Affliction: ‘Day of Reckoning’ October 11 Las Vegas show postponed until January 2009
By: Jesse Holland
Affliction “Day of Reckoning” has reportedly been postponed, according to MMARated.com.
Scheduled for October 11, the follow up to Affliction’s debut “Banned” featured the main event between Josh Barnett and Andrei Arlovski with the winner to meet WAMMA heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko at a planned third event.
Could the UFC’s alleged involvement have hindered the T-shirt giant in its quest to promote a successful MMA event in Las Vegas — home of the UFC?
Affliction Vice President Tom Attencio courtesy of MMAWeekly.com:
“They’ve been messing with me every step of the way. There have been issues that I’ve been dealing with. So I can’t say it’s them, but there’s been things we’ve been dealing with that have never happened before, so I guess that’s why.”
Coincidence?
Sherdog.com reports that the show will still go on; however, it will be in Anaheim, Calif., sometime in January 2009.
MMAmania.com will have more on this startling development as more details become available.
133 Comments »
I think this is a bad sign. I hope UFC picks up AA, Fedor, Barnet and little nog, and then we don’t have to see the same fighters regurgitated over and over.
john, did you get my email?
Its obvious that the UFC is throwing monkeywrenches into the works.
No such thing as a coincidence with developments like this.
“This is my f***ing town” – Dana White, UFC Mob Boss.
huh now you sound like a tinfoil hate wearing conspiracy theorest. if you are going to make wild claims like that, then burden of proof says you need to back it up. otherwise you are just spouting B.S.
Whatever the cause of their problems, this certainly does not look good. I would like to see them make it, but I just don’t think they will last.
Kitsunex-
Calm down. I can smell Dana’s nut sweat on your forehead…
hmm seems odd OJR that you know what danas nut sweat smells like.you pegged it even over the internet.
The only odd thing around here is your name being an onomatopoeia for what Dana does to your rear.
you sure do refer to danas penis alot.
You sure do defend him alot. I use figurative language. YOU used penis. Your sensitivity must be based on some intimacy.
if i shave my head and said F#$% 30 times in a convo would you be able to smell my nut sweat and scooby doo my true identity? i bet you couldn’t id even say you’d admit that for years and years you have had a man crush on dana but being ignored for so long your crush has been soured.its ok timtim stroke my baldness and whistle eye of the tiger for me.it will be fine dana promises.
Onomatopoeia (also spelled onomatopœia, from Greek: ονοματοποιΐα) is a word or a grouping of words that imitates the sound it is describing such as:
“click”, “bunk”, “clang”, “buzz”, “bang”, or animal noises such as “oink”, “moo”, or “meow”.
you know the word ‘bunk’ isn’t used as much as it should be in everyday life.that word would lighten up a prison fight.
It couldn’t be that a casino would not host the fight, Trump definitely has a lot of pull there. It must have something to do with the Nevada Athletic Commission.
whimwham-
Thanks for the incoherent response. Have a nice day!
whistle damn you whistle.
Anybody else think kitsunex and whimwham are the same person?
How sad…
Kevin “regurgitated” is right! And LMAO! OJR Dana White “mob boss” This is good, who would have bought Affliction 2 anyway? Thats what they get, DAM T-SHIRT GUY!
as a fan of MMA…Barrnett/AA looks AWESOME…but thats it…not worth the $$$…unless there was nothing else on TV…lol
If they are gonna reschedule the event, I wish they would go with the first fight that was supposed to be the headliner, which was Arlovski vs. Fedor. I think Fedor can fight more than once a year.
why is everyone slacking pn the Nog vs. Vladamir fight? i was looking forward to that one
I was really looking forward to that fight as well
I wanted to see Chris Horodecki vs Dan Lauzon.
No, seiously, I did!
i wanted to see that fight as well! Damn u Dana!
they had some good fights on that card even though aa vs barnett was good enough for me.
I’m sure Dana and co. are doing anything and everything in their power to thwart Afflictions every move at this point. No conspiracy theories needed, it’s just business. Agressive cut throut business, so “live by the sword die by the sword” I say.
I mean, this really isn’t about Affliction anymore (the writing is on the wall at this point, one look at the Fighter pay from Affliction 1 and you knew they were going to be in trouble), it’s about the next guys, the ones currently looking at the business opportunities in MMA. The UFC wants to discourage those dude’s from even trying. From the get go, Affliction had the best shot of competing with the UFC based on their roster of big name fighters, and now thanks in large part to counter moves made by the UFC, they are looking very shaky, to say the least. The acumen of the UFC (including DW, the Fertittas and Jo Silva) is very impressive.
