If Affliction’s Fedor Emelianenko-Andrei Arlovski main event at “Day of Reckoning” this Saturday doesn’t draw as well as expected, you certainly can’t blame a lack of video hype.  Above is a preview for what is being billed as a documentary called “Fedor: Baddest Man on the Planet,” which will air on Fox Sports Net Tuesday night.  It’s important to note that this was put together by the people from M-1, so don’t expect a warts-and-all look at Emelianenko.  More like a really long commercial or an extended version of the "Arlovski 360" hype videos.  Speaking of which…

…here’s the latest installment, in which “The Pitbull” explains his plan to “fight like lightweight.”  We also get to hear more people talk about how great Arlovski is, how hard he trains, etc.  This is the fifth episode.  We get it.  He trains hard.  He’s a good fighter.  It’s not as if it becomes more true the more people you can find who are willing to say it on camera.

After the jump, Gilbert Yvel explains to “Inside MMA” why he punched that referee.  The short version?  It was wrong, but the ref was a dick.

Dana White’s UFC 93 video blog, episode 5 – Watch more free videos

Former American League Rookie of the Year Marty Cordova has been a consistent fixture in Dana White’s UFC 93 video blogs this week, and we have no idea why.  At first it was just him hanging around in the background, playing with his hair and trying to appear unbothered by Dana’s harassment.  Now he takes center stage to determine who can run a faster mile.  When video blog historians look back on this decades from now, they will probably pinpoint this as the exact moment that Dana White’s video blog jumped the shark.  No MMA at all in this one.  Just Dana berating an ex-pro baseball player as they both run on treadmills.

Over at Xtreme Couture Jay Hieron and Chris Horodecki are getting set for their Affliction bouts next weekend.  Watch as Horodecki auditions for a job in the organization’s front office by calling this “the biggest show ever” in his interview with Raw Vegas.  Riiight.  And tickets are selling like hot cakes.  Delicious, fluffy, motherfucking hot cakes.

After the jump, a prediction for UFC 93’s main event, as told by "Undisputed."

Dana White’s UFC 93 video blog, episode 3 – Watch more free videos

Dana White’s latest video-blogging effort is very long but not very interesting.  He pumps a little iron, tries to convert kilograms to pounds, wanders around Dublin, and strikes up conversations with a few fighters.  Yawn.  Just goes to show that the tedium of anyone’s daily life is still boring, even if they’re the head of the UFC.

Alan Belcher seems to think he’s gotten a good deal for himself in securing a bout with Denis Kang, who’s making his UFC debut this Saturday.  Oddsmakers certainly don’t agree, but as Belcher points out, the vibe from the crowd in the UFC is very different from Japan.  Just how much that will affect Kang, who’s been around in this sport for a while now, that remains to be seen.

After the jump, Affliction hypes Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou vs. Renato “Babalu” Sobral with some help from Loretta Hunt and Josh Gross.

If the purpose of Arlovski 360 is to get fans to relate to Andrei on a personal level, he loses a little bit of ground in the latest episode, as we’re introduced to the Pitbull’s personal chef, jeweler, flag-maker, and club-owner homeboys. One of his friends even delivers the line "Guys wanna be like Andrei, and girls wanna be with Andrei." Must be nice. Meanwhile, Fedor is probably making his own borscht, sewing his own flags, and sleeping with his wife exclusively. [*shudders*] Careful of that rock-star lifestyle, Andrei — you saw what it did to Chuck.

Below: Gilbert Yvel — generously described here as "a fairly controversial fighter with a bit of a checkered past" — is going to rely on his unpredictability to beat Josh Barnett at "Day of Reckoning," and the general consensus is that Barnett will try to stand and bang with him. Sounds like a crowd-pleasing strategy, as long as it doesn’t blow up in his face… 

(Running around shirtless like that, it’s no wonder he got sick.  A little chicken soup will fix you right up, Mark.)

Affliction’s second event has hit its first real snag as the organization revealed that Mark Hominick has come down with pneumonia and has been forced to pull out of his bout with former IFL fighter L.C. Davis.  Affliction is looking for a replacement for Hominick and hoping that they won’t have to scratch the bout altogether.  Fans of brutal head kick knockouts should remember Davis for this little beauty (skip to 12:22, and have your ‘holy shit’ face ready), and it’d be a real shame if he ends up with no one to fight.

