(Image courtesy of InsanityWeTrust.net)

Josh Gross at SI reports that Showtime Sports will be responsible for producing and distributing Affliction’s “Day of Reckoning” pay-per-view card on January 24th; an official announcement will come Monday. Showtime Sports produced all the ShoXC and EliteXC broadcasts on the premium cable channel, as well as the EliteXC events on CBS and the Strikeforce/EliteXC co-promoted “Shamrock vs. Baroni” pay-per-view in June 2007. So, expect a step up in quality from the bad lighting, bizarre camera angles, and poor pacing that plagued Affliction’s “Banned” show in July.

“Day of Reckoning” is still headlined by Fedor Emelianenko defending his WAMMA heavyweight championship belt against Andrei Arlovski. Gross also confirmed the addition of three other bouts: First, Matt Lindland and Renato “Babalu” Sobral will meet in a middleweight match on the main card; both fighters won decisions at “Banned,” with Lindland getting the better of Fabio Nascimento and Sobral edging out Mike Whitehead. [Ed. note: FiveOunces is reporting that the match will be contested at light-heavyweight.]

(Nothing says ‘power couple’ like matching shirts and leis.)

Affliction’s Todd Beard really knows how to screw up. First he goes on Scott Ferrall’s radio show to blast Randy Couture and publicly state his desire to see him get his ass kicked by Brock Lesnar. But that’s not enough to really alienate one of the biggest stars Affliction works with, so just for good measure he also threatens Couture’s wife, Kim, who then gets a restraining order against him. That’s called going above and beyond, working fuck-up overtime. And here we thought he was just an alcoholic.

TMZ has the scoop:

Randy and wife Kim claim Affliction Prez Todd Beard has been on a campaign of terror against them since they asked for an accounting of profits. A Las Vegas judge just issued a temporary restraining order, prohibiting Beard from going near Kim, and that includes going near the MGM Grand when Randy fights this Saturday. And Beard can’t go to the hotel during the weigh-in the day before either.

According to Kim Couture’s declaration, Beard has made “a series of threats and acts intended to intimidate me and otherwise coerce me to ‘back off.’”

She goes on: “My fear of Mr. Beard is well-founded given his extensive criminal history. Not only has he been convicted of numerous state and federal felonies relating to fraud …he has engaged in numerous acts of violence, including violence against women.”

Hold up, “extensive criminal history?” You mean, aside from making those overpriced t-shirts? Yes. As it turns out, Beard is a bit of a rounder. He’s even served time.

In a development that few of you will admit to caring about, Tito Ortiz now says that returning to the UFC is a real possibility, and he’s looking to emerge from his competitive hiatus this summer. As Michael David Smith at AOL MMA FanHouse writes:

[At] last weekend’s Rumble in the Park in Fresno, Ortiz said, “It’s either going to be with the UFC or it’s going to be with Affliction, but guaranteed, you guys will see me fight — no matter what — by July.”

Ortiz also mentioned that he had back surgery last month, which he deemed successful. He also said it was the same surgery that Nate Quarry had, and Quarry was out of action for 15 months after his back surgery. So Ortiz is very optimistic if he thinks he can guarantee that he’ll return just seven months after the surgery.

He’s also optimistic if he thinks Affliction will still be in the MMA business in July. And he’s optimistic if he thinks UFC will still be willing to do business with him. Bottom line, Ortiz is an optimistic guy.

Of course, it could be worse: Ortiz was close to signing a contract with EliteXC. As former EliteXC fighter Jake Shields said, “Good thing he didn’t sign with them. He’d be on eBay.”

Quick timeline, if you haven’t been keeping up…

In this video interview from Steve Cofield, Randy Couture responds to the recent hostility directed at him by Affliction co-owner Todd Beard. It seems that Randy isn’t above slinging a little mud right back — and he gets pretty damn personal:

“I don’t intend to do any more business with Todd or Affliction in any way, and whether or not they still manufacture [Xtreme Couture clothing] down the road or not is still yet to be seen. But, you know, guys with drinking problems, I mean, is what it boils down to. I’ve seen it at several different professional meetings where he’s ordering shots and just out of control. And it’s not really something that I want be associated with.”

