This is something that I never thought I’d type:
Donald Trump — who has forged a partnership with Affliction MMA — will tomorrow announce the acquisition of former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski at a noon press conference at Trump Tower in New York, N.Y., according to MMARated.com.
In addition, “The Pitbull” will take on Ben Rothwell (as expected) during the debut pay-per-view (PPV) event for the promotion at the at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., on July 19.
Trump is also expected to reveal more details on his partnership with Affliction MMA, which according to the report, he owns a “significant amount” of the upstart promotion.
This is about to get real interesting … as if it isn’t already. Stay tuned. In the meantime, to get some more background on Trump’s involvement with mixed martial arts click here.
70 Comments »
When is Tito signing??
No kidding. He and Trump seem to be pretty close.
Trump may really put Affliction’s financial worries at ease. Affliction is a big name within the MMA community. Hopefully they do it right and put on solid shows.
And good for Andrei. I hoped he would stick it to the UFC, just because of how he was treated.
DREAM 5 NEWS:
DReamfighters:
Norfumi “Kid” Yamamoto will face Joseph Benadviez, an undefeated fighter who has finished all seven of his fights. Benadviez, out of Sacramento, California, competes for the Palace Fighting Championships promotion in Lemoore.
For DREAM 5, the promotion will go primetime in Japan. DREAM 5 will feature the final round of the Lightweight Grand Prix. The final four consists of Tatsuya Kawajiri, Caol Uno, Eddie Alvarez, and the winner of Shinya Aoki-Katsuhiko Nagata, to be determined at DREAM 4 on June 15.
Heavyweight Bout: Mirko “Crocop” Filipovic vs. Jerome Le Banner
Welterweight Championship Bout: Nick Diaz vs. Hayato Sakurai
Featherweight Bout: Norifumi “KID” Yamamoto vs. Joseph Benavidez
DREAM is really starting to pick up steam! GOD I LOVE JAPANESE MMA!!!
pretty stacked! even though its not on PPV, at least it’ll be $FREEEEEE.99 on the net for us to watch at work. should fit in a 8 hr shift. john/nostrodamus, who’s your picks? cmon man spread the wealth.
LW grand prix is a toss up… dont even know about that 1. maybe uno since he’s the most well rounded and beat Ishida. Wonder if Sakurai is going to throw bombs like Gomi to try KO Diaz… for the belt! HAHAH1!! Gyea! never saw kid yamamoto in my life but i heard he’s ranked. if he’s ranked, lets see him and faber fight. Jerome got a pretty tuff record for a new guy. I laugh if he beats Cro-cop. I suck at picks cuz I sometimes i just don’t like the guy thats better. LOL. DREAM5 is gonna be better than the affliction card… yea i said it… n wut? lol disagree here:______
Kama this event is very tough to call.
Mach might be Diaz’s toughest fight of his life…Very hard fight to predict.
I like LeBanner KO’ing Cro Cop.
Kama, if you havent watched “Kid” fight yet, u r in for a treat my friend…The kid is NO JOKE! Kid vs. Faber would be the greatest possible 145 lb title fight possible…doubt we will see it because like Dana said, those Japanese fighters come with a high price tag.
If I had to pick a winner of the Lightweight grand prix, without knowing what the match ups will be, I have to go with the fighter from my hometown Eddie Avarez, but I dont know what the match ups will be so that might change
GREAT EVENT!
yea, diaz vs mach… bjjskill vs stronger guy… pepper punches vs bombs. theres a pic of diaz looking all happy to be training wit andre ward on graciefighter website and looked a lot better standing wit inoue so his standup should be solid. Barely seen any K1 at all so but hear ALOT about kid. I like Alvarez standup but haven’t really seen his ground game. He’s probably the best athelete of them. A guy like Aoki tapped out JZ. And Uno tapped Ishida who grinded out Melendez so I’m leaning towards them but yea we’ll see. but i’d always gotta root for the hometown fighter too no matter what. DREAM got a nice talent pool of LWs and bouts are evenly matched. its gonna be goood.
Kama: DREAM 5 just got better: Akiyama has been added to the card. No word yet on who his opponent will be but since Akiyama is HATED in Japan, I expect them to match him up against someone really tough because all of Japan wants to see him loose.
As for Alvarez’s ground game, he is the best wrestler left in the tournament, but I dont know what level his ju jitsu is at. I also think that Alvarez is the only fighter left that cuts weight to fight (since he is coming down from welterweight), so he will be bigger and have the strength advantage against whoever he faces next.
why is he hated in japan? and why isn’t he in the MW Grand Prix? i thought most the MWs were locked up in the tourney.
nevermind. a proud north korean fighting in Japan says it all.
