The Nail in Affliction’s Coffin

As Affliction readies for their second MMA card they have released their fight card (posted below)  It looks like there are a couple of good fights on “The Day of Reckoning” card, however they made some huge mistakes. 

1. Their choice of fights for the pay per view card.  I think they made a big mistake making two cards so distinct like they did.  They have their pay per view card and their HDNet card.  While, I appreicate that it means that all the fights will be televised, they made a mistake with their line up.  The bottom line is that if Affliction wants to hang around they MUST have good fights.  I think there are 3 really good fights on this card and only 2 others worth watching.  The really good fights: Fedor vs. Arlovski, Lindland vs. Belfort and Nogueira vs. Matyushenko.  Someone please tell me why in the heck is a Chris Horodecki vs. Dan Lauzon fight making the pay per view card over Nogueira vs. Matyushenko?  For that matter why in the world would Babalu vs. Sokoudjou make it into the broadcast over Nog vs. Matyushenko?  I am not done.  Why would Josh Barnett vs. Gilbert Yvel be the choise over Nogueira vs. Matyushenko?  I know they want a headliner for HDNet, but they need buys.  Nog vs. Matyushenko has a story – it’s a re-match.  It has two top twenty light heavyweights.  Nogueira has huge name recognition.  Bad move Affliction.  There is one nail in your coffin and one reason I will no pay for those fights.  Horodecki vs. Lauzon is laughable.  They are not even top 40 lightweights in the world.  Come on. 

2. Their Competition.  The bottom line is that the economy is in bad shape and it can affect pay per view buys for MMA events.  In January I will have to budget which events to buy.  Here is the line up for January.  January 17th is UFC 93 headlined by Rich Franklin vs. Dan Henderson with Shogun vs. Mark Coleman.  Affliction 2: Day of Reckoning is on January 17th and is headlined by Fedor vs. Arlovski, which is very interesting.  UFC 94 follows on January 31st features B.J. Penn vs. Georges St. Pierre.  Listen if you can afford a pay per view 3 times in January…more power to you.  I can’t.  Let’s just say for the sake of it that you will order 2 events in January, which ones will you order?  GSP vs. Penn is a no brainer.  That means it is between Fedor vs, Arlovski and Franklin vs. Henderson.  The main event may favor Affliction, but the whole card and name recognition favors UFC 93.  Not to mention the fact that people can get their MMA fix the day after the Affliction card from WEC 38, which features Jamie Varner vs. Donald Cerrone and Urijah Faber vs. Jens Pulver.  Also, WEC 38 may add Carlos Condit to the card.  On top of that…add in the fact that about 28 days before Affliction’s card UFC 92 airs on Pay Per View.  Oh yeah, your co-promoter, Golden Boy has a big boxing event that same night 30 minutes away.  Ouch, that hurts. Sorry Affliction that is 2 nails in your coffin.

3.  Their marketing.  Enough said.  They cannot compete with the UFC.  The casual fan will not know about or will not remember the Affliction event in light of the upcoming super fight with Penn and St. Pierre.  Further confusion is cast with the distinction of the HDNet card vs. pay per view card.  My prediction is that Affliction’s rating stink and this is the third nail in their coffin.  As they say in baseball…3 strikes you are out!

Pay Per View Card:

Fedor Emelianenko vs.  Andrei Arlovski

Josh Barnett vs.  Gilbert Yvel

Renato Sobral vs.  Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou

Matt Lindland vs.  Vitor Belfort

Chris Horodecki vs.  Dan Lauzon

HDNet Broadcast:

Vladimir Matyushenko vs.  Antonio Rogerio Nogueira

Jay Hieron vs.  Jason High

Mark Hominick vs.  LC Davis

Albert Rios vs. Antonio Duarte

Breaking Down the UFC Middleweight Division

The Champion: Anderson Silva

The Top Contender: ?