OH, SNAP. Beard sounds almost as bad as Mauro Ranallo. The UFC still won’t allow Randy to wear Xtreme Couture gear during UFC appearances as long as Affliction is a competitor, and his return to the Octagon has Beard’s panties in a twist — so basically, Affliction’s attempt to be a fight promoter may wind up spiking Couture’s clothing line altogether. I ask you: Hasn’t his man suffered enough?

In other Couture news, Randy’s son Ryan will make his amateur MMA debut tonight at the Bellingham Sportsplex in Bellingham, Washington. He’ll be facing Ricky Perez (1-1) in the 160-pound division. Let’s hope he fares a little better than his stepmom.

We’ve mentioned more than once that Affliction’s postponed “Day of Reckoning” card (January 24th; Anaheim, CA) will be a co-promotion with Golden Boy Promotions — though we weren’t really clear on what that partnership might look like. But it seems that Golden Boy is putting on a big-name boxing match the same night — Antonio Margarito vs. Shane Mosley — which will air on HBO opposite Affliction’s pay-per-view card. In other words, they’re not so much partners as direct competitors. As Bloody Elbow’s Michael Rome sees it:

I don’t think there is any joint promotional deal between Affliction and Golden Boy. I heard a few weeks ago that nothing was signed, and it looks like all they have is a t-shirt deal, or a production deal at most. They announced it prematurely to distract people from the fact that they cancelled their October show because it sold about 700 tickets.

This is not good. Without the promotional muscle of Golden Boy, there’s no guarantee that “Day of Reckoning” won’t tank as hard as it did originally. We already know that Affliction may be trying to cut their losses, and if there’s no real pact with Golden Boy in place, that’s one less incentive for them to remain in the game.

(When you’re a jerk to the guy with the cute puppy, you always come out looking like the bad guy.)

You’d think Affliction wouldn’t take Randy Couture‘s return to the UFC personally. For one, they never signed him. For another, it had gotten to the point where it looked like Couture’s choices were between making up with Dana White or spending what little remains of his fighting shelf life in legal battles. But apparently there are those in Affliction, namely co-owner Todd Beard, who are pretty pissed off about the whole scenario.

Appearing on the Scott Ferrall radio show (you remember him, the “crackhead-looking motherfucker” Dana White used to pay to cover UFC events?) Beard reportedly said, “Randy, if you’re listening right now, I hope (expletive) Lesnar kills you.”

Which seems, you know, uncalled for. Even Couture can’t make much sense of the outburst:

“I really don’t understand where Todd Beard’s coming from in his attack to me, my wife, and my attorney, and now the Ferttitas and Lorenzo specifically, and Dana White. I don’t understand it,” stated Couture. “He feels there’s this adversarial relationship created and I just don’t get it. It’s gone beyond kind of the antics of being a promoter, so we’ll see how all that unfolds, and where the relationship stands, and where we end up with that down the road.”

So Affliction really wants Couture to rep them with his Xtreme Couture gear, so much so that they had talks with the UFC about it, which also ended with Todd Beard swearing at someone, but antics like this certainly aren’t helping things. Looks like Affliction needs to get their boy under control, or we may have seen the last of Couture sporting the skulls and chains.

(Don’t expect to see these two fight for a looooooong time.)

— Golden Boy no longer plans to hold hybrid boxing/MMA cards with Affliction. As Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer explained the change-of-heart to ESPN.com, “We want to get to know the MMA market better and truly evaluate if there are synergies between the two sports. We are planning to do some focus groups where we will ask boxing and MMA fans how they would feel about it. Once we get the results of that, then we’ll be in a much better position to decide which strategy to apply.” Affliction’s MMA-only fight card on January 24th will still be co-promoted by Golden Boy.

— Though EliteXC’s fighters are currently in legal limbo because their contracts may be considered company assets in bankruptcy court, the regional promotions that Pro Elite swallowed up over the last two years could be immediately free to operate again. As Dave Meltzer reports:

Most deals [with Pro Elite] included putting the former owners under contract as executive consultants (and then not listening to them), giving them some cash as well as company stock, at the time worth millions and now worth almost nothing. The deals were structured as such that if Pro Elite went bankrupt, all could go back to promoting using the names they developed. King of the Cage, which was the only group profitable underneath the Pro Elite banner, is expected to continue running events as soon as possible. Cage Rage, a U.K. based group whose losses were so staggering they greatly sped up the demise of Pro Elite, is likely not to last much longer.

