Affliction MMA will shake up the broadcast team for its second-ever pay-per-view (PPV) event "Day of Reckoning," which was today relocated to Anaheim, Calif., and postponed until sometime in January 2009.
The two nuggets appear to be unrelated -- the fresh blood in the ringside booth is thanks to a new television partnership with HDNet.
Accordingly, "Big" John McCarthy, Jay Glazer and Frank Trigg will be replaced by the more established and accomplished broadcast crew comprising Bas Rutten, Kenny Rice and Ron Kruck.
Rutten and Rice can also be heard handling the live commentary for the Japanese mixed martial arts organization DREAM, along with co-hosting the hour long "Inside MMA" weekly program which airs on Friday nights on HDNet.
It's no coincidence.
As far as this writer is concerned, "El Guapo" is on the short list of great color commentators in this sport, ranking right up there with Joe Rogan. This is a solid decision for the t-shirt company/MMA promotion.
Affliction selling more pay-per-views as a result of this change is pretty doubtful, but it will surely help them improve the quality of the event's production.
Thumbs up to Affliction.