In other Affliction news, Tom Atencio has been hitting the media circuit hard lately.  He spoke with USA Today about the many questions surrounding “Day of Reckoning” and disputed rumors of poor ticket sales, and also responded to the backlash against Gilbert Yvel ever since it was announced that he’d take on Josh Barnett in the evening’s penultimate bout.  On the subject of Yvel’s penchant for illegal and downright despicable acts in the ring, Atencio called for leniency:

Those are in the past. It’s been four years since he’s had any problems, yet people still want to bring that up. Yeah, did he do things wrong? Yes he did. Did he pay for them? Yes he did. We sat in front of the California athletic commission and they approved him to go forward in the process. So I think that’s just it. I think it needs to be dropped. He has a chance to prove himself and if he comes out and fights and he puts on a good show — which I think he will; I know he will — then let’s just leave it alone.

After the jump, Atencio appears on Inside MMA and assures everyone that things are going juuuuuust fine.

(Hey, at least you’ll get to keep those totally sweet t-shirts…)

You may have completely forgotten about it because there’s been virtually no promotional push to speak of, but yes, Affliction will be holding its long-delayed sophomore MMA event just 12 days from now, at the Honda Center in Anaheim. Fedor Emelianenko will face Andrei Arlovski, Josh Barnett will take on Gilbert Yvel, and very few people will be watching.

According to Bloody Elbow, only 1,400 tickets to "Day of Reckoning" had been sold as of last week. (FYI, the Honda Center can hold about 18,000 spectators.)   At first, Tom Atencio wouldn’t confirm or deny that figure, but now he’s saying that the ticket sales are comparable to last July’s "Banned" event, where over 6,000 tix had been sold three weeks before the show. CagePotato can neither confirm nor deny how full of shit Atencio’s public statements are.

So, a few things come to mind…

(It was going fine until the 1:57 mark. Then things get really uncomfortable.)

- Affliction can’t stop talking about how awesome they are. (Yahoo!)

- Thiago Silva is expecting a track meet against Lyoto Machida. (Tatame)

- Is the UFC phoning it in for UFC 93? (Fightlinker)

- Neil Grove to make UFC debut against Justin McCully. (Fighters Only)

- Tim Kennedy talks war and MMA. (Five Ounces of Pain)

- HIT Squad Dodgeball.  (Matt-Hughes.com)

- Rich Franklin trains for Dan Henderson. (MMA Mania)

- Gina Carano says she doesn’t get paid what you think. (AskMen.com)

- This is why you don’t run from the cops. (Break.com)

- 7 TV shows that really need to exist. (Screen Junkies)

- 10 things Tim Tebow should have put on his eye black. (Holy Taco)

- Skater owns bully. (Nothing Toxic)

- This is too adorable to ignore. (Hip to Code)

(When you absolutely, positively need someone who will poke you repeatedly in the eye, there really is no substitute.)

While there are any number of reasons why an athletic commission might not license Gilbert Yvel (he is, after all, one of MMA’s most despicable people), it seems as if the CSAC is going to let him fight.  They’ve cleared him to apply for a license, which basically means that all he has to do pass medicals and not pull an Aleks Emelianenko and get himself benched at the last minute.  

But just in case Tom Atencio says he has “people in line if it doesn’t work out."

Trouble is, finding a credible replacement to face someone like Josh Barnett isn’t the same as finding someone to go against Paul Buentello in an undercard fight.  There you could just call up Gary Goodridge and nobody would feel as though they’d lost out.  In the case of Barnett, you’ve got to get a high-level replacement in order for the fight to feel like anything other than a consolation prize or premeditated ass-whipping.  

Atencio wouldn’t say who he has lined up, but whoever it is can’t be a serious opponent for Barnett.  It would have to be someone with enough of an ‘I don’t give a fuck attitude’ to take that fight on short notice, and also someone who is a non-UFC heavyweight not already on the Affliction card, which rules out Paul Buentello, thank God.

Fortunately Affliction has set hopes low by giving Barnett someone like Yvel to begin with, but dammit, if we see “Big Daddy” Goodridge come shuffling out at the last minute again, whatever credibility Affliction has left will be destroyed just as surely as he will.

