This weekend will tell if all the money and promoting will be worth it in a sport where mainstream MMA is simply known as Ultimate Fighting. As the days fall of the calendar the anticipation for Affliction’s inaugural MMA event dubbed as “banned” has grown more and more. The Promoter and Executive VP of Affliction Tomas Atencio has put to together on paper a fight card that would rival that of any UFC event, having such talent on the card as #1 ranked Fedor Emelianenko, #4 ranked Tim Sylvia and #5 ranked Andrei Arlovski. As Affliction would announce Wednesday internationally the press attention it would receive would be huge as over 289 press credential request would be sent in. Affliction would also announce ticket sales for the event being held at the Honda Center on Saturday would be over $2,000,000 worth.
The Co- promoter for the event Roy Englebrecth, one of boxing most experienced promoters would weigh in Wednesday on how in his own words “the Success of Affliction Banned as a fight promotion company has been unheard of”. Englebrecth would announce that over 600 and counting closed circuit bars around the country have already purchased the event, anticipating a great turn on for Saturday. He would also state the FSN’s commercial time for the undercard free show Saturday would be sold out.
The fighters themselves would weigh in with their thoughts Wednesday as each would have nothing but great things to say about their opponents. Overall Wednesday’s press conference would be the calm before the storm for Affliction as this weekend will tell if all the money and promoting will be worth it in a sport where mainstream MMA is simply known as Ultimate Fighting.
Official Card -Undercard (May not be broadcast)
Savant Young vs. Mark “the Machine” Hominick
JJ Ambrose vs. Mike “Quicksand” Pyle Justin Levens vs. Ray Lizama
Antonio Rogerio “Minotoro” Nogueira vs. Edwin “Babyface” Dewees
-Fox Sport Net free bouts
Terry Martin vs. Vitor “The Phenom” Belfort
Aleksander Emelianenko vs. Paul “The Headhunter” Buentello
-PPV Bouts
Renato “babalu” Sobral vs. Mike Whitehead
Matt “the Law” Lindland vs. Fabio “Negao” Nascimento
Josh “the Babyfaced Assassin” vs. Pedro “The Rock” Rizzo
Andrei “The Pit-bull” Arlovski vs. “Big” Ben Rothwell
Fedor “The Last Emperor” Emelianenko vs. Tim “Maine-iac” Sylvia