Death of Affliction

Hello MMA fans, let me inform you yet again on another week of absolute madness in the world of professional fighting. As I sit and watch the replay of DREAM 10 on HDNET, I wonder about the status of MMA promotions outside of the UFC. How are there finances, there fan bases, the quality of fighters they have under contact and of course their marketing. I can wonder about all of these things, and as soon as I do, I seem to have my questions answered by the promotions I wonder about.

Out of all my questions I have, I have never thought about the status of if someone will fight in a main event. To me, fighting is a business opportunity and a battle inside each fighter to prove that they are unafraid of any challenge in front of them. The challenge that lay before Affliction this past week was to find someone who was willing to accomplish both of these opportunities represented by the fight game in the main event of the promotions third event. The opponent to who ever were brave enough (or stupid enough) was Fedor Emelianeko who has only lost one fight in his career.

Affliction did not just set a fight between Fedor and an unmentioned fighter then schedule rest of the card around Fedor, or did they? Honestly everyone knew that Fedor would be fighting, after all he has been involved in both of the Affliction events, because he was there main attraction. Did I say “was”? Yes, because since the promotion could not find an opponent for Fedor, the clothing brand has decided to dismantle is MMA promotion and stick to what made it famous in the first place.

 The original fight to take place at this event was between Fedor and former UFC heavyweight champ Josh Barnett. Barnett however was forced to withdraw from the fight because he had tested positive for a banned substance. This is the second time Barnett had tested positive for such a substance as he had to relinquish the UFC title before he could defend it for the first time in the early days of the UFC. Since this news broke, Affliction had been looking desperately for a replacement fighter, someone to just keep fans interested, a potential lamb for the slaughter.

 Many names had been thrown around including Bobby Lashley, King Mo Lawal, and Vitor Belfort who was already on the Affliction card and scheduled to fight at 185 pounds. And like I said the pro fighting is about two things, some of the named fighters were willing to fight in order to challenge themselves, but no one person was willing to go after the huge purse that was being tossed around. That purse could have been one of the biggest for a replacement. The number being thrown around was $100,000 and later changed to $500,000. Honestly, in today’s economy I am absolutely shocked that no one was willing to fight for that amount of money, even if it was to lose badly against the world’s best.

With the dismantle of Affliction there will be a lot of big names to be signed by promotions who are willing to grow as well as the clothing company granted the right to advertise with fighters in the UFC. Of course the biggest name is Fedor who really has two options; join the UFC or make his way to the land of the rising sun. The biggest issue with Fedor not joining the UFC is because of his dislike of the contact that the UFC is offering; he would have better competition, make more money and help MMA grow to another level in the U.S.A. However in Japan, if he were to join DREAM, he would be back in the same country that helped him make his name, help a struggling promotion grow to PRIDE type levels, and be closer to his home country of Russia. Either way Fedor has a huge decision to make in the growing months.

Outside of Affliction, I have news to report on a fight I had recently told you about which is the welterweight championship bout between Joe Riggs and Nick Diaz in Strikeforce. Riggs it seems has withdrawn from the bout due to a bad reaction to prescription medication that left him hospitalized. A replacement has not been named to the fight which is still in question at the moment. This is the second fight that has been rescheduled from this event as Strikeforce’s heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem has suffered an injured hand leading up to his bout against Fabricio Werdum. The event will still have two other title fights with the women’s 145 lbs. bout against Carano v. Cyborg and Gilbert Melendez v. lightweight champ Josh Thompson.

 Like always please leave a comment.