(“Can we take that one over again? Andrei blinked and Rothwell wandered into the shot.” Photo courtesy of CageToday.)

MMA Weekly reports that UFC and Affliction executives met late last month to build a formal partnership that would allow Affliction to return to the UFC as a major clothing sponsor and work with the UFC to create co-branded apparel. In exchange, Affliction would agree to cease operations as a fight promotion and allow the UFC to buy out several of their fighter contracts. Unfortunately, the détente began to fall apart after EliteXC’s “Heat” show on October 4th, when Affliction’s ads plugging Fedor’s next fight made UFC executives feel that the deal wasn’t being taken seriously.

On Monday, a conference call was held between UFC and Affliction execs in an attempt to resurrect the partnership. Details are sketchy, though MMA Weekly reports that the call quickly turned hostile, with Affliction co-founder Todd Beard at one point telling Lorenzo Fertitta “you’ve fucked with the wrong guy.” So for now, it looks like Affliction is still shut out of the Octagon, and will continue to burn money as a fight promoter. Their next event, headlined by Fedor Emelianenko vs. Andrei Arlovski and co-promoted by Golden Boy, goes down January 24th at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

Fedor will return – Watch more free videos

Just a few weeks ago during the EliteXC on CBS broadcast Affliction promised us that Fedor would return. When and against who, that was left to the wondrous power of our imaginations. Now some of the specifics have been filled in with this new promotional video, which advertises a date (Jan. 24) and a firm opponent (Andrei Arlovski).

They appear to still be calling this event “Day of Reckoning,” just as they called it when it was supposed to in Las Vegas earlier this month. Given all the trouble they’ve been having, the title could turn out to be sadly appropriate. The official event website lists only Fedor and Arlovski on the fight card, but includes pictures of Vladimir Matyushenko, Josh Barnett, Renato Sobral, Matt Lindland, Vitor Belfort, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Chris Horodecki, and Jay Hieron. Not sure if that’s meant as implication that they’ll all be added to the card, or whether they just had some space to fill at the bottom of the page.

Now that they have an official date and a main event, we can probably expect them to announce something completely different next week.

(Well, it was fun while it lasted. Photo courtesy of Esther Lin.)

Multiple MMA news outlets are reporting that due to its insurmountable debt and failure to find a buyer or major funding, EliteXC will go out of business this week, and their Showtime event scheduled for next month has already been canceled. From Sherdog:

Joey Villasenor, who was slated to challenge Robbie Lawler for the EliteXC middleweight crown in Reno, was informed of the show’s cancellation Monday evening.

[Icon Sport founder] TJ Thompson, a Pro Elite executive, said he’d been informed Monday morning by the company that it was closing its doors for good this week and that bankruptcy paperwork had already been filed…

A notice posted Monday evening at graciefighter.com read, “We are confirming that EliteXC has folded. What this means for our fans and supporters is that there will not be a Nick Diaz vs. Eddie Alvarez fight on November 8th.”

In an interview with MMA Weekly, Thompson said that Showtime’s rumored deal to buy EliteXC was sunk by the controversy of their last event — and the controversy was more than warranted:

“I think (CBS) got cold feet watching. The way the Ken Shamrock pullout was handled, all the way from the beginning to the end with Seth Petruzelli. Watching Jared Shaw jumping up and down and screaming as a representative of the company, I think was disgusting and embarrassing…

I don’t have a smoking gun, (but) I’ve been around long enough, I’ve talked to enough people that were there, I won’t name names of executives in the company that I know — Seth was paid to stand up. I’m confident of that. If the commission wants to talk to me, I’ll tell them what I know.”

(Say something about the pants. I wish you would.)

The relationship between Affliction and the MMA organization/Fedor Emelianenko rental company known as M-1 has always been somewhat sketchy. M-1 gets to make pointless speeches at Affliction pressers with no explanation as to why, they put their ads all over the arena during Afflicton’s July event, and generally seemed to have a hand in anything Fedor-related that Affliction even attempted. Now, apparently, the partnership is official:

“We’re basically just solidifying our relationship,” Affliction vice president Tom Atencio told MMAWeekly.com of the Russian promotion. “We work well with them. They’re one of the few companies we’ve worked with that if they say they’re going to do something, they do it. They’ve stood behind us, especially with negotiations with the UFC.”