The Next Tier:

·         Yushin Okami

·         Nate Marquardt

·         Michael Bisping

·         Dan Henderson

·         Demian Maia

·         Thales Leites

·         Patrick Cote

·         Chael Sonnen

 

On the Rise: 

·         Demian Maia

·         Michael Bisping

 

Other Notables:

·         Denis Kang

·         Rousimar Palhares

·         Martin Kampmann

·         Chris Leben

·         Ricardo Almeida

·         Nate Quarry

·         Jason MacDonald

·         Wilson Gouveia

·         Goran Reljic

·         Dan Miller

·         Dean Lister

·         Kendall Grove

·         Alan Belcher

·         Ed Herman

·         Jorge Rivera

·         Alessio Sakara

·         C.B. Dolloway

·         Mike Massenzio

·         Matt Horwich

·         Jake Rosholt

·         Amir Sadollah

 

Scheduled Fights:

·         Nate Loughran vs. Tim Credeur at UFC Fight Night 16 on December 10

·         Jason MacDonald vs. Wilson Gouveia at TUF 8 Finale on December 13

·         Yushin Okami vs. Dean Lister at UFC 92 on December 27

·         C.B. Dolloway vs. Mike Massenzio at UFC 92 on December 27

·         Denis Kang vs. Alan Belcher at UFC 93 on January 17

 

Match Ups I’d Like to See:

·         Yushin Okami vs. Anderson Silva

·         Thales Leites vs. Rousimar Palhares

·         Demian Maia vs. Michael Bisping

 

Other Thoughts:

·         The UFC Middleweight division is very, very underrated!  I believe it is because of Anderson Silva’s dominance.  The middleweight division does not have a clear number 1 contender, but from top to bottom I would put this division with any.  Albeit, the UFC’s competitors have some middleweight talents in the likes of guys like Gegard Mousasi, Jacare, Vitor Belfort, Matt Lindland, Jorge Santiago,and  Kazuo Misaki.  Not to mention the few solid middleweights from EliteXC such as Robbie Lawler, Joey Villasenor, Scott Smith, Frank Shamrock and Benji Radach.  The UFC is sure to pick some of those guys up

·         Rumor has it the UFC is in negotiations with top middleweight Yoshihio Akiyama.  I do not know if they call pull him away from DREAM and Sengoku, but that would be a huge add. 

·         The middleweight division is growing with adds like signing Denis Kang, the move of WEC’s division which will add Chael Sonnen and Jake Rosholt as well as guys like Aaron Simpson and Danillo Vilefort likely to come over.

·         Paulo Filho will not be in the UFC…yet.

·         TUF 9 will feature middleweight coaches with Michael Bisping being a lock.  The other names being thrown around are Dan Henderson, Rich Franklin, Nate Marquardt and even Demian Maia

Evaluating Affliction

One of the questions that I keep thinking about is whether or not Affliction in here to stay and whether or not they will compete with the UFC.  No one disagrees that UFC is the standard of MMA right now, but Affliction is making up ground quickly.  It has been a tell tale sign of a slight change that Affliction has signed so many guys lately including many of the stars from the now defunt IFL, which was bought by the parent company of the UFC, Zuffa.  Affliction has signed Champs Roy Nelson and Vladimir Matyushenko.  They have signed lightweight star Chris Horodecki and are rumored to have welterweight champ Jay Hieron.  Affliction is cleaning up the free agents and doing better in that regard than even the UFC as of late.  So, what is there to judge a promotion…

1. Fighter Talent – Fight promotions are fight promotions.  There are other factors that come into play, but primarily if a promotion does not have top level talent they will not stay relevant.

2. Show Quality –  While good fighters is essential, the promotion must put on a good show.  They must entertain fans.  This includes exciting fights, good commentators and a solid show production.  Promotions have to build shows people will come to or buy.

3.  Solid Managment –  Managment is important to a fight promotion, not just anyone can do it.  A promotion may suceed or fail based ont he business savvy of the fight promoter or president.  The PR, fighter pay, contracts, TV deals, etc. all come into play here.