Remember before New Years eve’s Yerronoka event, he kept talking all this trash about Japan’s Misaaki? Then after Misaaki KO him, Misakki grabbed him and lectured him in Japanese in front of the whole crowd….really weird that Akiyama just stood there and let Misaaki scream in his face in front of the whole crowd for like 5 minutes.
I would have liked to see him in the grand prix, but he isnt. He must have recently signed with DREAM and probably wasnt signed when the tournament was put together.
I don’t think he was treated that bad. If you are a fighter in MMA under no circumstances can you be boring. AA vs Werdum on national tv was the biggest snoze fest I have ever seen. Big Tim vs AA was just as bad. Why do you think Wandy and Chris Leben are as good as gold in the UFC? Losses don’t really matter it’s the excitment factor and AA of late has been without it.
Trump is the man!! This could be as big as UFC..!!!!
Robert, you’re right that exciting fighters who lose are always going to be treated better than boring winners, but some of AA’s lame fights weren’t totally his fault. Werdum kept flopping to the mat trying to get into a ground fight and refused to engage on his feet. I’m not sure who to blame for the third fight against Big Tim, they both sucked.
finally! its been confirmed at last. i hope andrei is actually at the press conference. A.A. is gonna get paid. this event is for real and i think the addition of arlovski will help sell tickest and ppvs alot. plus its reportedly only gonna be $39.99. thats not bad at all with this much talent.
B.W: I am just getting more hype by the day about Affliction. Seems like they really seem to know what the fans want. Trumps involvement will be GREAT for the upstart company. After all, everything he touches turns to GOLD!!!!
I am very happy for Andre. The UFC never used him right. Think about it, what big fights did they ever give the pitbul: 3 fights against Big Poopy?
Affliction willl know exactly what to do with him. They have a STACKED amount of heavyweight talent available to face the Pitbull. Possible future opponents include:
Fedor
Aleks
Josh Barnett
hey we may even see arlovski vs. Couture 1 day, a fight the UFC should have put together years ago!
“Very Excited” -Borat!
They will get my $39.95 for sure, honesty I would pay anything they asked to see this event!
Trump is the man!! This could be as big as UFC..!!!!
again!!
same goes with my money. I am liking this…its really giving me hope that affliction is really the true UFC/PRIDE cross promotion type that we always wanted. we will now get to see top fighters from those two promotions square off agains each other.
finally a promotion to compete with the UFC….monopolies are not a good thing
if they can stay afloat. I don’t care if they gey warren buffet to back them financially, if they spend 5 times what they make, they won’t be in business long
A.A. is going to kill Rothwell. Rothwell could’nt even finish off Ricco Rodriguez in his last fight and Rodriguez took the fight on crazy short notice, like a week or something. I hope the show does good. There needs to be a good and mainly reputable alternative to the UFC/WEC. Hopefully Affliction is it.
To make it clear though, there is nothing wrong with the UFC/WEC, just saying it would be good to finally see another promotion with a good amount of A class fighters.
totally agree. the ufc is #1 but they cant have everybody and adreneline/affliction looks like they are doing things the right way.
i agree! i think rothwell is a little overated and has never fought the likes of andrei. hopefully ben will bing it and be agressive like he usually is in all his fights. a.a. has a funny way of changing fighters normal fightplan
he fought tim who beat aa twice, but i agree he will lose.
I think an agressive opponent like Rothwell is exactly what Andre needs to light that fire under his ass that he lost when Sylvia Ko’ed him. Andre is still young and is one of the most talented HeAVYWEIGHT FIGHTERS IN THE WORLD. If he ever gets that fire back, LOOK OUT!! Rothwell is a great place to start!
WAR PITBULL!!!!
Imagine Fedor vs. Andre in RUSSIA! That would be dope.
WOW! good stuff john! arlovski vs fedor in russia would be bonkers. forget old man river randy ( i still like randy but have lost too much respect for him). if tim puts up a good fight w/fedor even in losing would up his stock. he could fight barnett if josh wins. we both want to see lindland/sobral now, but if they both win they can fight each other next or jacob. if aleks demolishes buentello(whoever lands first in this fight) he could be right up there as well. they (affliction/adrteneline) will pull off 3 shows this year and have a chance to succeed as long as the donald and monte cox can work together. thats still a big if, but im not gonna worry about it and just enjoy what happens. whatever they do they will blow elite out of the water. its to bad this wasnt the 1rst card on network t.v., but they are going in the right direction with ppv.