This is part of what Affliction is planning to announce at tomorrow’s Trump Tower press conference in NYC. Another part is their involvement in the “Fighting Fedor” reality series. When will this show air, on what channel, and will there be anyone remotely credible in the running to fight Fedor? Hopefully that will all be answered at tomorrow’s press conference, though we can tell you right now that the answer to the last question is no.

The new deal between Affliction and M-1, however, should finally put to rest any notion of Fedor fighting Randy Couture in the near future. M-1′s Raimond Joost said there was no real possibility of Fedor signing a deal with the UFC, and as long as the UFC has Couture (which should be a healthy portion of his remaining shelf life as a fighter) you know they aren’t about to loan him out to the competition. So basically, take whatever remaining hope you had of ever seeing that fight and bury it somewhere deep inside yourself along with your suppressed rage and childhood dreams of happiness.

(Photo courtesy of HotChicksWithDouchebags.com.)

It’s a problem that affects so many Americans: You want to publicly proclaim your love of MMA, but when you wear Affliction and TapouT shirts to the bar, people automatically assume you’re an unbearable douchetard. It’s unfair, is what it is. We suggest checking out the following up-and-coming MMA apparel brands — rock this stuff and you’ll feel more “ahead of the curve” than “late to the party.”

ETERNAL UNLIMITED
The Lowdown: Repped by a horde of West Coast fighters like Nick Diaz, Nate Diaz, Jake Shields, Gilbert Melendez, and Joe Stevenson, Eternal launched a year ago with the goal of bringing street fashion and hip-hop influences to the MMA apparel scene. Their website features a “Technique of the Week” section, where EU’s sponsored fighters teach everything from guard-sweeps to keylocks.
CP Approved: The King (above) and the Shark, because predators are kickass!

SIX DEUCE GEAR
The Lowdown: Straight outta Ames, Iowa, Six Deuce has been putting out quirky fight-sport-themed apparel since late 2005. If you’re reading this site, you probably don’t mind a little humor mixed in with your MMA, which means the Deuce could be right up your alley.
CP Approved: The Japanophilic Fate shirt (above), as well as the Joe Rogan-friendly Rolling Stoned and the men’s room-influenced Bye Bye Head.

(Somebody better tell him that’s not a regulation boxing glove.)

I love guessing games. And it is because I love guessing games that Affliction and the ever-changing story behind their second event is a constant joy for me. So what’s the story now? Will they have a completely new date scheduled? Will they claim to have no date at all? Will they go so far as to name some of the fighters on the card? Or will they shoot down any interesting rumors about who might be fighting?

This time around Affliction VP Tom Atencio is saying the main event will likely be a boxing match, thanks to Golden Boy’s involvement, and MMA will comprise the entirety of the undercard:

“We are going to do a combination show of boxing and MMA. They will run the back end and we will do what we do well.” Atencio says of the show. “It will be between nine and ten fights total. Right now it looks like we are going to do a boxing main event and everything under it will be MMA. It really depends on who we have boxing though. If they are big enough names then absolutely they will be the main event and that is what we have planned right now. Things change though and we have nothing finalized.”

Hold up, Tom. What about Fedor? We all know he’s the cornerstone of this little operation. Is he lacing up the boxing gloves, you know, just to give himself a challenge? Because if not, it sounds like you’re saying either a) Fedor won’t be the main event (and when’s the last time that happened), or b) he won’t be on the card at all.

Option b sounds more realistic, what with Josh Barnett saying he won’t fight Fedor in January and Fedor feeling his annual New Year’s Eve itch coming on. But on that subject, Atencio is uncharacteristically forthcoming.

(At least some people still do work for their half a mill, son.)