Yep, Arlovski and Penn are still getting their Internet self-promotion on. Episode three of Arlovski 360: On the Road to Reckoning focuses on the Pitbull’s mental game, though the clip is really just a collection of people talking about how awesome Andrei is. Which is kind of ironic considering Loretta Hunt’s speech about how surrounding yourself with people who tell you how awesome you are is actually bad for your development. (The next episode is titled "The Entourage," which also doesn’t bode well.) Interesting fact: The Morgan Freeman-esque narrator in the Arlovski 360 series is Greg Hollimon, best known for his role as Principal Onyx Blackman in Strangers With Candy. Well, it was interesting to me, anyway.

Below: The intro to the sixth installment of The BJPenn.com Show, which kicks off with a recap of the first three fights in the Beatdown Challenge, visits the Prodigy in training, features the last Beatdown quarterfinal matchup between Chris "Red Bull" Willems and "Dirty" Dave Moreno, and introduces us to another "Pretty Wahine." Segments 2-5 of this episode can be found here. Is it annoying that you have to watch the episode in five separate clips? Yes it is. But BJPenn.com doesn’t play by your rules.

("Step 1: Kiss a picture of Manny Pacquiao every night before you go to bed." Photo courtesy of ESPN.)

From a new MMA Weekly interview with Andrei Arlovski‘s famed boxing coach, Freddie Roach:

Hear that, Tim Sylvia? Angles. If you think that Freddie’s "fight us like a man" line implies a lack of appreciation for MMA and its more subtle ground elements, you’d be correct. As he explains, “I think it’s boring. I saw one fight where the guy just laid on the other guy the whole fight and he won.” But Roach understands that Arlovski’s opponent could wind up scoring a victory on the canvas:

It must be nice to live in a world where you never have to worry about the armbar (I guess it’s called). But I don’t live in that world, and you don’t live in that world, and Andrei Arlovski sure as hell doesn’t live in that world. Can sharp boxing be enough to stave off Fedor’s Hydra-like attack? We’ll find out on the 24th, but my money’s still on the chubby guy.

(Photo courtesy of Fight Sport.)

Now that an eventful 2008 is in the books, Alistair Overeem tells DreamFighters.com that he plans to take a little rest, go on vacation, and maybe even swing on over the Ireland to catch UFC 93 on January 17th.  Lest you think it’s purely a sight-seeing trip, the Dutch fighter says his management team has been in talks with the UFC and Affliction, and Overeem says he’s up for fighting everyone from Fedor Emelianenko to Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir.  

After seeing a very bulky Overeem destroy Badr Hari on New Year’s Eve, we can’t deny that we’d like to see him added to the UFC’s heavyweight stable.  Even signing with Affliction would offer him a fresh list of opponents and probably a nice paycheck, though who knows for how long.  But you put a guy like Overeem into the UFC’s heavyweight division and suddenly you have a lot of interesting match-ups on the horizon, and they’d be particularly helpful in the UFC’s European expansion attempts.

Overeem isn’t the only one thinking about stepping into the Octagon, however, as his old rival Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic says he’ll likely retire in 2009, and would like to have one more fight in the UFC before he does.

#5: Affliction: Banned, 7/19/08

(Photo courtesy of Sherdog)

Sure, the pacing was a little shaky, and the picture quality for the pay-per-view broadcast was kind of dark, and apparently some of you don’t think that Megadeth’s Rust in Peace is one of the most kickass records ever released. But you shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Affliction’s debut MMA show gave us a supernova of heavyweight star power, featuring Fedor Emelianenko’s 36-second destruction of Tim Sylvia, Andrei Arlovski’s beatdown of Ben Rothwell, and Josh Barnett’s redemptive KO of Pedro Rizzo; elsewhere on the card, we got to see Matt Lindland, Babalu Sobral, Vitor Belfort and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in action. The organization has since turned into a bit of a shit-show, but with Banned, they gave us nearly everything we could have hoped for.

#4: UFC 87: Seek and Destroy, 8/9/08

(Photo courtesy of ESPN)

The UFC’s visit to Minneapolis proved the following…
— Brock Lesnar is an absolute beast. His takedowns can’t be stopped, and his punches tend to break facial bones. He will mock you after he beats you.
— Kenny Florian is a fantastic fighter, and worthy of a title shot; Roger Huerta maybe had a little more hype than substance.
— Demian Maia is one of the most talented submission specialists in MMA, in any organization, in any weight class. His choke-out of Jason MacDonald gave him his third-consecutive Submission of the Night bonus.
— Ben Saunders might actually be a contender one day.
— Jon Jones is athletic and explosive. I’m sorry, but the clichés are true sometimes.
— Jon Fitch is one tough son-of-a-bitch.
— If you’re fighting Georges St. Pierre, tough ain’t enough.