With that said, let’s see how Affliction is doing…

1. Fighter Talent…

There is a lot of hype around Affliction’s fighter talent.  Here is who I can think of off hand that they have and will use on their cards

• Fedor Emelianenko
• Andrei Arlovski
• Josh Barnett
• Tim Sylvia
• Ben Rothwell
• Roy Nelson
• Pedro Rizzo
• Paul Buentello
• Aleksander Emelianenko
• Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
• Tito Ortiz
• Vladimir Matyushenko
• Renato “Babalu” Sobral
• Mike Whitehead
• Edwin DeWees
• Vernon White
• Vitor Belfort
• Matt Lindland
• Jay Hieron
• Mike Pyle
• J.J. Ambrose
• Chris Horodecki

I went to HDNet’s Rankings to see how many Affliction Fighters were ranked in the top 100 pound for pound or top in their divisons  here is the results.

(Pound for Pound Rank, Divison Rank)

Fedor Emelianenko (2, 1)

Andrei Arlovski (25, 4)

Josh Barnett (27, 5)

Tim Sylvia (55, 7)

Ben Rothwell (81, 12)

Roy Nelson (84, 13)

Pedro Rizzo (NR, 19)

Paul Buentello (NR, NR)

Aleksander Emelianenko (76, 10)

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (85, 13)

Tito Ortiz (87, 15)

Vladimir Matyushenko (66, 12)

Renato “Babalu” Sobral (92, 16)

Mike Whitehead (NR, NR)

Edwin DeWees (NR, NR)

Vernon White (NR, NR)

Vitor Belfort (NR, NR) – Unfairly I’d admit

Matt Lindland (22, 5)

Jay Hieron (59, 11)

Mike Pyle (NR, NR)

J.J. Ambrose (NR, NR)

Chris Horodecki (NR, NR)

Put this into perspective, out of the top 100 the promotions faires like this in pound for pound top 100 fighters…

• UFC -39
• Affliction – 13
• DREAM -12
• WEC – 10
• EliteXC – 10
• Strikeforce – 5
• World Victory Road – 3

The point is that Affliction’s talent is overrated. 

• They are right about the level of DREAM talent wise
• They are no where near the talent level of the UFC
• 10 of the Affliction guys that appeared on the rankings list have fought in the UFC before.  Some have been sucessful.  There are several former UFC champs (Sylvia, Barnett, Rizzo, Ortiz and Arlovski), however most of them did no better than fair in the UFC (see Matyushenko, Hieron, et. al)
• Most of the top Affliction guys are in the second half of their careers and are past their prime.  They still have fight left in them, don’t get me wrong, but not for the long haul
• What happens if two or three of those gusy get injured?  Affliction is hanging their hat on Fedor, Barnett, Arlovski and Ortiz.  They cannot keep putting everyone on every card, they will run out of match-ups.
• To their credit, they can put on good fights.  The talent isn’t bad.  Their guys can fight exciting fighter, but they have exciting fights at tough man competitions. They need to sign younger talent and more talent.

Show Quality…

• I cannot judge them solely on their sole show.  Affliction needs to improve their show quality as far as commentating, interviews and production is concerned
• Also, I thought with the exception of the last 3 fights the card wasn’t what it was billed to be
• They are nowhere near the UFC level as far as enjoyability to watch

Solid Managment:

• The UFC with Dana White and the Fertitas is still the managment standard.  I have problems with the UFC and Dana White’s managing style.  I don’t like his constant expletives, I don’t like the way he trashes other promotions, I don’t like the stubborness he exhibits with signing guys like Lindland and Barnett, and even Fedor.  However, Dana is crafty.  Atencio is no Dana White.  Watch his video below where he can’t remember Josh Barnett’s name and he is the main event for the second show. 
• Affliction does have the deep pocketed Donald Trump behind them which helps.  Trump is a business guiness, but he doesn’t neccessarily know MMA.  The money helps thought he same way it helped having Lorezon and Frank in the UFC early days when they lost tons of money.