Before his bout with Andrei Arlovski on Saturday night, Roy Nelson said he wasn’t completely sure who was signing his check. Now we not only know it was Affliction, but we also know that “Big Country” and Arlovski made a combined $580,000 to represent the clotheir-turned-promoter on CBS. The bulk of that money — $500,000 with no win bonus — went to Arlovski for his impressive knockout victory. Even for Affliction, who likes throwing around money almost as much as they love skulls and chains, that’s a hefty price to pay to put one fight on someone else’s show. So was it worth it?

Aside from the exposure for their fighters, Affliction got their ban lifted long enough to throw their logos on the cage and get a few commercials in during the broadcast. As MMA Payout pointed out, that might say more about CBS’ ad sales for this show than it does for Affliction’s arrangement with Elite XC, but either way now there are a few million more people in the world who know about the Andrei Arlovski signature t-shirt line, and every little bit helps.

There’s also the matter of the aggressively vague “Fedor Will Return” ads (was anyone else reminded of the “Gabbo is coming!” ads from The Simpsons?). Beyond heaping more indignity on Tim Sylvia’s loss by pointing out that almost the entire fight can fit in one network TV spot, it does help get the word out to casual fight fans. The only problem is that when you don’t have a date or event to hype, you have to wonder what that’s really worth.

Affliction had a great opportunity with those ads to really advance public knowledge of their MMA organization. Instead they hyped their shirts and failed to tell us when and how we could pay them money to see their marquee fighter perform. I suppose you have to know that information yourself before you can pass it on to others, but isn’t that just one more reason for them to get moving on this January event?

(Don’t go getting soft on us, Babyface.)

For a guy who seems like he’s getting screwed by his employer, Josh Barnett sure is keeping cool about it. First he had his fight with Andrei Arlovski put in jeopardy when Affliction decided they couldn’t pull off their October “Day of Reckoning” event in Las Vegas. Then, a few weeks later, they announce that Arlovski will be fighting on this Saturday’s Elite XC card (and will be paid well to do it), but he’ll face Roy Nelson instead of Barnett. And why? Barnett says he never turned the fight down, but Atencio says he “couldn’t get a hold of him.”

Barnett was cagey while telling his side of the story to MMA Weekly, but it sounds as if there’s something else going on here than just a simple case of miscommunication:

“I was disappointed, yes. That was supposed to be my fight. We talked about it at some point prior to going to Japan, and I found out that I didn’t get the fight while in Japan. I continued to work on some business there, especially after I found out I wasn’t getting the fight.”

Maybe it’s just me, but that doesn’t sound like a guy who just missed a phone call. It could be that Nelson comes a lot cheaper than “The Baby-Faced Assassin”, who has said repeatedly that he is not interested in fighting at a discounted rate.

In any event, whatever is going on between Barnett and Affliction seems to have implications beyond just this Elite XC co-promotion, as Barnett confirmed in no uncertain terms that he won’t be fighting Fedor in January.

(Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Life in the Affliction offices must be a little like being married to an alcoholic. They seem to be making progress, taking steps in the right direction, and then you look out the window and see them passed out naked in the neighbor’s yard and realize it was all just a pleasant illusion. Affliction’s latest setback has to do with the main event for their second offering, which is maybe on January 24 or maybe not, depending on who you talk to.

While new acquisition Gegard Mousasi claimed it would be Fedor Emelianenko vs. Josh Barnett in Affliction II, Barnett’s manager tells USA Today, “It is unlikely that Josh and Fedor will fight within the next few months.”

Affliction VP Tom Atencio also said that no fights have been confirmed for the event. It could be that they’re waiting to see how Andrei Arlovski does against Roy Nelson in his big network TV moment on Saturday night. If Arlovski steals the spotlight on Elite XC: Heat, it would make sense for Affliction to put him in the main event against Fedor right away to try and capitalize on that increased exposure.

They’ve got to figure out some way to make it pay, because according to Dave Meltzer Arlovski is poised to haul in seven figures if he beats Nelson this weekend, and Affliction is footing the bill. It’s great for Affliction to get their stuff on CBS, but Arlovski better be wearing several layers of Affliction t-shirts to make this little venture seem worthwhile.

(What, no odds on whether Gina will make weight?)

