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« | Home | »

Press release on Affliction’s 8/1 Anaheim show being canceled

By Zach Arnold | July 24, 2009

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Seal Beach, California (July 24, 2009) – The highly anticipated fight between Fedor Emelianenko and Josh Barnett at the Affliction Trilogy MMA show has been cancelled. The mega fight was scheduled to take place at the Honda Center in Anaheim on August 1st. The unforeseen license denial of Josh Barnett gave Affliction limited time to find a replacement and adequately promote the new main event.

“Finding an opponent for the number one ranked MMA heavy weight champion in such a short period of time was a huge endeavor and I’m thrilled at the amount of fighters willing to take on this challenge,” said Tom Atencio, vice president of Affliction Entertainment. “But in the end, we just didn’t have enough time to promote a new fight to our standards.”

Affliction is deeply disappointed that the under card is also canceled through no fault of its own. Affliction stands behind the company’s brands and delivers premium products to the most passionate and loyal customers. Affliction’s first priority is to ensure that all future events live up to the company’s high standards.

Ticket holders for the canceled event should contact Ticketmaster or ticketmaster.com for a refund.

Affliction has now closed up shop and is officially back as a sponsor with the UFC.

Later on Friday, Affliction opted to get out of the promoting business and, in a joint statement with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, announced it would become a sponsor of the UFC. The fate of the fighters under contract with Affliction is not known yet.

In the original Yahoo Sports story by Kevin Iole, the following quote about UFC/Affliction was this:

“White said an Affliction attorney flew to Las Vegas only days after UFC 100 and offered to fold and turn its contracts over to the UFC if the UFC would remove its ban on its fighters wearing Affliction T-shirts.

“I told him, ‘I hope you idiots stay in business,’ ” White said. “We had a record year in 2007. We had a record year in 2008. And we’re going to have an even bigger record year in 2009. I said, ‘I hope you … stay around in 2010 and burn every dollar you have.’ What they do is of no concern to me.””

It should be noted, for historical reference only, that this is the third MMA promotion that Fedor has been the ‘ace’ of and seen shut down – RINGS, PRIDE, and now Affliction.

Topics: Affliction, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 30 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

30 Responses to “Press release on Affliction’s 8/1 Anaheim show being canceled”

  1. Fluyid says:

    🙁

  2. Ivan Trembow says:

    Affliction is out of the MMA promotion business and is back as a UFC advertiser, according to Kevin Iole. This explains why Dana White previously floated the Affliction/Strikeforce “merger” rumor through Iole, and it also explains why Iole removed the following two paragraphs from his original news story:

    “White said an Affliction attorney flew to Las Vegas only days after UFC 100 and offered to fold and turn its contracts over to the UFC if the UFC would remove its ban on its fighters wearing Affliction T-shirts.

    “I told him, ‘I hope you idiots stay in business,’ ” White said. “We had a record year in 2007. We had a record year in 2008. And we’re going to have an even bigger record year in 2009. I said, ‘I hope you … stay around in 2010 and burn every dollar you have.’ What they do is of no concern to me.””

  3. Vox says:

    So…Seth killed EliteXC with a jab and Josh killed Affliction with a needle…let’s hope nobody in Showtime sneezes, please.

    On the other hand…I’m pretty sure Strikeforce has better business sense than the rest of UFC’s competiton, so…maybe we’ll actually have some competition.

  4. 45 Huddle says:

    Fedor also was the ace of bodog. That makes 4!! He is not a sellable champion.

    Barnett did not kill Affliction. These deals with the UFC and Strikeforce don’t happen in 2 days. This was planned for a while. I remember somebody predicting the show would never happen an this exact scenario would go down. There was inside knowledge that Affliction was done with far before Barnett got busted!!

  5. Mr. Roadblock says:

    With all the heat I take on this site from a few people, I would just like to ask you “how often am I right on the money”.

    From Mosley beating to Margarito, to Mayweather skipping out on Marquez after Pacquiao won, to Fedor not wanting to fight Vitor, to Affliction cancelling and selling out to UFC.

    Let’s see if Fedor ends up in UFC in Sept. Why can’t I pick lotto numbers like this?

  6. Dave2 says:

    Could you really consider Fedor the ace of Bodog though 45? I thought Eddie Alvarez was their posterboy. Bodog held a ton of shows and Fedor only fought once with them.

  7. Ivan Trembow says:

    45 Huddle— Wow, you’re a regular Sherlock Holmes. Did you ever stop to think that maybe their plan was for Affliction to run its third and final show and THEN get back into bed with the UFC? And then after Showtime PPV pulled the plug on the third show, they just figured, “Ah, we might as well get back in bed with the UFC now”?

    Why on earth would Affliction want to spend money buying TV ads, Internet ads, print ads, etc. on a show and then cancel it one week before the show? Are you seriously suggested that they planned to do that?

  8. Mr. Roadblock says:

    Fedor was hands down the ace of Bodog. When Bodog originally came out they thought Fedor would lock in a big audience. Then the Fedor/Lindland disaster happened. Bodog tried to recoup some money with the Costa Rica show and that junk, but it was already over.