Here is the point folks…Affliction is a solid upstart company.  They may be around for a while, but before we jump ont he bandwagon and label them peers to the UFC and competitors to the UFC let them get through a few shows first.  Let’s see how much money they lose after 3 events.  Let’s see how many fights they can do after 3 card.  They could compete, but as for now it is the UFC and then everyone else.  Zuffa is sitting pretty in the MMA world.  They are the big leagues, everything else is just the minors.  Affliction, EliteXC and DREAM are in the same boat and in a year from now at least one of them will be non-existent.

Best Non-UFC Fighters

Here are the best non-UFC fighters.  This shows where the UFC is stacked and where they lack.  There competition is mainly in Affliction at heavyweight and DREAM at lightweight.  Here are the best non-UFC guys that the UFC should look to sign if possible. 

Rank	Heavyweight	Light Heavy	Middleweight	Welterweight	Lightweight
1	Fedor Emelianenko	Antonio Rogerio Nogueira	Paulo Filho	Jake Shields	Takanori Gomi
2	Andrei Arlovski	Ricardo Arona	Matt Lindland	Carlos Condit	Shinya Aoki
3	Josh Barnett	Rafael Feijao	Robbie Lawler	Jay Hieron	JZ Calvancante
4	Tim Sylvia	Vladimir Matyushenko	Kazuo Misaki	Nick Thompson	Eddie Alvarez
5	Ben Rothwell	Babalu Sobral	Gegard Mousasi	Mach Sakurai	Mitsuhiro Ishida
6	Mirko Cro Cop	Tito Ortiz	Vitor Belfort	Mike Pyle	Joachim Hansen
7	Roy Nelson	Steve Cantwell	“Jacare” de Sousa		Tatsuya Kawajiri
8	Aleks Emelianenko	Brian Stann	Jason Miller		Josh Thomson
9	Antonio Silva		Melvin Manhoef		Gilbert Melendez
10	Alistair Overeem		Murilio Rua		Vitor Ribeiro
11			Cung Le		Jamie Varner
12			Denis Kang		Ryan Schultz
13			Joey Villasenor		KJ Noons
14			Frank Shamrock		Nick Diaz
15			Yoshihiro Akiyama		Caol Uno
16			Jorge Santiago
17			Chael Sonnen

MMA News: Vitor Belfort vs. Matt Lindland at Affliction 2

I figured following Affliction’s debut card that Belfort would end up fighting Lindland.  Belfort will not only be fighting at Affliction’s second show, which is tentatively scheduled for October 11, his opponent will be top ten middleweight Matt Lindland, and it will be for a title.  This should be a very exciting fight.  It looks like Affliction is going to put together another solid card.  Apparently, money is a big problem already, but Affliction 2 will be headlined by Fedor Emelianenko vs. Andrei Arlovski.  That is a much more exciting bout than Fedor vs. Sylvia and Arlovski will pose more problems than Sylvia did.  Also it is rumored that the card could be co-headlined by Babalu vs. Tito Ortiz.  I still think Nogueira should be the one to get Ortiz, but whatever.  The news here is not Ortiz, but it is Belfort vs. Lindland.  A solid fight.

MMA News: Fedor vs. Arlovski on October 11

It looks like Affliction’s next card will be held on October 11th in Las Vegas.  Affliction reps said that the winners of the “Banned” card would be used at their next event.  Some of the match ups seem to be coming to fruition.  It looks like a fight between heavyweights Andrei Arlovski and Fedor Emelianenko is likely.  Fedor is widely considered the best heavyweight in the world and the best pound for pound fighter in the world.  He held the PRIDE heavyweight title and is coming off of a dominant win over heavyweight great Tim Sylvia in just 36 seconds.  Andrei Arlovski, the Belarussian is also coming off of a win against Ben Rothwell at Affliction: Banned.  Arlovski is a former UFC champion and a consensus top 5 heavyweight.  This willbe an even bigger test for Fedor.  I like the fight between the Russian and Belarussian, however I think the Fedor fight should have gone to Josh Barnett first. 