If betting odds are any indication of how competitive MMA bouts will turn out to be, expect a lot of one-sided blowouts on Elite XC’s CBS offering this Saturday night. Not that it’s any surprise, really. In fact, with five fights crammed into a two-hour time slot CBS is going to need some quick beatdowns if they don’t want to run way over and have to cut into precious local news time. In any event, Best Fight Odds supplies the most gambler-friendly betting lines for ‘Elite XC: Heat,’ and they break down like this:

Kimbo Slice (-325) vs. Ken Shamrock (+329)
Jake Shields (-550) vs. Paul Daley (+524)
Gina Carano (-550) vs. Kelly Kobald (+525)
Ninja Rua (-196) vs. Benji Radach (+210)
Andrei Arlovski (-428) vs. Roy Nelson (+385)

Some thoughts…

(Can a WAMMA belt be far behind? Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Though most casual MMA fans had never heard his name until this year, Gegard Mousasi (24-2-1) made his presence known in a big way during DREAM’s recent middleweight grand prix, cutting through highly regarded fighters Denis Kang, Melvin Manhoef, and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza to win the championship. Now he’s widely acknowledged as one of the best middleweights in the world — which is why we were hoping he’d be signed by the UFC to add some extra heat to their 185-pound division, and maybe challenge Anderson Silva for the belt one day. All that shit will have to wait, unfortunately, because it looks like Affliction got to him first. As he told Fighters Only Magazine:

“I’m going to train with Fedor in preparation for Affliction in January. I think it is Fedor against Josh Barnett and they want me to fight Vitor Belfort.”

Mousasi is part of the Red Devil International team and he shares a manager with Fedor in the shape of Vadim Finkelstein…

Affliction has yet to reveal a line-up for its January event but Vitor Belfort has told Brazil’s Tatame magazine that he has been contacted and offered a fight.

If Mousasi continues to perform like he has over the last two years, he should have no trouble whipping Belfort, Matt Lindland, and whoever else Affliction has under contract at 185. And now he’s training with Fedor too? Forget about it.

Mousasi’s claim that Emelianenko will skip straight to a fight with Barnett in January — foregoing the Arlovski/Barnett eliminator match altogether — is also interesting, but as with all rumors related to Fedor and fight-booking, we’ll believe it two weeks after it happens.

(Props: BloodyElbow)

(You ready for this, America?)

I almost couldn’t believe it when I first heard the news: Elite XC had added a legitimately interesting big time bout to their next CBS show. No disrespect to “Ninja” Rua and Benji Radach or Jake Shields and Paul Daley. Those are fights worth tuning in for, even if Elite XC seems content to treat them as background scenery.

And Gina Carano fighting an opponent who’s coming off two straight losses while the opponent who really makes sense for her fights someone else on the same card? Sure, that’s cool too. And of course there’s the obligatory ‘Kimbo Slice beats up handpicked opponent’ fight that we’ve come to expect.

But Andrei Arlovski-Roy Nelson? Now that’s intriguing, Elite XC. I have to admit, I’m impressed. I wonder, however, if you’ve thought through all the potential ramifications.

On one hand, it’s brilliant. Elite XC links up with another struggling organization to see if they can’t form like Voltron and make something happen. This fight adds hardcore credibility to a card severely lacking in it. The fact that Elite had to go outside their own stable of fighters to find that credibility is something we’ll ignore for the moment. Fact is, they showed the “willingness to work with other organizations” that we always hear about but seldom see put to such good use. Bravo.

But here’s what I’m wondering: what happens if Arlovski/Nelson turns out to be a solid, technical, exciting MMA bout, as we all know it very well could be?

(‘Bring me your tired, your freaks, your outmatched fools. I fight them on eve of the new year, yes?’)

The official Dream website has posted an interview they conducted with Fedor Emelianenko, but unfortunately for me it’s all transcribed in squiggly lines that I can make neither heads nor tails of. Good thing Suki came along to translate it, otherwise we might have missed this:

- Japanese fans are expected to see you fight in NYE in Japan again.

I want to fight in Japan again; however, I cannot control everything. God knows what will happen. Whether I fight or not in NYE depends on a negotiation between my manager and DREAM.

Perhaps Fedor is just blowing smoke here to keep his Japanese public happy, but that’s a very different story than the one Tom Atencio is telling. He claims to have verification from Fedor’s management that he absolutely, positively will not fight on New Year’s Eve. So, assuming Fedor is not consciously lying in this Dream interview, this means:

1) Fedor’s management is willing to rent him out to the highest bidder, regardless of whether they’ve already committed him to fight elsewhere.