B.W: I cant disagree with anything u just posted. If Tim can make it competitive, which I doubt…I would respect him and look forward to seeing him fight Barnett….Also Tim vs. Aleks would be an interesting fight between 2 Giants!
I totally forgot about Lindland, he has to face Sobral at some point, or like u said Sobral vs. Ortiz would be Great. I would love to see Babalu choke the living crap out of Jacob!
Lindland hopefully will fight at lightheavyweight because I dont see to much middleweight taent in that organization. IF lindland goes up to 205 lbs, they will have a nice stable of 205 lbs fighters to match up any way they want:
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
Jacob Ortiz (assuming he signs, which he will)
Babalu
Lindland (if he outs on a little weight
Also Dont forget Vitor!
this is great news, with the card they where putting on without donald they looked promising and now with his backing we may see another legit org. putting on great shows and that will only make the ufc try harder so win win for the fans.
I think that this organization is the true competition for the UFC EliteXC putting Kimbo Slice in the main event should sit back and watch a real card. The UFC is still a super strong entity I think in the end if Affiction continues down this road it will end up with Affiction and UFC.
This done right will be better than anything Gary Shaw can put together. I hope this drowns out that second rate sideshow and can emerge as a true competitor to the UFC
Does anyone know how much the PPV will cost?
$39.95
Has Trump released the contract information to Zuffa? I mean considering they have a ‘Contract Match Clause’ with Arlovski they can match Trump’s offer and keep AA in the UFC.
I think there’s a 30 day limit on that. I’m not completely solid on this information but I believe it’s a “right of first refusal” or something like that. Any offer made within 30 days of his contract expiration can be met by the UFC. Perhaps that’s why this was put off until now. If I have some of the details wrong, my apologies in advance.
no, you got it pretty close bud, and I will only finally take this as confirmed when it is announced tomorrow. Too many times have we heard it was going to be announced and had it postponed. The UFC was never going to match it, and it is another reason to be angry with them for postponing the announcement. I just want to see AA fight, don’t care where at this point.
Without a doubt this Affliction card is a good one from a hardcore fan’s perspective – IMHO better than UFC 85. However, I’m not sure that it has enough appeal to be profitable. I’m begining to wonder if the UFC is up for sale – it seems like they are trying to cut their costs (e.g., Sylvia, Arlovski, probably Tito – gone, trimming their roster etc.) I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Fertitta’s sell the UFC now that the market is getting more saturated. BTW, what happened to Cuban’s MMA crusade? Furthermore, just because Trump is involved doesn’t mean that it is a “sure thing”.
That’s exactly what I was trying to get at, but you beat me to the punch. Its a great card for the geeks like us that follow MMA like religion, but you have to appeal to a broader fan base to be successful.
I think they’ll put together a few good cards and then go out of business.
As for the UFC being for sale, I don’t think that’s the case. Fighters come and go. With the exception of Arlovski I think it was a good move. Tito will never recapture the glory that he had early in his career, and Sylvia, despite being a hell of a fighter, was never a crowd favorite.
I don’t really see the market getting saturated. What I see are lots of smaller promotions running amok. All of the cross promoting going on is fine and dandy, but at some point there’s going to have to be some sort of consolidation among them. If anything I am almost expecting to see a change with the UFC/WEC situation as the current arrangement just doesn’t make much sense. Either absorb the WEC into the UFC, clearly make the WEC a “minor league” and move the best 135lb/145lb guys to the UFC, or split it up so that WEC = 135-170lbs and UFC=185+. In any event, I don’t see a sale of the UFC any time soon.
I’m definitely excited to see the “banned” card, but in no way do I think that this is serious competition for the UFC. Remember, Donald Trump is a business man. He’s not going to sit around while a fledgling organization hemmorages money. With the cash that Affliction is reportedly paying these fighters its going to be hard to show a profit. We the hardcore fans will buy it, but alot of the TUF generation UFC fans won’t. It will be interesting to see what kind of buy rate the first show gets, and more importantly if they have enough quality fighters to deliver shows like this on a regular basis.
I agree wholeheartedly. Furthermore, I don’t think that the Fertitta’s are just going to sit around and let their MMA empire crumble.
Just something to consider:
“The TUF generation” are the same people who run around sporting the Affliction shirts in the first place, generally. With the right advertising, it could definitely reach out to them.
Not saying you’re wrong at all, or that it’s a definite thing that this will be the case, just that it’s a possibility, and that the two are somewhat linked.
Your point about the amount of quality fighters is spot on, and why I’m worried about the organization. Who else is left on their roster after this showing?