(‘It’s not a skirt, you assholes.  The Romans wore these. Read a book.’)

The surprises just keep coming for the New Year’s Eve K-1 Dynamite show.  Jerome Le Banner is sick with the flu and has been forced to pull out of his fight with Mark Hunt, and Melvin Manhoef has agreed to take his place.  Despite the incredible weight difference between the heavyweight Hunt and the sort of middleweight Manhoef, the two will fight an MMA bout under “Dream rules” for three five-minute rounds.  

Is it a good idea for Manhoef, a vicious striker with an almost non-existent ground game to face a much heavier and damn near impossible to knock out fighter like Hunt, who also packs a serious wallop of his own?  Short answer: no.  No, it is probably not a good idea.  Especially on short notice.  But unlike many of the other bad ideas on the Dynamite NYE show, this one I’d actually love to see. 

Dammit, Japan.  Just when I want to curse your lack of rules and regulations, you go and do something like this to leave me more conflicted than ever.  I just can’t quit you.

In other news…

UFC 92 Video Blog – Watch more free videos

Even though Dana White is a millionaire with fancy cars and a private jet to fly around in, no material object seems to bring him as much pleasure as that shock pen.  He’s still pulling the prank at UFC 92, even on “Rampage” Jackson, who just wants to relax at Octagonside after knocking Wanderlei Silva senseless.  Come on, Dana.  Time and a place, man.

Skip to the 5:37 mark and you can actually see Dana White beginning to realize that Steve Mazzagatti is not a good ref.  He’s less adamant about it than those around him, but that is not the way a man who’s happy about what he’s seeing chews gum.

After the jump, episode two of "Arlovski 360," in which boxing trainer Freddie Roach lays out the game plan that  he thinks will beat Fedor Emelianenko.  It seems…optimistic.

(Photo courtesy of AfflictionClothing.com/DayofReckoning)

The online betting site 5Dimes was the first to put up odds for Affliction: Day of Reckoning’s main event, now offering a +325 underdog line for the Pitbull, and -475 for the Last Emperor; in other words, bet $100 on Andrei to win $375, bet $475 on Fedor to win $100. Apparently the line was first established at +400/-600, but it started to even out as money began flooding in for Arlovski. (According to BestFightOdds, BetCris‘s numbers are slightly more generous, and they’re already offering odds for the Josh Barnett/Gilbert Yvel match.) If you feel like taking a risk on the Pitbull, you may want to act soon, since your potential profit could decrease as Arlovski fans continue to drop cash on him.

Personally, I feel that betting against Fedor is always a bad move — even if Arlovski’s been hard at work, taking detailed notes. But 5Dimes and BetCris are also offering a far more interesting wager: Georges St. Pierre vs. BJ Penn at UFC 94. Though 5Dimes set the line at -245/+175 on Monday with Penn as the underdog, the numbers have already shrunk down to -210/+160, meaning that bets are coming down solidly on the Prodigy. If you think GSP has the edge here, definitely keep an eye on the odds to see if they go any lower for him.

Semi-related: Andrei Arlovski now refers to Tim Sylvia as "Pee Pee Taste." Brilliant.

("We’re gonna need that shirt back too.")

In an attempt to keep his name somewhat fresh in the minds of MMA fans who used to give a damn about him, Tito Ortiz will be appearing at an Affliction "Day of Reckoning" press conference in L.A. tomorrow; sources have indicated to MMA Weekly that Ortiz has agreed to sign with the promotion.

Though January 24th might be too soon a return date for Ortiz — who underwent back surgery in October — Affliction may be using a Tito-signing announcement to drum up more interest in their product, which certainly needs a push leading up to event #2. What we’re really curious about is what might have changed since August, when Tom Atencio called Ortiz’s contract demands "just not feasible." Did the HBBB get a little more realistic with his asking price, or did Affliction decide that they need Ortiz to boost pay-per-view buys, no matter what the cost?

Affliction’s light-heavyweight division isn’t particularly deep, but a few good matchups are possible for Ortiz. Renato Sobral and Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou are facing off next month, and a fight between the winner of that match and Ortiz would be compelling. Vladimir Matyushenko (who Ortiz previously defeated at UFC 33 in September 2001) and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira are also fighting at "Day of Reckoning," which provides another option. Assuming, of course, that Affliction will be around long enough to stage a third event. And assuming that "Day of Reckoning" will take place to begin with. But hey, if it makes sense to Tito, it makes sense to us.

