon at Affliction: Day of Reckoning in January but had to withdraw at the last minute because of a bulging disc in his neck.

Gotta say the Aug.1 Affliction: Trilogy card isn’t exactly lighting a fire under me. Beyond the Fedor Emelianenko vs. Josh Barnett title bout and maybe the Gegard Mousasi vs. Renato “Babalu” Sobral bout, what’s to get excited about? Certainly not Paul Daley vs. Jay Hieron or Vitor Belfort vs. Jorge Santiago (although Dana White is working hard to line up a fight between Belfort and UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva, so that does make this fight against Santiago a bit of a curiousity).

And using Fedor’s pummelling of Tim Sylvia to open this promo video doesn’t exactly inspire me, either. OK, it was a dominant win – a beatdown – but Tim Sylvia? Really? Didn’t he just get knocked the fuck out in 10 seconds by a senior citizen? Why not use Fedor’s much more impressive one-punch flattening of Andre Arlovski? What – Arlovski has been dumped by Affliction because he keeps getting knocked out? Oh… And pumping up Barnett by saying he’s the one guy out there with the tools to beat Fedor? The one guy not fighting in the UFC, they mean, right?

Actually, I’m much more interested in a couple of the undercard fights involving Xtreme Couture Toronto instructors. Former IFLer Chris Horodecki will face Dan Lauzon while UFC vet Mark Hominick’s opponent is still TBA. Gotta cheer for the locals.

Affliction’s PR description of Josh Barnett sounds like it’s hyping a Hollywood blockbuster:

“With his chiseled jaw and Mr. Incredible looks, Josh “The Babyfaced Assassin” Barnett could be the leading man in a Hollywood film or a character straight out of the anime that he loves so much. He has a superhero frame—at 6’3”, 250 pounds, one can almost picture the “Babyfaced Assassin” wrapped in a cape, standing atop a tall building, scanning the city below for any evil doers. He is a well-spoken, charismatic figure whose persona is as compelling as his impressive fight record.”

Although I can kinda see the Mr. Incredible resemblance. Sorta.