Thank you. Common sense prevails…
Oh well.
They’ll have to go back to focusing charging thugs too much for shirts.
One piece of hard evidence please? If he has any, he should show it. If he does not, he should shut up.
till someone shoots dana lol.. fuck with my money Ill fuck with your life
I sure hope this doesn’t happen and there are good fighters competing succesfully outside of the UFC. Otherwise, fighters and viewers will all be dependant on Dana and his mobster-like scare tactics.
It isnt cancelled its been postponed mmamania.
Affliction HW’s need to do a hostile takeover of the ufc nwo style. fedor, barnett, arlovski, aleks, sylvia, and even rothwell need to crash a ufc event and tell dana to bring out his 6 best. LOL, the ufc would go 0-6 against those guys!!! they could even add nelson, buentello and rizzo against the ufc 7-9 ranked fighters and still get a clean sweep!
LOL… now that would be something to see!
What UFC involvement are you refering to? The UFC discussions with Fedor? I can see that being a huge issue if so. Affliction will never get back the money they have spent if they can’t get a super fight with Fedor, especially since they can’t get Randy now. No one else will produce enough draw to cover their costs.
what discussions with fedor? Dana publically said he’ll talk to Fedor after affliction goes belly up, which seems to be happening. I read that they already had started advertising for the vegas event…money gone!!!
They had already done a billboard in Time Square in NYC and they had that car in the NASCAR race thats the advertising I know of for sure. I’m sure there has been lots more on a smaller scale as well.
they are referring to the UFC interfering with their marketing in Vegas. Atencio said that radio stations wont deal with them because the UFC has threatened to blackball them in the future. Al kinds if stuff like that.
Kev: I am on break, I refuse to check any e-mails until Monday. I am content on being a bum this week
lol thats cool bro, I asked you a couple times how your classes are going and don’t want you to take me personally. I try to have a fun debate and enjoy doing so with you, all while walking the line!
its cool. I got thick skin! I did worse this past semester then I have ever done in my entire life. Not used t going to school during the summer. I usually spend my entire summers in Rome, so this year was very difficult on me. now I take my little 1 week break and regroup!
Back to the drawing board
lol
Affliction was dumb enough to go into a their first card with little to no advertising. The best advertisement they had was in TimesSquare which is impressive but not very beneficial if thats all you have. Anyway as great as it is for competition to be in the sport of MMA for now I’d rather the UFC be the only Org in the US. I’d like them to keep DREAM alive in Japan however broadcast fights here in the states. I think if the UFC was willing to work with one MMA org they could stomp out all of the other orgs and coexist on different continents.
Mom and Dad are getting back together!!!
when you Play with the Bull, YOu get the horns!!!
It wasnt a jOke at all!
I’ve never been involved in a moderated thread before. Man, that is weird. One second it’s there and the next it’s gone and/or edited. Not sure why the Mexicutioner’s zinger was taken down, because that was a good one (john’s was understandable). Because now it looks like McArthur is laughing at john’s academic troubles. Ouch.
I like to see john vs. mexi, too. What a shame!
it is entertaining at times
i wasn’t laughing at that…till now
MMA Trivia Time:
#1) Who was the referee during the Anderson Silva vs. Yushin Okami fight at Rumbe on the Rock?
#2) Big John mcarthy used to say “lets get it on” at the begining of fights. What did Cecill Peoples used to say w hen he was a ref?”
War machine i think was the ref
i dont remeber what peoples said
#1) Rude Boy
#2) “lets dance”
I like that trivia deal, I was racking my brain trying to think who reffed that fight. I remember a ref always saying Lets Dance but I didn’t know it was CP.
Hey Jude don’t let me down
This isnt good for them at all. As much as I lilked there first show. I dont see them lasting much longer.
not being a wise ass, but what did you like? I literally fell asleep at one point, which has never happened during an mma event!
Well, didnt really like the production. But some of the fights were very good. Arlovski/Rothwell, Barnett/Rizzo. Some others, pretty good for a first showing. But that Lindland/Negao fight was pretty brutal. I believe I fell asleep there as well, lol.
Matt “Tylenol PM” Lindland!
The last 3 fights were all very good, there is no denying that. But I can understand why someone would fall asleep with that dark, gloomy feel the production had to it.
I had read rumors about this earlier in the week, that exact quote actually, but I was hoping that the event would still take place.