(Photo courtesy of AfricanAssassin.com)

Dropped from the UFC just two weeks ago, Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (5-3) has already been picked up by Affliction, and will reportedly face Renato "Babalu" Sobral (31-7) at "Day of Reckoning" on January 24th. Wisely, the Cameroonian fighter only signed a one-fight contract, which means he won’t be stuck in an EliteXC-style purgatory if Affliction crashes and burns after their second event. Sobral, who won Strikeforce’s light-heavyweight title last month with a doctor’s stoppage victory over Bobby Southworth, was originally slated to face Matt Lindland in a 195-pound catch-weight bout at "Day of Reckoning"; Lindland will now be facing former UFC champ Vitor Belfort.

Not exactly a tune-up match for Soko, who’s coming off a TKO loss to Luis Cane at UFC 89 in October. Sobral is about as seasoned as they come, and he’s looked particularly sharp lately. He certainly has the submission skills to punk Sokoudjou on the ground, though a standing fight could favor the African Assassin. Here’s what "Day of Reckoning"’s main card looks like so far:

- Fedor Emelianenko vs. Andrei Arlovski
- Josh Barnett vs. Gilbert Yvel
- Matt Lindland vs. Vitor Belfort
- Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Vladimir Matyushenko
- Renato Sobral vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou
- Chris Horodecki vs. Dan Lauzon

No matter what Andrei Arlovski was writing down in that video, he’s probably better off taking some of your suggestions. Out of the hundreds of entries we slogged through, here are the top five, which all earn their authors subscriptions to Fight! Magazine:

Ted Nutmeg: Dear Diary,
Well, it happened again today. It seems like every time I turn around some guy is pounding a pussy that I went through two years ago.

Shagen: "Try to do something in the first 36 seconds."

CrushCo: i? F????! ??tt?? ??ty? soo?.

Lysol: "Tell Seth Petruzelli not to make plans on the 24th."

Xian67: http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/5765/notepadtransvn7.jpg

If your name has been called, please send your real names and addresses to feedback@cagepotato.com and we’ll get those subscriptions hooked right up for ya. Good times! As for the rest of you, cheer up by gawking at the lovely ladies in Fight!’s Girl Search finals. That always makes us feel better.

(‘You like what you see, yes?’)

It’s time again to raid our forums and answer your deepest questions.  This time around, we cover everything from fighter rankings to how to get into Affliction: Day of Reckoning on the cheap.  You shiftless no-accounts. 

If you have a question of your own head on over to the official Ask the Potato thread and we’ll deal with you in turn. 

Last time Affliction: Banned had a barn burning sale on tickets the day of the event, As someone who lives under an hour from the Honda center and a fan of seeing Fedor live at least once, would you suggest buying a ticket now or wait till the day of in hopes the box office drops prices again? – Hussdawg22

Don’t you dare buy a ticket now, Hussdawg.  I realize I shouldn’t say that, and I’m not helping Affliction’s cause any, but dammit, as your unofficial MMA-related financial advisor I simply cannot recommend that purchase.  

For one thing, you don’t even know for sure if that show will happen on that date.  With the Mosley-Margarito bout in the same region on the same night, and with all Affliction’s troubles, they may reschedule it or drop it altogether.  Anything’s possible with them. 

But more importantly, that event will not sell out.  You will still be able to get a ticket on fight day, and it’s a very good bet that you’ll be able to get a good seat cheap.  You don’t want to be the jerk who pays $250 to sit next to some dudes from Cal State Fullerton who paid thirty bucks a pop.

After seeing Torres tear through another "number 1 contender", what does the B&B Potato Entrapment Company think of level of competition in the WEC’s bantamweight division? Is it on par with the UFC’s welter or middle weight division and Torres is just THAT damn good or is it more along the lines of the UFC’s lightweight division where most of the weight division’s talent is in Japan?  — Geriatric Peon

(Will Andrei Arlovski be the man to beat Fedor Emelianenko? Will anybody actually get to see it?)

Let’s get this out of the way first: If you didn’t watch Manny Pacquiao’s one-sided walloping of Oscar De La Hoya last night, click here. My God this Mexecutioner.

