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Former IFL welterweight champ Jay Hieron has reportedly verbally agreed to face Drew Fickett at the next Affliction event in Las Vegas on October 11. The real question is, will Fickett find some clever new way to screw it up? Fickett’s manager, Alexander Oxendine, seems open to that possibility:
“We’re in discussion with a few organizations and Affliction is one of them,” said Oxendine. “They are at the top of our list. As far as Drew is concerned, he’s made a great turnaround with his life and training. He is ready to move forward.”
If you don’t know, Fickett is the same guy who managed to get himself fired from MFC and booted off a Strikeforce card in one glorious weekend when he tried to breach his contract in the apparent hopes that no one would figure it out. They did, chaos ensued, and Fickett went on to lose via questionable stoppage in a Rage in the Cage event.
So now one of MMA’s favorite troublemakers is being offered a spot in Affliction against one of the tougher welterweights outside of the UFC, and he’s not sure if he wants to take it? Affliction should not only be at the top of his list, it should be the entire list. He should run down there and sign the contract in his own blood before they have a chance to change their minds. Let’s hope this is just a negotiating ploy by his agent. If Fickett ends up turning this down to fight in some small show at a fairground somewhere, we’ll know it’s time for new management. No, not Mark Dion, either.
Written by admin on August 23rd, 2008 with comments disabled.
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(That’s the kind of youthful exuberance Affliction needs!)
Today’s Affliction press conference managed to temporarily steal some of the media spotlight away from UFC 87, as the organization announced that they had signed former IFL lightweight Chris Horodecki, and revealed a planned bout between IFL heavyweight champ Roy “Big Country” Nelson and Paul Buentello at their next in event in Vegas on October 11. That’s right, Nelson will not face Xtreme Couture’s Jay White in a pump-up squash match, as was previously rumored. Instead he’ll get something closer to a real test when he takes on the revitalized Buentello, who is fresh off a decision victory over Gary Goodridge at Affliction: Banned.
Affliction VP Tom Atencio said he was “really excited” about signing Horodecki and added that “everything is falling into place for Las Vegas.”
What Affliction didn’t announce at the press conference was the official signing of Tito Ortiz, who was said to be close to a “ground-breaking record contract” with the organization. According to Michael Cohen, Affliction’s COO (also Special Counsel to Donald Trump, see how that works?) there’s nothing to get excited about just yet:
“Donald Trump, myself and Tito engaged in a conversation,” said Cohen about the potential deal with Ortiz. “There was nothing substantive that was discussed other than that we are interested in sitting down with him, which we are planning on doing in the very near future, to discuss with him the opportunity to join the family of Affliction fighters.”
Damn lawyers. They really know how to drain all the fun out of everything. Suddenly we’ve gone from world’s greatest contract and a guaranteed 500,000 pay-per-view buys to talking about sitting down to talk. This is what happens when people who think before they speak get to talk to the media.
Here’s what Affliction: Day of Reckoning looks like at the moment:
Andrei Arlovski vs. Josh Barnett
Vitor Belfort vs. Matt Lindland
Roy Nelson vs. Paul Buentello
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Vladimir Matyushenko
Jason High vs. Mike Pyle
Written by admin on August 6th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Fedor Emelianenko shrugged off his injured thumb following his thirty-six second demolition of Tim Sylvia at Affliction: Banned, but now a hand injury has his next Affliction bout against Andrei Arlovski in doubt. Five Ounces of Pain is reporting that Fedor is off the October 11 card and that instead we’ll see Josh Barnett step in to take his place.
Barnett made a ripple in the MMA news pond earlier this week when he said he would not take a pay cut for his next Affliction bout, as VP Tom Atencio hinted that he may ask the fighters to do. If Barnett is going to be the main event savior for Affliction, you can bet he’s going to insist on being paid like one, especially now that he knows Tim Sylvia is walking around with $800,000 in his pocket.
Losing Fedor for their second show could turn out to be an interesting test for Affliction. If they can still draw without their main attraction, the organization might have some legs. If they can’t, the outlook becomes grim. Very grim.
Written by admin on August 2nd, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on fight and Affliction and Las Vegas and October and General and Andrei Arlovski and UFC and Josh Barnett and Fedor Emelianenko and News and MMA.
(Photo courtesy of Combat Lifestyle.)
In an attempt to make Affliction’s decision to, let’s just say not go through with their planned October 11 event in Las Vegas, company VP Tom Atencio is getting specific about the semantics involved. You see, they aren’t canceling their event. Everyone knows that’s a bad sign for an MMA company. And they aren’t postponing it, either. Again, another bad sign. No, it’s nothing like that.
Atencio explains it all to MMA Weekly:
“We’re not canceling it, we’re not postponing it, we’re rescheduling it completely,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense to do it where we wanted to do it, it’s a positive.”
[…]
“It was a business decision. We came out strong, and we want to continue with that momentum and continue strong. We don’t want to come out and be weak and have to give tickets away. We want to continue to be a force in this industry.”
[…]
“From a business standpoint, we don’t want to lose money,” he said. “We want to be here long term. It’s a wise choice. This is definitely a positive.”
So they scheduled an event, paid for a Nascar sponsorship and a Times Square billboard touting the date, then couldn’t sell any tickets. So what did they do? They scheduled it again, for a different time and place. They re-scheduled it. Completely different than postponing or canceling.
Atencio also said there would be an announcement about the company’s future during the Marquez-Casamayor boxing match this Saturday, while Affliction COO Michael Cohen has been more vague, promising an announcement “within two weeks” and saying a press conference would take place at Trump Towers in New York City.
Could this big announcement have something to do with a boxing co-promotion? Or absolutely nothing to do with boxing? Will we continue to play this guessing game until someone comes up with some answers? Where’s Waldo!? Who’s on first?!? Gaaah!
Written by admin on November 29th, 1999 with comments disabled.
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