  9. Isaiah says:

    Wow, Dana is just pure class.

  10. 45 Huddle says:

    Ivan,

    Who knows with Affliction. Everything they do makes no sense. I wouldn’t put it past them.

    As for my comment about Barnett not killing Affliction…. It was in response to Vox’s comment, and many other similiar comments online.

  11. 45 Huddle says:

    Unless somebody is trolling, Dana White said “Welcome back Tito” on his twitter….

    I have a feeling things are shaking up a lot right now. Ortiz back in the UFC. Affliction back as a sponsor. Wouldn’t be shocked if the UFC got a few of the key fighters from that organization. Strikeforce will probably get the rest….

    I like this a lot. Get those Affliction fighters competing soon. Get them in the UFC or Strikeforce. Many great fights are available in both promotions. Strikeforce really needs it more then the UFC, but both will benefit.

    The next 24 to 48 hours could get very very interesting.

  12. Jeremy (not that Jeremy) says:

    If you’re hoping that Strikeforce will be a competitor to UFC anytime soon, I think you’re barking up the wrong tree. They’ve been successful to date primarily by NOT going head to head with UFC.

    That’s not a jab at Strikeforce at all, that’s just their pattern of behavior to date.

  13. Jonathan says:

    This really pisses me the fuck off. Seriously, I am unhappy about this. I want to see the best pound-for-pound fighter and the best heeavyweight fighter (both Fedor BTW) fight, and now, this is just total bullshit.

    It is stuff like this that can really piss off the hardcore fans.

    But who the fuck cares about us anyway?

  14. Oops! says:

    Go watch M-1 Promotion with Don Frye vs King Mo.

    I’m sure Fedor will fight for M-1 since that’s his buisness.

    I Don’t see M-1 doing anything without a tv deal.

  15. Dave2 says:

    I was looking forward to August 1st. This is crap. Hopefully Mousasi, Babalu, Belfort, Santiago, Hieron, Daley, Gomi, etc. get to fight real soon elsewhere with Strikeforce, Sengoku, DREAM, UFC, etc.

  16. Jeremy (not that Jeremy) says:

    I wonder how this affects the M-1 Affliction Challenge on HDNet.

  17. 45 Huddle says:

    According to MMA Junkie, they don’t have a big budget for the show. Mousasi might fight on it, but not against Babalu.

  18. d says:

    Was Fedor really the “ace” of RINGS? I’m not trying to dispute it I’m just curious, I thought he was poached before he really came to prominence and Tamura was their big draw.

  19. Mark says:

    I’d still be shocked if Fedor ever showed up in the UFC. He and his managers are too divaish to have a fight actually happen under a UFC banner. They might sign but then politic and hold out before Fedor ever fights. There is always going to be a money mark somewhere in some country that will pay Fedor a ton of money to fight. He knows this, so why would you want to fight with Dana when you can get your ass kissed by somebody else? People who think he actually cares that he’s never fought in the UFC are wrong. He would have been there by now if he did.

  20. Zach Arnold says:

    Fedor certainly became RINGS’s top fighter when Tamura was gone. The promotion was on shaky ground after Maeda’s retirement, but then again the bigger issue is that when you build your company around Fedor, the situations are pretty shaky.

  21. frankpigeon says:

    Pride wasn’t built around Fedor. You could argue that it last shows, when Pride was trying to expand into US soil that they pushed Fedor a bit harder as he was and is the nr 1 HW in the world.

    My list of Pride’s biggest draws, around which they built their company:

    -Takada
    – Saku
    – Wand
    – Cro Cop
    and for the bushido series
    – Gomi

  22. Zach Arnold says:

    Fedor was the unstoppable heavyweight champion in PRIDE. He was the ‘ace’ in that respect. Sakuraba certainly was the top Japanese draw.

  23. Alan Conceicao says:

    The problem with discussing “aces” is that in Japan, fan support pushes guys to be the top names in a company. In actual fighting sports, guys who aren’t popular can become dominant champions. Its like saying that K-1’s ace wasn’t Masato or Kid Yamamoto, but Semmy.

  24. white ninja says:

    if you include bodog, you should also include inoki bom ba ye

    so the curse of fedor is now 5 organisations

    will UFC be number 6?

  25. Zach Arnold says:

    Haven’t heard from you in a long time, Ninja. Too many one-way conversations. Step up here. 🙂

  26. frankpigeon says:

    if the fedor curse would hit the UFC, 1000 conspiracy theories would rise up claiming that he was a spy working for the russian government with the mission to bring down a entertainment company rival to its’ “government ran” M-1.

  27. The Citizen says:

    What are the chances we see Barnett – Fedor in Japan? Both fighters are now available and I know my friends in Japan got the money to make it happen.

    Any one up for Barnett – Fedor on New Years?

  28. white ninja says:

    hey, back from vacation to witness the fedor curse… again

    oh yeh, and we should add yarrenoka and also Monte’s failed M1 Global to that list of victims of the Fedor, or should we say, Vadim’s curse

  29. Dave2 says:

    I’d want Fedor-Barnett on NYE but the thing is, would the Japanese even want Barnett now that he disgraced himself?

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