Okay now. We’ve already told you that boxing promotion juggernaut Golden Boy’s relationship with Affliction could be described as "non-committal" at best. What was originally announced as a grand partnership devolved into straight-up rivalry when GB scheduled a superfight between welterweight stars "Sugar" Shane Mosley and Antonio Margarito on January 24th, the same night as Affliction’s "Day of Reckoning" event. And it gets worse: The match is slated to go down at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, about a half-hour drive (depending on traffic) from Affliction’s venue of the Honda Center in Anaheim.

"Day of Reckoning"’s original date of October 11th was canceled due to nearly non-existant ticket sales, and they weren’t even competing with a major boxing match on the same day for attendance and local media coverage. Simply put, Mosley/Margarito on 1/24 is a death-blow for Affliction. It’s hard to envision them filling an arena without rescheduling the event yet again. Still, Fabricio Werdum is under the impression that Affliction has promised 16 events in 2009. Quite a lofty goal for an organization that has put on exactly one event in the last five months. But hey — everybody gotta have a dream.

(Photo courtesy of Shootboxing.org.)

Well, it looks like Brett Rogers is getting shafted again. From a press release that landed in our inbox this morning:

As with anything related to M-1 or Affliction, treat this announcement more as a possibility than a confirmation. But if it does come together, the Babyface Assassin had better be on guard — Yvel, after all, has three disqualifications under his belt due to biting, eye-gouging, and knocking out a referee. Still, he’s often brilliant when he keeps his emotions in check, and has won his last seven fights via stoppage, most recently a 22-second TKO of Alexander Timonov at last month’s M-1 Challenge event in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Barnett has been a perfect 3-0 since the demise of PRIDE, and last competed at Affliction’s "Banned" show in July, where he scored a second-round knockout of Pedro Rizzo. Personally, I’m happy to see Barnett fighting any legitimate opponent — and if he can punish Yvel for all his bad in-ring behavior, even better — but if you’re interested in the opposing viewpoint, Fight Opinion has four reasons why this matchup is "worthless."

(‘Affliction…nope, sorry, doesn’t ring a bell.’)

Remember when Affliction trumpeted a huge announcement, which was mostly a ploy to detract attention from the “rescheduling” of their second event?  And remember when that huge announcement was that they would be partnering with Golden Boy Promotions, thus bringing the feuding cousins of MMA and boxing together?  And then Golden Boy said, ‘screw that,’ and decided to promote a competing boxing match on the same night?  

Well on today’s conference call to promote the upcoming De La Hoya-Pacquiao fight, the ever-intrepid Michael David Smith (or MDS, if you’re nasty) of MMA Fanhouse hit Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer with a question about whether they’d really be promoting both the Affliction: Day of Reckoning card and the Mosley-Margarito bout on the same night.  His answer was the equivalent of when you asked your mom if you could stop for ice cream after soccer practice and she responded with, ‘We’ll see.’

"I don’t want to talk about it right now," Schaefer said. "We’re still trying to finalize it. The one thing I know for sure is that Antonio Margarito and Sugar Shane Mosley will be fighting on January 24."

I don’t know about you, but to me that does not sound like a man who is involved in a solid partnership that he is genuinely excited about.  Granted, Schaefer’s first order of business on this call was to promote the upcoming fight, not one in January, but he stopped just short of saying that he does not know, nor does he care what Affliction does on Jan. 24.  Will they have a show at all?  Your guess is probably as good as Schaefer’s, with the difference being that you might actually give a damn.

(The Booyaa Fight Girls: Voted most likely to lie to you about working their way through community college.)

Banning clothing brands as potential sponsors is so much fun, Zuffa is at it once again.  MMA Payout reports that the newest addition to the blacklist is Booyaa Fightwear, an apparel-maker whose loose affiliation with the King of the Cage organization was enough to torpedo their proposed sponsorship of Mike Budnik in his WEC bout this week. 

King of the Cage was part of the Pro Elite network of organizations, but is one of the few entities that can still promote fights and is still somewhat capable of scratching out a living as small-timers.  Apparently this makes KOTC, and by extension Booyaa Fightwear (if ever there was a company name more inspired by the mid-nineties, I’ve yet to hear of it), a perceived competitor of the WEC.  And we all know how Zuffa deals with competitors. 