    Also, it seem that on that card a bout between Matt Lindland and Vitor Belfort is coming.  Babalu wants to fight Tito Ortiz, and that would be a good fight, but I hope Antonio Rogerio Nogueira gets his pick first at who he wants.  He is Affliction’s best light heavyweight, not Babalu, and not even Tito if he signs.

Affliction: Banned Fighter Salaries

The pay of the fighters is the disclosed amount to the CSAC.  The fighters likely were paid more than that when you include other bonuses and sponsor’s pay. 

A few thoughts on the pay of the Affliction fighters…

·         The pay was very, very high in contrast to even UFC fighters.  For example, Matt Lindlad took home $100,000 more than Anderson Silva did for his fight on the same night. 

·         Fedor was grossly underpaid in comparison to other fighters.  I thought he was making more than $1 million for this fight.  Perhaps he is. 

·         Tim Sylvia is very overpaid

·         Some fighters by this scale were still overpaid

·         Some fighters by this scale were still underpaid.  I am shocked Nogueira only made $50,000, the same amount as Mike Whitehead. 

·         I don’t know what UFC fighters come away with, but the biggest competition Affliction will give the UFC is fighter pay

·         It will be hard for them to cover this financially.  God thing they have Trump. 

 

Tim Sylvia: $800,000

Andrei Arlovski: $750,000 (includes $250,000 win bonus)

Fedor Emelianenko: $300,000 (no win bonus)
Josh Barnett: $300,000 (no win bonus)

Matt Lindland: $300,000 (includes $75,000 win bonus)

Ben Rothell: $250,000

Vitor Belfort: $140,000 (includes $70,000 win bonus)

Renato “Babalu” Sobral: $90,000 (includes $30,000 win bonus)

Paul Buentello: $80,000 (includes $20,000 win bonus)
Pedro Rizzo: $70,000

Mike Whitehead: $50,000

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira: $50,000 (no win bonus)

Terry Martin: $30,000

Gary Goodridge: $25,000

Fabio Nascimento: $20,00O
Mike Pyle: $20,000 (includes $5,000 win bonus)

Edwin Dewees: $15,000

Mark Hominick: $10,000 (includes $5,000 win bonus)
Savant Young: $7,000

Justin Levens: $6000
JJ Ambrose: $5,000

Ray Lizama: $3,000

Total Payout

A disclosed total of $3,332,100 was paid out to the fighters.

Live Gate:

Paid attendance: 11,242
Complimentary attendance: 3,590
Total attendance: 14,832

Gross receipt from ticket sales (live gate): $2,085,510

My Thoughts on Affliction: Banned

Let me share the negatives first:

• The fights went as expected.  Out of the 9 fights that I predicted I got 9 right.  There were not any upsets
• The announcers were sub par to say the least
• I did not like that fights were cancelled last second like the Aleksander Emelianenko fight, it seemed to show some disorder
• I thought the fights were slow paced, but the last 3 fights were good as was the Nogueira fight and the Belfort fight.

The Good:

• Fedor.  Let the debate begin as to who the number one pound for pound fighter is.  Only two names are in the discussion (Anderson Silva and Fedor Emelianenko).  In my opinion, both guys helped plead their cases for that title last night.  Fedor crushed Silva.  I didn’t expect that bad of a beating.  I picked Fedor, but I thought it would last more than one minute.  Fedor beat Sylvia easier than he beat Hong Man Choi.  He punched him and dropped him.  He did what Randy could not do and that is finish the fight with Sylvia.  Fedor was the highlight of the show
• Josh Barnett looked great.  I know many people want to see Fedor vs. Couture next, and Randy was even brought into the ring to hype that fight, but Josh Barnett may be deserving of that fight.  The next card may feature Barnett vs. Arlovski and Couture vs. Fedor with the winners squaring off on the third card. 
• Arlovski looked imrpessive as well.  He looked better than he had previously in the last few fights in the UFC.  His boxing looked crisp and good.
• Vitor Belfort is back.  He looked great at 185.  I’d love to see Lindland vs. Belfort at 185.  Affliction has said they will likely use the winners of these fights on their next card, that fight is very possible.
• Congrats to Paul Buentello, Babalu, Matt Lindland, and Mike Pyle who also won as expected. 
• Apparently they sold out with over 13,000 people in attendance.  The crowd was loud at times.