If Dana really had to go that far to try and stop a show from happening, then he himself must have been SCARED of the competetion that Affliction was going to bring to them. To my knowledge, the UFC wasn’t “blackmailing” any sort of advertisors when other promotions such as IFL and Pride when they took place in Vegas.
I wouldn’t say scared of anything.. It’s not scared when someone goes out of their way to swat an annoying fly so they can sit back down and relax.
Exactly. A few phone calls and favors was all it took.
little things like the camera angles, Megadeth, bugged me
I’m not seeing anything on MMAWeekly that refers to the story.
http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=7024&zoneid=13
point taken roy, I don’t have a problem with anyone, I have a problem when guys bash me for something, then go do the same thing. I TRY to keep it consistent and honest, thats all!
same here, i am not here to trash talk but if you give you should be able to take it, i will still disagee with you when i don’t agree with what you are saying but its nothing personal.cool. and you do post some good stuff some times i just don’t get your hate for affliction
Oh.. this is not good. But I didin’t care too much for this card.. thus far.. it deal not have the same appeal as the firt one.. and now their 2nd show being cancelled.. oh Trump must be tight right now..
Donald Trump to Tom Atencio… ” YOUR FIRED! “
sounds like he’s making excuses because he’s realizing he dove into the deep end of the pool without learning how to swim first.
exactly. he doesnt know anything for sure. i posted a couple a few weeks ago about a video interview with antencio. he couldnt even remember josh barnetts name! 1 of the guys in your main event and he doesnt remember his name? and Affliction only was planning on doing a show every 3 to 4 months, and thier vp of operations doesnt remember who is even fighting on his card. the ufc puts on an event every other week or so with the wec included and i can guarantee you DANA WHITE knows every sinlge name of evey single fighter he has signed to a contract to fight on every single show. thats because he and frank ferttita (now) do one thing and one thing only and thats run an mma org. thats why they are the best by far and away. Affliction had originally planned to have their first show in dallas and that got scrapped, was that dana’s fault as well. Affliction has to many irons in the fire with mma, their clothing line, their rock concerts, etc. thats why they will fail, MMA isnt their one and only concern, and to be sucsessful in mma, it has to be. i think it sucks big donkey d!cks that i wont get to see a.a./barnett b/c arlovski is one of my favorite fighters. hopefully they will be able to reschedule by the end of the year (back to the honda center would work), but i kinda doubt it. fighters that are not signed to them exclusivly wont want to wait around forever to fight and/or get paid. i may be jumoimg the gun but r.i.p Affliction, elitexc wont be far behind.
rookie mistake. didnt read the whole thread. jan of 09 in anehiem would be cool. i agree with others that it should be fedor/arlovski like originally planned for oct. there have been rumors going around, just like this rumor was going aroun a few days ago, that atencio is trying to stop fedor from fighting on nye so he can be ready by jan or feb of 09 to fight the winner of the then scheduled barnett/arlovski fight. if true, it sounds like he wants fedor to fight for him EXCLUSIVELY. we’ll see.
Minor detail b.w., it’s Lorenzo Fertitta that is now with the UFC, not Frank.
Couldn’t agree with you more on this Affliction D-Bag. He is in so far over his head it isn’t even funny. Like you said, Dana White is out there everyday promoting the UFC. Attencio, on the other hand, is signing Ozzy and working on the latest and greatest in “scary skull graphics” for most/all/some of his day.
my bad. lorenzo it is. thanks.
which Casino belongs to the fertitas?
station. too easy.
I doubt that the UFC had much to do with this. If they did, affliction could play the ultimate trump card, anti-trust, and move on. But if they’ve canceled the show without public mention of anti-trust, then the failings of the Vegas show are probably the result of their own actions/failings.
true to a point. I mean elite gave away 80% of tickets in a small arena, affliction 1 did the same. UFC has this game locked, too bad for the rest. Really though, you don’t see XFL outselling NFL or AA ball on tv!
What are you saying? If you’re right, and poor ticket sales caused the cancellation, then that supports my point, so how is what i said “true to a point”? I’m confused. Did you respond to the wrong comment?
Also, it’s not just too bad for the rest of the organizations, it’s terrible for the fans. A competitive marketplace is good for everyone.
no anti trust, just their own dumb move trying to have a fight in Dana’s town.
by competition being good for us, you mean the extra money I spent that month on ppv’s?
If the failure has anything to do with Dana or the UFC taking charge of their “back yard” then this would absolutely be an issue of anti-trust.