(When in Zagreb…)

Maybe now we know why Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic has been reluctant to accept a rematch with Alistair Oveerem.  Sure, he’s got that knee injury, and Overeem is the man who made it his personal mission to destroy Cro Cop’s testicles in their last meeting, but to add to his troubles Cro Cop recently lost his favorite cocaine-addicted sparring partner to an armed robbery arrest.  That always happens at the worst times, doesn’t it?

According to a translation done by Robert at betwxx (via Brawl Sports), Mirko Borkovic (aw, cute, same first name!) was arrested in Zagreb as a “serial armed robber.”  He’s charged with robbing twenty-five “betting agencies,” making off with over 250,000 Croation Kuna, a little over $45,000 in U.S. dollars. 

Don’t worry though, it was just to finance his cocaine addiction, so it’s not like he’s a scumbag or anything.  Apparently he did some time for possession in 2003, and said he used the drug as a performance-enhancer to aid his kickboxing training.  My ex-girlfriend tried that same story.  Six months into the relationship I realized she didn’t even have a gym membership.  Or a job.  And then I noticed my wallet was missing.  But I digress.

Also snuck into the report is this little nugget about Cro Cop’s other associations these days:

Only a month earlier Cro Cop was forced to deny having sparred with Robert Matanic a local crime figure and suspect in the murder of Ivo Pukanica. In a interview with Nova TV, Cro Cop disassociated himself from Matanic claiming not to ever have met or sparred with Matanic.

In Cro Cop’s defense, roughly 80% of Croatians are involved in organized crime.  You spar with enough people, eventually one of them is going to be a suspected murderer.  Just kidding, Croatian readers.  Please don’t murder me.

In other news…

(‘A contract with the UFC? I’m set for life! What could possibly go wrong now?’)

Former UFC heavyweight Fabricio Werdum didn’t appear to realize he’d been fired from the organization even after several media outlets reported the news. At first we thought maybe his manager (also known as his sister) hadn’t told him for fear that he’d finally realize what a mistake it had been to hire her. Or perhaps he was just in denial. But now Werdum is facing the difficult realities of the situation, and judging by what he told Tatame, the UFC didn’t make much of an effort to come to terms with him:

“When I first heard the rumours, I didn’t know anything. I had four more fights left with them on my contract, which ran to 2010. But they demanded to renegotiate my existing contract by cutting my pay in half” revealed the heavyweight. Adding also that his departure had nothing to do with the video game licensing dispute. “No that wasn’t an issue but its not something that benefit’s the fighters”

“I‘m a free agent now. One of the advantages of leaving the UFC is the freedom of contract, which allows fighters to work with more than one event without any problems. That’s very beneficial. There are several possibilities now including fighting in multiple organizations. Affliction, Sengoku and Dream are big events, but I think the possibility of fighting for Affliction in particular will give me the best chance to fight the best in the world, Fedor, in addition to (Andrei) Arlovski, Josh Barnett and several other big names …That would be a great opportunity for me.”

(‘It would be pleasure to hurt hand on your face very much.’)

Fedor Emelianenko broke his silence about his Combat Sambo loss this past weekend, telling Dave Meltzer that it’s no biggie. Sambo’s just something he does for shits and giggles. MMA is what he does for money:

“My Bulgarian opponent wasn’t a surprise,” said Emelianenko through an interpreter. “I always understand there could be the possibility of losing a bout. My opponent was European champion in combat sambo. But for me, sambo is a hobby. I enjoy participating in the sport, but it’s a different sport. It’s a sport scored based on throws and being taken to the ground. That’s happened to me in MMA with [Kazuyuki] Fujita and [Antonio Rodrigo] Nogueira. It’s not my occupation or my work, which is MMA. I think the result would be different under MMA rules.”

It’s not quite ‘Oh, Snap!’ worthy, but in Fedor terms that’s about as close to shit-talking as he usually likes to get. He makes a valid point, though. Sambo isn’t a real fight, and anyway he lost on points. Word has it that he flew in from Thailand not long before the match, and a source who spoke to Fedor at the actual event tells Cage Potato that the Russian doesn’t really seem too excited about Sambo these days, and may be doing it more out of patriotic obligation than anything else.

In other words, don’t get your hopes up, Andrei Arlovski. Fedor hasn’t fallen off just yet.

(Let’s try this again, “Ace”, this time with a little enthusiasm.)