2) Fedor’s management doesn’t necessarily tell Fedor everything that’s going on.

3) There are some nuances being lost in translation.

The first option seems plausible because, well, Fedor is managed by crazy Russians, according Dana White. The second option is also not too unrealistic, for the same crazy Russian reasons. Option three is especially possible since Fedor’s comments had to go from Russian to Japanese to English. In other words, yeah, we don’t know what the hell is really going on. Which probably puts us in the same boat as Fedor.

(Oh yeah, finding opponents won’t be difficult at all…)

According to a new article by Fighters Only, Aleksander Emelianenko claims that he will be returning for the next Affliction show.  He also mentions that the medical rumors surrounding his ejection from the last Affliction PPV are simply untrue.  That’s right.  Just didn’t happen.  Looks like the CSAC was mistaken(?) when one of their top execs had this to say regarding Fedor’s little:

“The one thing that I can absolutely say is that he (Emelianenko) was not and will not be cleared to fight in California. He is officially denied a license and that will stand for all of the United States of America.”

Hmm. Well that’s not encouraging. Despite the harsh words from the Golden State, Emelianenko remains optimistic.

“I am going back to the States next week to do interviews and make some film for the January event,” he said.

“But I don’t know about any opponent yet, all that is in the process of being sorted out.”

Aleks added that he may also “fight around Christmas-time in Japan.”

“But there will be no problem this time – everything is cool.”

And by cool, he means it’ll be a piece of cake to find a top level fighter who is willing to fight a potential case of Hepatitis B. This can’t bode well for Affliction, as Fedor has made a history of mandating that his brother be included in all shows he does.

(Sorry, bro. Not this year.)

Poor Fedor. All he wants to do is fight some weird, mostly meaningless bout on New Year’s Eve every year. But all these damn contracts keep getting in the way. It’s almost as if people want the world’s top-ranked heavyweight to only fight top-ranked contenders. Fascists.

Affliction VP Tom Atencio told me yesterday that he has good reason to believe that all the talk about Fedor fighting in Japan this NYE is just idle chatter. Said Atencio:

He is not going to [fight on New Year's Eve]. We have a contract with Fedor. We have a great relationship with Fedor. I just spoke with the guys from M-1 Global and they assured me that he’s not fighting so wherever that came from is beyond me. There are a lot of rumors in this industry and a lot of speculation, but I was told through the partnership that we have that Fedor is definitely not fighting on New Year’s Eve.

Where it came from, obviously, was Fedor’s comments at Dream.6. But Atencio seems certain that the next time “The Russian Last Emperor” gets in the ring, it will be under the Affliction banner. As for when that might be, the details there are a little hazier.

Former IFL heavyweight champion Roy Nelson went from having a fight with Paul Buentello in Affliction, to having that fight cancelled, to signing a deal to face Andrei Arlovski on CBS, all in a matter of weeks. Now “Big Country” talks about the unpredictable nature of the fight game, who’s signing his paychecks, and more in this exclusive CagePotato interview.

CagePotato.com: Thanks for talking with me, Roy. I imagine it’s been an exciting week for you. When did you first hear about this offer?

Wednesday morning.

Really? That late?

Yeah. I got the news about three hours before Sherdog did. Talk about the last minute.

So what was going through your mind when they offered it to you?

You know, to fight Andrei is a big step in my career, so of course I was game. And what better stage than CBS, where you’ll get maybe 8 million viewers watching. Of course that’s something that I wanted to do.

Despite rumors to the contrary, Josh Barnett says he did not turn down a fight with Andrei Arlovski at ‘Elite XC: Heat’ on Oct. 4. Though talk centered on the possibility that Barnett bristled at the idea of taking a pay cut to help Affliction get their co-promotion on with Elite XC on CBS, “The Baby-Faced Assassin” declared in a MySpace blog post that he was not asked to take any such pay cut and did not turn down the fight:

I read somewhere that I had declined the fight because I would have had to take a pay cut. I suppose others may also formulate some story about me declining the fight for other reasons.