If Affliction is going to use winners of this card to set up match ups for the next card the card could look like this:

• Fedor Emelianenko vs. Randy Couture
• Josh Barnett vs. Andrei Arlovski
• Matt Lindland vs. Vitor Belfort
• Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Renato “Babalu” Sobral
• Tim Sylvia vs. Ben Rothwell
• Paul Buentello vs. Aleksander Emelianenko

My Affliction: Banned Predictions

Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia

I believe this to be an interesting fight.  I also think that Fedor’s last fight with Hong Man Choi was a great prep course for Tim Sylvia.  The biggest problem Fedor will have with Tim Sylvia is his size.  Sylvia is 6’9″  He is huge.  Fedor will want to take this fight down to the ground, and I imagine that he will do it.  Tim has no ground game at all.  I don’t know how long it will take Fedor to get the fight down, but once he gets it down the fight won’t last long.  I pick Fedor Emelianenko to win this fight in round 2. 

Andrei Arlovski vs. Ben Rothwell

I know many people like Ben Rothwell, and that many rank him highly among the heavyweights, but I honestly do not know how good he is.  I do know how good Arlovski can be.  He hasn’t looked great lately, but he is by far the most talented guy Rothwell has fought.  I think Arlovski will win by TKO in round 3.

Josh Barnett vs. Pedro Rizzo

Barnett is looking for redemption.  In my opinion, Rizzo is not in his prime any more.  Barnett is very talented and very experienced.  I do not see Rizzo beating Barnett again.  I think that Josh Barnett wins this fight by unanimous decision.

Matt Lindland vs. Fabio Negao

This is a mis-match.  Lindland is one of the best 185ers in the world.  Fabio is unknown.  Lindland may have been too busy lately with politics to train the right way for this fight, but I don’t think it will matter here.  Lindland will win this fight by submission in round 1.

Renato “Babalu” Sobral vs. Mike Whitehead

Mike Whitehead was a UFC flop.  Babalu is very good.  Babalu will submit Whitehead in round 2.

Paul Buentello vs. Aleksander Emelianenko

Don’t overlook this Emelianenko.  He is a good fighter in his own right.  Aleks wins by decision.

Vitor Belfort vs. Terry Martin

Vitor at 185?  Believe it.  He has been an up and down guy and so has Terry Martin.  Terry Martin is not bad, but Belfort is very good.  I think belfort will KO Martin in round 1. 

Edwin Dewees vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira

Don’t overlook this Nogueira.  He is not a bad fighter in his own right.  This is a huge mismatch.  Nog is btter than DeWees.  Edwin hasn’t had proper time to prepare.  Nogueira will win this fight easily. 

Ray Lazama vs. Justin Levens

J.J. Ambrose vs. Mike Pyle

Mark Hominick vs. Savant Young

Affliction News: Fedor vs. Sylvia for Heavyweight Title

It seems that the Fedor vs. Sylvia fight will be for a Heavyweight title.  Most belts outside the UFC mean very little, but this would be prominent because Affliction is stacked at Heavyweight.  Perhaps this would also be for the top heavyweight spot.  I don’t know if a win makes Sylvia the best heavyweight, in fact I think it makes Randy Couture the best heavyweight, but Sylvia is up there win or lose.  Also the Affliction: Banned card is shaping up nicely.  Recently a middleweight bout has been added between Vitor Belfot and Terry Martin. 