Despite the fact that UFC 93 and 95 are taking place in Dublin and London respectively, they will not air for free on Spike TV, reports MMA Rated. Does that mean you’re going to have to pay more of your rapidly dwindling cash to see an event that goes live in the middle of the afternoon? Either that or wait until the videos hit the internet, and for some reason it’s considered “troubling behavior” for me to drink in front of my computer at ten o’clock on a Sunday morning, even though it’s perfectly acceptable to do it in front of the TV on a Saturday. I blame this Puritanical society.

The explanation for why this is happening centers around Spike TV’s production budget. Broadcasting these overseas events is costly, and since both UFC 93 and 95 take place within the first two months of 2009, that would mean blowing a big portion of their budget in the first quarter. This, my friends, is a side effect of the UFC going global.

So now we’re looking at three pay-per-views in the first sixty days of the new year from the UFC, plus another one on January 24 from Affliction. I don’t know what your disposable income looks like these days, but it sure seems like someone’s got to lose in this scenario. Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that you could only afford two of these events without being forced to make extra money by letting your creepy neighbor install that webcam he keeps talking about. What’s it gonna be: Fedor-Arlovski (Affliction), Franklin-Henderson (UFC 93, with a side order of Coleman-Rua), Penn-St. Pierre (UFC 94), or Liddell-Silva (UFC 95, hopefully)? As a bonus question, how important will the undercards of said events be in your decision-making?

(Couldn’t have done it without you, big guy.)

As much as it looked like it might never happen at times, Affliction: Day of Reckoning is going on sale this week. The online presale started today and tickets officially go on sale Wednesday for the January 24 event. They’ve even added more fights than just the Fedor Emelianenko-Andrei Arlvoski bout in some crazy attempt to entice people by telling them what they’re actually paying for.

According to Affliction’s website, here’s what the card is looking like so far:

Main Card (pay-per-view)
Fedor Emelianenko vs. Andrei Arlovski
Josh Barnett vs. TBA
Vitor Belfort vs. TBA
Renato Sobral vs. Matt Lindland
Chris Horodecki vs. Dan Lauzon

(Would it kill the Sambo guys to put on some pants?)

Fedor Emelianenko actually lost a fight this weekend. Sort of. Competing in the World Combat Sambo Championships, Fedor lost on points (8-5) in the semi-finals to Bulgarian Blagoi Ivanov, who went on to win the gold medal. Fedor won the bronze after his opponent in the third-place match conceded without a fight. So…does this mean he’s no longer the world’s best heavyweight?

No. Of course it doesn’t mean that. Jesus, it’s just Sambo. Would you calm down? In case you’re wondering whether this Ivanov character is some preternatural fighting genius who’s set to take over the world, he probably isn’t. Fedor beat him earlier this year at the Russian Federation President’s Cup. It just so happens that Ivanov got his revenge this time, and you could make a strong case that Fedor’s been distracted by running around filming movies and hawking Affliction in the past few months.

Fighters Only floated a rumor that Affliction had already signed Ivanov to a contract, but MMA Rated has talked to VP Tom Atencio and he says it isn’t true. The way things go in Affliction, someone else in the company may very well contradict that statement tomorrow.

Long story short: Sambo isn’t MMA, so this isn’t a sign that Fedor is washed up. It is, however, wonderfully ironic when you consider that Fedor’s burning desire to continue to do Sambo was part of his problem with the restrictive UFC contract. Just think, it could have been him beating Randy Couture this weekend. At least then he wouldn’t have had to fight that mean old Bulgarian guy.

(Google Image Search result for “awful Beard.”)

Affliction put out a press release today announcing that loose-cannon/multiple-felon Todd Beard has left the building. Dig:

SEAL BEACH, Calif., Nov 14, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — The board of directors of Affliction Inc. announced today that it received and accepted the resignation of Todd Beard as an employee of the company. Mr. Beard is one of the original founders of the clothing company based in Seal Beach, California. The resignation coincides with a public apology for comments made by Mr. Beard and directed toward Randy Couture and his wife Kim Couture regarding their business relationship.

Mr. Beard also disclosed that he will be seeking treatment for anger management and alcohol abuse.

According to Mr. Beard, “I would like to apologize for my comments that may have offended Kim and Randy Couture and Mr. Spira. I had a long-standing relationship with the Coutures and I was deeply and emotionally hurt by some of their recent business decisions. I have only the best of intentions for the success of the Affliction and Xtreme Couture clothing brands and understand that there are personal issues I must address.”