Right on Dolphin. It’s refreshing to hear an educated comment here as opposed to the usual one-sided blabbering.
They are definitley going to report a loss for the first show. We have to wait and see how well it does, and according to that, hopefully for them the profits will roll in on future shows.
While I agree that having a great first card may not be enough to make them an instant competitor to the UFC, it is a really good start. A lot of it depends on the financial success of the first event, if they can put on shows like this and be profitable, then the UFC will get a run for their money. Say what you what about Trump, but the guy knows how to run a business, not to mention bringing capital and connections to the table. Another advantage he has is being smart enough to hire people to handle tasks that aren’t suited to his strengths, which is something that I see the UFC as consistently failing with in regards to Dana White. Dana does some good things, but he also has a history of letting personal vendetas dictate some of his decisions. If Affliction is able to treat fighters better than the UFC and make a profit in doing so, then the UFC could be in big trouble if they continue with what I see as an attitude of thinking they’re the only game in town.
I like AA but I’ve always been skeptical as to how he would fare against fighters in other circuits. His win against Werdum actually surprised me and I respect him a lot more for that. I think he’ll destroy Rothwell, and maybe after that he can fight Aleksander?
AA is my favorite fighter and hate to see him leave the UFC, but I understand why he is. you gotta go where your happy and im sure AA is gettin paid big $$$.AA via tko.
i really wanted to see AA vs Nog or Cro Cop but ole well…it might happen eventually. good luck pitbull
the affliction brand is getting a nice stable of fighters. but too bad sylvia is already there. are we going to see them fight AGAIN?
Affliction is starting good by getting the name fighters which will give them their initial push. You have to consider too that the UFC has more fighters because they have the name and any good fighter wants to go there the UFC has never acquired any big names besides the guys from Pride. All the fighters were brought over young and finished developing within the organization, Affliction is getting guys with names that are older but may build a good foundation and with Trump at the helm they could
Affliction is starting good by getting the name fighters which will give them their initial push. You have to consider too that the UFC has more fighters because they have the name and any good fighter wants to go there the UFC has never acquired any big names besides the guys from Pride. All the fighters were brought over young and finished developing within the organization, Affliction is getting guys with names that are older but may build a good foundation and with Trump at the helm they could very soon get a TV deal and with Tito having his reality show could possibly branch into a show somewhat like TUF to build from within.
Good deal. I, along with the rest of you, have been waiting patiently for an official announcement of where Andrei is going. Sure, it’d be great if he were to stay in the UFC, but this move is probably best for Andrei. He’s gonna make a ton of money. And, they’re actually going to make him one of the premier fighters. I’m looking for Arlovksi vs Fedor if both win their upcoming fights. Arlovksi said a long time ago he wanted to fight Fedor, and I see Affliction making it happen. The two best and most popular heavyweights they have squaring off would be megahuge.
The UFC f’d up big.
Affliction just hit the jackpot, especially in terms of being backed by Trump.
EliteXC is gonna come and go. Affliction is gonna stay around and rival the UFC.
TRUMP doesn’t know shit about MMA, but he does know business promotion, has good business judgment, and has tremendous pull anywhere he goes.
I’d luv’ to see TRUMP VS WHITE in a battle of wits n’ words. White will be sayin’ f’ this n’ f’ that… Trump’s gonna call him classless… White’s gonna make fun of his hair, Trumps gonna make fun of him being hairless… GREAT ENTERTAINMENT!
Lol…so true. Trump would have to be the favorite in a verbal battle.
great for mma
For those fans that found out about MMA during the time when Tim Sylvia and A.A. were on top will follow them to their next promotion. Since those were the “BIG NAMES” at the time the UFC started taking off, people remember them as the BIG GUYS.
I think with Trump money behind it, this promo could do very well against the UFC, and with the roster they’ve got now, and any new fighters, they should do very well.
MMA organizations and their rosters are just like any of the other Major League organizations in the United States and the UFC is up where the NFL, MLB and the NBA are. Unless you’re a fair weather fan, most people don’t switch teams when their favorite player leaves via free agency. When Asante Samuel left the Patriots and signed with the Eagles I didn’t hear of any defections of Patriot fans buying up new gear for their new team. As far as leagues go look what happened with the XFL and the USFL (Which by the way was started by DONALD TRUMP and went down like Al Roker down a greased pole!)The AFL was absorbed into the NFL and the ABA was absorbed into the NBA. People follow organizations, not fighters. The UFC is the NFL of MMA, the gold standard if you will, and they have proven that they have the know how and most importantly the financial backing and are here to stay. Fighters and organizations will come and go but the industry leaders usually prevail. Affliction, EliteXC, Dream, World Victory Road and all the others will be around for a bit, but they will suffer the same fate as Pride: All fluff and no substance. If you can’t be profitable you have to be able stay solvent, I see a bad ending to most of these upstarts!
