When it was announced that Affliction was starting, I was skeptical that they would be able to do very well. I still have some doubts, but they do have a monster event lined up with some big names of their card. I will pay to watch these fights. They keep signing big time guys. They just signed Antonio Rogerio Nogueira yesterday, the brother of Minotauro Nogueira. I don’t fully understand this move on his part because all the light heavyweight competition is in the UFC. So things are looking good for Affliction. They have many good things that UFC doesn’t. 1. They are reportedly paying their fighters very well. Fedor will make over one million dollars and Sylvia can make one million with a win. 2. Their managment looks to be all busisness. My criticism of Dana White has been he doesn’t look like a commish. He often going on rants, he is proud, he will trash his fighters (e.g. Tito and Randy) ranther than taking the high ground, and he lets out more expletives that you can imagine which destorys any parent allowing their children to watch. 3. They are making good moves. Affliction will air the undercard of this event on Fox Sports Net. 4. They have built their hevayweight divison strong. They have Fedor, Barnett, Sylvia, Aleksander, Rothwell, maybe Arlovski, Buentello, and Rizzo. We know people like the heavyweights. They have recognized this. Affliction’s one problem is that many of their fighters are veterans. That may be good for locking up pay-per view buys, but they are older. This means that they may be past their primes. Time will tell if that is true or not. I have to say as a big UFC fan that I am excited for Affliction: Banned. Here is their July 19th card…
Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia
Josh Barnett vs. Pedro Rizzo
Matt Lindland vs. Fabio Negao
Ben Rothwell vs. TBA (Arlovski ?)
Aleksander Emelianenko vs. Paul Buentello
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Vernon White
Renato “Babalu” Sobral vs. Mike Whitehead
Mark Hominick vs. Savant Young
Brett Cooper vs. Mike Pyle
J.J. Ambrose vs. Patrick Speight
Ray Lazama vs. Justin Levens
Filed under: Affliction, Affliction: Banned, Aleksander Emelianenko, Andrei Arlovski, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Ben Rothwell, Fabio Negao, Fedor Emelianenko, Josh Barnett, Mark Hominick, Matt Lindland, Mike Whitehead, Paul Buentello, Pedro Rizzo, Renato "Babalu" Sorbal, Tim Sylvia | Tagged: Affliction, Aleksander Emelianenko, Andrei Arlovski, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Ben Rothwell, Fabio Negao, Fedor Emelianenko, Josh Barnett, Mark Hominick, Matt Lindland, Mike Pyle, Mike Whitehead, Paul Buentello, Pedro Rizzo, Renato "Babalu" Sorbal, Tim Sylvia