Essentially, yes, consumers spending more money on a wider variety of products in the industry will lead to more competitive practices and make fans happier. Basic economics.
Not a good sign at all
rashad evans said the nippl twisting is something GSP heard was good luck for ancient fighters or some junk. He did it before the Fitch fight so rashad did it for the chuck fight. The gates shirt is because he was arrested in albuquerque and started his business in the basement of the bank One building next door to jackson’s training facility. Nothing to do with Affliction’s grim future, but I know inquiring minds were wanting to know.
THANK YOU James S, much appreciated – I was very curious.
I got a big job interview tomorrow, I’ll be sure to twist my nipples before walking into the office!
LOL VM!! Twist em’ hard! Thanks for the info James. I was wondering what that crap was about too.
Good luck on the interview VM. I recommend that the twisting happen before you enter the building.
Ahhh’ yes inquiring minds want to know!… I’d luv to see the interview where Rashad explains all that.
it wasn’t an all out interview. Just quotes of him explaining it. Apparently the jackson camp is a super tight unit, and they have a lot of inside jokes.
It was from Tagg radio
Tito also announced AGAIN today he will announce his new employer by end of the month…and that he’s 99% sure who its going to be…I wonder if there is any correlation…thoughts??
Affliction is going down even earlier than Dana White predicted. Fedor, their top (only) prospect is injured (again), and now they cannot build on whatever tiny momentum their first show game them? HA!
By January, the UFC will have had their December show and will be building to the GSP/Penn Megafight for Super Bowl weekend. Affliction will have NOTHING to counter that with.
Besides, it’s not like their first show was great, or good, or even passable. A laughable excuse for a professional production that would have been mocked had it been produced by a high school A/V club. Given how much $ they had to throw at Fedor, I wouldn’t be surprised if in fact a high school A/V club WAS involved.
I wonder if they’ll get Michael Buffer back – I want to see if he could look any more lost, confused, disinterested and bored. Who could forget the terrible camera work, bewildering crowd shots, the 15-minute Spanish interlude, and terrible announcing job by their “top-tier” 3-man team?
The worst part of all of this is that there’s no excuse for it. If Donald Trump is your business partner, that gives you a direct line to Vince MacMahon – who is exactly the kind of help you need when fighting Zuffa on their own terms.
good call…Vince could definately help with the production as he is good friends with the Donald
I hope that Affliction crumbles and the fighters go the UFC. I know that competition is good for the UFC but beyong that first event, I didn’t see too much more potential for Affliction.
Haha, someone actually posted the YouTube clip of GSP doing the nip twist on mania a while back.
I hope Affliction goes under (haters come at me). There is no other major sports that has a serious league as competition and if UFC wants to be considered a premier league like the NFL, MLB, NBA, etc. the top talent all needs to be in the UFC.
I like to see Affliction team up with Dream and create an inter contenitial mma division. A show in North America, Japan or even Europe. Affliction on it’s own does not have enough fighters right now to make it interesting. just my opinion
not a bad idea
i would love that.
I like the idea but Dream have the smaller weight divisions stacked and the other way round for affliction, you would still have the same pool of fighters in certain weight divisions.
I can’t think of 1 heavyweight in Dream (don’t say CroCop) that would beat the top 5 in Affliction.
I bet their big announcment is the signing of Ortiz…posponing card to wait for Ortiz/Babalu and possibly Fedor’s return
u r probably right!
I say forget Barnett vs. Arlovski! Give us Fedor vs. Arlovski and let Barnett fight the winner (fedor) in the next show (since they guarenteed 3 shows)
JOHN. do you think Barnett would go for that? i would like to see them team up with dream as well, mainly being that they are not in direct competiton with the ufc. but Dream is also failing and i dont know if they could pull it off. it would be a dream (pun intended)if they could merge though.
according to fight network, Affliction had only sold 700 tickets to this event so far and 1 reason could be that there is a boxing lhw title match between antonio tarver vs chad dawson in vegas on that same night. the 2nd Affliction event is supposed to be on january 19. good luck.
why not BW? that was the original plan. Barnett does care about anything as long as he gets paid!
sounds good.
i think this might spell the end for affliction they burst their own bubble buy paying these fighters way more than they could afford, not even the ufc could afford to pay salaries like that
Dana was right..the downfall of Affliction begins which ultimately means the uprise of Randy and Fedor.
As I know mostly hardcore fans write on this site so who honestly do think would win between randy and fedor if the match actually happens???