After the debacle last Saturday night, who is going to buy into that hunk of junk? Stick with leader and long live the UFC!
I forgot about Trump’s involvement in the USFL – good catch. Personally, I’d put my money on the Fertitta brothers over Trump any day of the week. Profitability is the key. I find it somewhat bizarre that a lot of people who call themselves MMA fans seem to be pulling for the demise of the UFC. None of these other organizations have accomplished anything yet. Didn’t Fedor’s last Bodog PPV draw about 30 000 buys? Except for the hardcore fans, this card is not really that marketable. There is not one person on the card for the casual fan to be drawn to.
Hopefully Trump learned his lesson from the USFL. That league actually did very well its first three years when it played its season in the spring when the NFL was out. It got crushed when it tried to move to a fall season and go head-to-head against the NFL. As long as Affliction doesn’t do something stupid like try to put on a PPV the same weekend as a UFC event it will at least have a chance.
I just don’t see how fragmenting the talent is good for mma. it’s great for the fighters but bad for fans. Is this much different than boxing? There are many champions and many of the best fighters are not going to fight each other. We need consolidation.
You do not seem to be considering the situation of the fighters at all, that seems a bit selfish. I am an MMA fan and have been for a while, but I do not want to see one organzation controlling fighters and MMA with a vice like grip, dictating everything fighters can and cannot do just for my viewing pleasure. I don’t think its that some MMA fans want the UFC to fail, it’s just not wanting them to controll MMA like a dictatorship which they seem to be on the verge of doing at the moment. And no other organization has a problem with cross promoting and if the UFC were not so greedy this would also enable the fans to see the best of one organization fight against another.
i got my tickets in the mail (the 100 dollar ones) but still, im stoked. Sadly, freakin anaheim charges up the butt in parking.. AND NO KY!! my gf might flake, so if anyone interested, HIT ME UP!.. GO AA
They have a good first fight but do they have enough fighters to stage another good fight other then a reshuffling of the deck? Also when you buy all this talent vs build it is costs money. Just look at the last UFC pay day some of the decent fights we all wanted to see only paid the fighters 40k or so. I am sure Fedor and AA are goign to be 500k plus that gets really expensive really quick and is why all the new promotions are bleeding money
Getting a rich backer is pertinent to any company. And good for Trump for taking that role, AS LONG AS I DON’T HAVE TO HEAR FROM OR ABOUT HIM!!!!!!!! Please be a silent backer you annoying S.O.B.
Ohhh Yeahhh!
Affliction MMA promotion is no joke!
Hopefully. But Man is this 2nd card looking incredible.
Ppl were recently saying that Dana White is the best MMA manager/president. Now Trump appears. This is a real candidate threat because we all now about Trumps experience and aggressiveness. Maybe he can better the market by picking up on UFC’s mistakes. I wouldn’t be suprised if they started to bann Trump from UFC events
Trump is bigger than Mark Cuban, Dana, Feri bros all together he’s a serious threat that could give negative effects on UFC. Affliction’s gonna be a big stardom organization.
It is still going to be a mystery until I see the event, we havent seen impressive fights from most compettitors on the card in a long time. They will definately be dealing with alot of presure.
Fedor fought a Giant Newbie, Tim had a good showing against Nog, but, it is big tim, Andrei was brutal in his last performance. either way it will be interesting to see where it places itself among the other MMA orgs.
Lets not forget these afterall are the fighters UFC chose to remove from their roasters.
Let’s not forget Donald goes into something as fast as he gets out. I don’t see the Trump as an asset, when he decides to bolt who will have the bankroll to cover the expences that affliction is heading for with these huge contracts? Dana holds a tight ship cause the buzz can fade around MMA, and every company has to go through hard times.
shorterm its wonderfull, but, is he in it for the good of the sport and money or just money. The answer is obviouse.
where did my post go?
I agree that the AA matchups are mind boggling right now for me. Imagine AA against either of the Emelianenko brothers, OMG! Crazy. By the way, Tim Sylvia is really not as bad as people make him out to be.
there’s a good video of a.a. right now on sherdog. tito and his fans shouls watch this asap. even though the ufc shelved a.a. for 11 months he is still very repectfull to dana and zuffa for what they have done for him. a class act all the way, plus smart to, cuz he might wanna comeback to the ufc someday. TITO: this is how you do business.