Here Are my Affliction Rankings by divison:

Heavyweight:

1. Fedor Emelianenko

2. Tim Sylvia

3. Josh Barnett

4. Andrei Arlovski

5. Ben Rothwell

6. Aleksander Emelianenko

7. Pedro Rizzo

8. Paul Buentello

Light Heavyweight

1. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira

2. Renato “Babalu” Sobral

3. Mike Whitehead

4. Vernon White

Middleweight

1. Matt Lindland

2. Vitor Belfort

3. Terry Martin

4. Fabio Negao

Welterweight

1. Mike Pyle

2. J.J. Ambrose

Donald Trump and Affliction

It has been learned that multi millionaire Donald Trump has some involvment with the upstart MMA promotion Affliction.  Affliction will host a huge show on July 19th featuring many great fighters.  MMARated reports:

at tomorrow’s Affliction press conference in Manhattan, Donald Trump will be announcing that former UFC heavyweight champion, Andrei Arlovski, has officially signed with the upstart promotion. The Executive Vice President of The Trump Organization and the Special Counsel to Donald J. Trump, Michael D. Cohen, confirmed the news with MMARated.com.

It has long been rumored that Arlovski would be facing Ben Rothwell on the inaugural Affliction card but Mr. Cohen would not officially comment on when “The Pit Bull” would be making his debut. We should, however, find out more tomorrow.

Trump will also announce that he has become an equity partner in the Affliction promotion. When asked what percentage of the organization he now owns, Mr. Cohen would only say “a significant amount.”

Finally, when asked if Trump’s relationship with Tito Ortiz would help bring the former UFC light heavyweight champion to Affliction, Cohen said:

“Everything that Donald Trump does is the biggest and the best and the “Afflcition: Banned” show will be just that.

Due to the status of the Trump mark, and Donald Trump as a mogul business man, Mr. Trump has received dozens of phone calls from fighters who are interested in joining the Affliction family.”

Obviously, the point is that Donald Trump has deep pockets.  That will obviously help Affliction.  Many fighting promotions get off to a bad start, but not Affliction.  It seems that financially Trump will be willing to invest in them.  Also, is addition to the money Trump has the know how to run a busisness and run it well.  He will be a bonus for Affliction.  The upstart promotion is also expected to officially announce what I reported several days ago, that Andrei Arlovski was signed to a deal and would take on Ben Rothwell.  Affliction has many good fighters and a good card set up.  Their divisons look like this:

Heavyweight:

1. Fedor Emelianenko

2. Tim Sylvia

3. Josh Barnett

4. Andrei Arlovski

5. Ben Rothwell

6. Aleksander Emelianenko

7. Pedro Rizzo

8. Paul Buentello

Light HeavyWeight

1. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira

2. Renato “Babalu” Sobral

3. (Possibly Tito Ortiz)

4. Mike Whitehead

5. Vernon White

Obviously, following that they do not have much competiton in the other weight classes.  Also, we may wonder how many possible match-ups can they have with 8 Heavyweights.  They do have some solid big guys, they have 6 top ten type fighters in the world.  I expect that they sign more fighters as time goes on.  The age and mileage on the guys they have is a worry for me, but the July 19th fights ought to be good and we ought to see not only good Affliction match-ups, but also good inter-promotional match-ups.  Affliction could make the Couture vs. Fedor fight happen.  Affliction could utilize other guys as well from organizations willing to work with others like EliteXC, Strikeforce, DREAM, and IFL.  With the Donald on their side Affliction instantly became a competitor with the UFC in the likeness of PRIDE.  They will attract fighters on the promise of better pay and better treatment as well as flexibility to work with other promotions.  I don’t look for Affliction to flop quickly.

If I Could…

Okay, let me play dreamer for a minute.  If I was employed by the UFC and I could sign 3 guys from each weight class, who would I sign…?