Fedor, no questions, and there is a good chance it won’t ever happen as Randy has to win 2 successive fights that hold big question marks for him for the Fedor fight to have the draw to make it worthwhile (worthwhile for whatever the UFC would have to do to put the fight together). If Couture doesn’t roll through Lesnar and Nog/Mir (and he might) then it will not be worth it for the UFC to put the fight together unless Fedor is suddenly willing to sign long-term.
If Fedor fights on NYE in Japan, Would he be ready for a January card?
No way! Its just silly reporting!
I didn’t think so. I don’t know why people are saying that they postponed this show so they could have Fedor. Anyone familiar with him knows he will fight on NYE and would know he wouldn’t be ready to go a couple weeks later.
Not a good sign, but not a surprise either. I posted that on the Babalu thread. I would have loved the competition between organizations, but Affliction isn’t going to be around much longer.
Could Tito come back to the ufc as a 185 er i have talked with a couple guys that have told me (good Sources) he is planning that . With that being said dont think it will ever happen .to much friction with him and dana,tito should stay at home produce a couple jenna jameson videos,and think about the days he dodged chuck and had everyone fooled he was the best.
he would have to cut 60lbs…not going to happen
No way in hell Tito could make 185lbs… not going to happen!
No way in hell Tito could make 185lbs… not going to happen!
tito has stated that he has a “new” home.
Tito’s head weighs more then 185 lbs
Like I said i dont think it will happen but he did fight at 190 before
DBG – He’s a pretty big guy (compared to we under-6 foot dudes), and 185 on his frame seems unreasonable.
They could probably get the same size crowd if they just sent Ozzy.
probably larger…they should just promote Ozzy then when people show up for the concert…there’s fights going on…legal fights that is
Bummer, they need the competition. Please survive Affliction
mma has been of mice and men lately
I just went on affliction’s site. They are still allowing you to purchase tickets. Kinda strange. You’d think they would at least pull the “buy tickets” page until they have made it official.
I think Affliction could have been a viable competitor for the UFC but they made a couple of mistakes. Number until you have a big enough following do not go into Vegas that is clearly UFC zone that is clearly a stupid move. Secondly if you are going to make a stupid move like that then you have to expect Dana to protect home turf. It sounds to me like the boys of Affliction pissed Dana off and he was making it his own personal mission to put them out of business. The method to follow is Strikeforce they are starting small not getting in anyones way and are building slowly. In five years Strikeforce and the UFC are going to be the only two major players.
Business sense? Blame the UFC? The smart thing would have been to foresee this happening in Vegas, and not tease the big dog with the stick.
I think Vitor should be ready by January too
Hey!!! At the end of the day, Affliction still has a damn good lineup! Dana White is the Don King of MMA! He’s making millions! Good for him! But, I don’t for one second believe he’s strong enough to decide who gets to Vegas or not! Now, obviously he can cause some problems, but, he ain’t running nobody out of town! It’s a business! Affliction can make money! Maybe not as much as the UFC right now. But, why do they have to? I had full intentions of buying the next Affliction fight. I don’t want to wait so long in between ights to see top notch fighters go at it! There’s room for two heavyhitters in my opinion! I say Let them all fight! I’m a fan! And that’s what I want! I want to see them all!
They don’t have to make more than the UFC, but thye do have to make money eventully.
good news, they are getting out of business so we can finally have all top fighters under one banner.
Yeah then Dana can squeeze them to make less money and be even a bigger bully, give your head a shake, we need a competitor to keep the UFC honest.
Affliction II
Barnett/AA
Tito/Babalu
Lindland/Vitor
Fedor???
Well, at least Tim Silvia got his cash. I know that will make eveyrone feel better.
if it goes back to anaheim i will go this time
in jan
i bet the ufc had something to do with it
Does anyone else find it interesting that this event was originally scheduled exactly one year after Coutures resignation from the UFC. To that actual day.
who cares.. it’s the 2010 world cup qualifiers that weekend!
I love the UFC. I love what Dana has done for the sport. BUT However ,(pause for dramatic effect) Affliction is good for the sport too. You have alot of guys out there that have real Talent and They will never get a chance. Move Promoters brings more fighters to the ring or cage. And gives good fighters that Dana doesn’t like a chance to go somewhere else and make a living. Also its good for the fighters to have options so they don’t have to go work for peanuts with Dana. These guys work harder than baseball bums that make 40 million a year. They deserve to get paid like Pro athletes and the only way these guys are gonna get big paydays is if there is another promoter competing for them.