After months of teetering on the verge of disaster, Affliction was pushed over the edge this week when Josh Barnett dropped out of his heavyweight title match against Fedor Emelianenko scheduled to headline its August 1 PPV after failing a drug test. Yesterday the company announced that it was canceling the “Trilogy” PPV and has decided to cease operations.
And now comes word that Affliction has rejoined UFC as an official clothing supplier, which was the whole reason Affliction formed its own MMA organization in the first place. Effectively, Affliction waived the white flag, becoming the latest challenger to Dana White’s UFC empire to crack under the enormous pressure the MMA giant places on competition.
Not that Affliction didn’t try. They spent (many would say overspent) millions of dollars acquiring big-name talent in order to put on two cards that rivaled UFC PPVs in quality. But despite good box office and PPV numbers, the huge money they spent putting on the shows (and Affliction’s relative lack of deep pockets compared to UFC parent company Zuffa Entertainment) eventually crippled them as a promoter, and Barnett’s positive steroid test was simply the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Meanwhile, this has left Affliction’s fighters scrambling to find new homes. M-1 - the co-promoter of “Trilogy” with Affliction - is trying to secure some of the fights from the card, including Gegard Mousasi vs. Renato “Babalu” Sobral, for its upcoming show on August 28 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. (And you know that quality sporting events always happen in convention centers.) Meanwhile, UFC will surely be looking to land any Affliction talent they can - as long as the price meets their needs.
The one fighter from the Affliction card who is most attractive to UFC is Emelianenko. Commonly acknowledged as the best heavyweight fighter in the world, UFC has tried multiple times to get the hulking Russian to sign with the company. But each time he has refused, mainly over his desire to also compete in grappling matches outside of UFC. (In fact, he is scheduled to have a grappling exhibition with Mousasi at the M-1 show.) But with Affliction going under and a huge payday for a megafight against Brock Lesnar in the cards, now might be the best chance for Emelianenko to join UFC.
3:58 pm on July 25th, 2009
I smell a conspiracy. (Note: a good comspiracy is one tha can not be proven) I think that UFC paid Josh Barnett a great amount of cash to fail his drug test so that Affliction would fail itself. And for the simple reason to give Brock Lesnar the best possible Heavyweight fight that makes the most money. Now with that fight UFC would have enough money to break off Josh Barnett. And why would Josh Barnett do it, he would be getting a raise for not even fighting. You may say well now his name is ruined for failing a drug test. Well, if you haven’t noticed he ain’t the first to fail a drug test nor will he be the last. It’s just BUSINESS baby.
5:16 pm on July 25th, 2009
You may have a point…BUT!
1. its actually better for the UFC if Affliction is in business
2. Josh will take the fall but, I think Affliction was doom and was never going to happen anyway,..reason being Affliction only had one press conference, versus the 8 for the first one and 6 from the second one, each previous press conference was held in Japan,NY, Vegas, LA they didnt do any of that this time, PPV number were terrible as of last week, Time Warner dropped HD Net last months which were scheduled to show the non PPV undercard without HD Net / TW subscribers thats 1 million less people that CAN see it.
3.
Affliction will just return to being another T-shirt company making shirts for Orange County assholes that work out to impress other guys (i.e ed hardy, von dutch) they should rename the company Guy clothes to impress guys with.
4. If you see Josh fighting in the UFC by April 2010, You know he got paid off by the UFC.
8:11 pm on July 25th, 2009
“3. Affliction will just return to being another T-shirt company making shirts for Orange County assholes that work out to impress other guys (i.e ed hardy, von dutch) they should rename the company Guy clothes to impress guys with.”
I lold.
9:26 pm on July 25th, 2009
You clowns have to be kidding me with your conspiracy bs. UFC is by far the largest and most successful MMA organization, and Affliction has been in trouble for awhile. Dana and the Affliction boys probably had a meeting when the realized the card wasn’t going to happen because of Barnett, and Dana gave them a one time offer they couldn’t refuse. The UFC doesn’t have to participate in any conspiracy or practices to mess with other organizations cards. This was to be Affliction’s last card anyways. Do you honestly believe that if Affliction had the least bit of reason to believe that the UFC was screwing with their card, that they wouldn’t pursue legal action instead of becoming one of their advertisers again?
All this trash talk between Affliction and Dana was all BS, as if you have paid attention to all the drama in the UFC, they are becoming more like pro boxing with all the trash talk, but when all is said and done, they’re buddy buddy at the end.
Go back to watching tennis or golf or whatever you normally watch.
Go back to reading about tennis or golf, or whatever you wanted to.