Heavyweight:

• Fedor Emelianenko
• Josh Barnett
• Randy Couture

Also Considered: Roy Nelson, Brett Rogers, and Ben Rothwell

Light Heavyweight:

• Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
• Ricardo Arona
• Valdimir Matyushenko

(Also Considered: Babalu and Brian Stann)

Middleweight:

• Ronaldo “Jacare” de Souza
• Paulo Filho
• Robbie Lawler

Also Considered: Lindland and Jason “Mayhem” Miller

Welterweights:

• Jay Hieron
• Jake Shields
• Carlos Condit

Also Considered: Hayato Sakurai and Nick Thompson

Lightweights

• Takanori Gomi
• Gilbert Melendez
• Gesias Calvancante

Also Considered: Eddie Alvarez and Shinya Aoki and Urijah Faber if he would move up

My Thoughts on Affliction

Affliction looks to be doing great.  They have a host of recognizable names under contract and Affliction: Banned on July 19th looks to be a good card.  I cannot guarantee much, but I can promise half the guys on their card will win their fights.  Affliction seems to have signed two more notable guys to fight on that card in Andrei Arlovski and Vitor Belfort.  Just look at who they have signed it looks like an all star cast: Fedor, Tim Sylvia, Ben Rothwell, Josh Barnett, Arlovski, Belfort, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Babalu, Mike Pyle, Mike Whitehead, Matt Lindland, Fabio Negao, Pedro Rizzo, and Aleksander Emelianenko.  They may not be done either.  I think they could sign Tito Ortiz.  Here are my thoughts.  Affliction’s roster kind of reminds me of the senior circuit of professional golf.  If ten years ago you looked at a senior gold tournament you may have seen names like Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, and Gary Player along with a host of other well known guys, but they are in the senior circuit because they cannot compete with the younger guys anymore.  Now, I know some of Affliction’s guys can compete with anyone still, but none are up and coming.  They are all here and going.  Even their best guys are beyond their prime.  Don’t get me wrong they will attract crowds and make interesting match ups.  I will order it and watch with excitment, but I still think they are overrated.  Look at who they have signed…

Fedor: Universally ranked as the best heavyweight in the world, but refuses to fight top level competiton.  Sylvia will be the best guy he has fought in a while.  He could be the best heavyweight in the world, but he hasn’t proven it yet.

Sylvia:  Lost to Nogueira and Couture.  Is probably past his prime and when he gets on the ground he is done for.  He is over the hill. 

Lindland: More interested in politics then fighting now, and that is not an insult.  He is still a top 10 middleweight, but he isn’t going to be forever. 

Barnett: He isn’t old, but he has fighter mileage on him.  How much longer can he go

Pedro Rizzo: 5 years ago this would have been huge

Arlovski: Has been fairly boring in his last few fights. He isn’t the Arlovski of old. 

Belfort: Way past his prime.  Still can probably fight though.

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Aleksander Emelianenko: In the shadow of their brothers.  Both are good and maybe underrated, but neither are their brothers.

Okay, so their guys will win fights.  Some are top ten guys for now, but the fact is they won’t be for much longer.  These guys are all on borrowed time.  Perhaps Affliction will attract more fighters and compete well with the UFC, but right now they are nothing more than the sernior circuit of MMA.   Go ahead sign the MMA stars of five years ago.  Go sign Cro Cop and Ortiz.  You may put one some good cards and make some money.  I will watch and see some good fights, but I am not watching to see the stars of MMA, I am watching because I am nostalgic.  If Affliction wants to do great it needs to develop talent.  These guys they have signed are just a band aid and will keep them going for a while, but not forever.

MMA News: Vitor Belfort to Affliction

Vitor Belfort is rumored to be fighting in Affliction the next day July 19. The big suprise was the category in which Belfort will fight, the Middleweight.  The Affliction card is already stacked and full of notable MMA names…

Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia

Ben Rothwell vs. Andrei Arlovski

Josh Barnett vs. Pedro Rizzo

Matt Lindland vs. Fabio Negao

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Vernon White

Renato “Babalu” Sobral vs. Mike Whitehead

Paul Buentello vs. Aleksander Emelianenko

Brett Cooper vs. Mike Pyle

Vitor Belfort vs. ?

 

Affliction…

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