I never decelned to take this fight. I was never told that I would have any part of my pay reduced since working with Affliction. To my knowledge, no one has been asked to take a pay cut that fights for Affliction.

I did not turn down this fight.

Josh

Whether Barnett knows it or not, some Affliction fighters were asked to take pay cuts for the second show. Barnett already committed to fight at Sengoku 6 in November after news of the Affliction postponement, so he may never have been a realistic option for Elite XC. Now Roy Nelson gets Arlovski, and Barnett gets to go back to Japan and entertain all the loyal Josh-a-maniacs there.

In other Affliction/Elite XC news, Affliction COO Michael Cohen indicated that there will be an ongoing arrangement between the two organizations. Affliction’s postponed second event, now apparently scheduled for Jan. 24 (or maybe there’s no set date yet, depending on who you ask), will also be a co-promotional effort between Affliction and Elite XC, and will either air on CBS or Showtime:

(Network TV exposure makes Andrei feel like singing.)

Don’t look now, but Elite XC’s next offering on CBS is threatening to turn into a legitimately big time MMA event. Andrei Arlovski and Roy “Big Country” Nelson have reportedly been offered a bout against one another at Elite XC: Heat next Saturday. The fight will be an Affliction/Elite XC co-promotion. Like they say, the enemy of my enemy is my tentative friend as long as they’ll let me promote my t-shirt line.

If this sounds like late notice to be throwing a bout like this together, remember that both Nelson and Arlovski were prepping for bouts on Affliction: Day of Reckoning, which was set for October 11 until recently, so it’s reasonable to think that both guys are in fighting condition. However, while Arlovski was preparing for Josh Barnett, Nelson was getting ready to face Paul Buentello. Nothing against “The Headhunter” here, but he’s no Arlovski.

Needless to say, you can expect to see Arlovski-Nelson on the CBS portion of the card on October 4, but the bigger question is, what will this mean for the relationship between Affliction and Elite XC moving forward? Funny we should ask, because MMA Rated spoke with Jared Shaw about the deal, and he had this to say:

This is just one fight. This is a co-promoted fight and it’s the first time out and it’s the beginning of a working relationship, there’s nothing else in place. We hope that Roy Nelson vs. Andrei Arlovski is the beginning of a great budding relationship between Donald Trump’s Affliction and EliteXC.

Shaw says the two-hour CBS broadcast will now feature five fights, and had no problem saying that this news “hits Dana White hard.” We’ll see. One thing we know about Dana White is when you hit him, he usually hits back.

(‘Look at that, same size I was in high school.’)

Fedor Emelianenko loves three things: competing in Sambo tournaments, eating two ice cream cones at once, and fighting in New Year’s Eve freak show matches in Japan. We know this about Fedor. We accept this about him. So that’s why when he appeared at Dream.6 and made comments about a potential NYE fight in Japan, we naturally wondered what that meant for his participation in Affliction’s second event in California. You know, the one that was “rescheduled” for January after a Fedor-less card failed to sell tickets in Las Vegas.

But Affliction VP Tom Atencio says not to worry. Fedor won’t be fighting in Japan on New Year’s Eve because Affliction has “extended his contract.” When asked if that meant Fedor was a lock for January 19, Atencio dropped this minor shocker:

“The date and location are not official,” Atencio said. “Everyone is tripping. Our next show will definitely be the 1st quarter of 2009 in January, possibly February. Nothing is confirmed though.”

Wait a minute, we’re tripping? Us, the people who think that maybe you should consider nailing down a venue, a date, and — dare I say it — even a fight card for the event you hope to sell tickets to? That’s “tripping”? Since when did Tom Atencio become a college sophomore at a Dave Matthews concert? We don’t mean to be a buzzkill or anything, but these are the kinds of details that could end up being pretty important down the road.

(Kim Couture at the first “Night of Combat” show in June; thankfully, she’ll be behind the scenes this time. Photo courtesy of Mike Responts via MMA Junkie.)

With Affliction’s “Day of Reckoning” card postponed, the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas was left with an open spot on its event schedule — which has been filled by a new MMA card, thanks to none other than Kim “Sugar Free” Couture. According to MMA Weekly, KC Concepts (a shadowy outfit headed up by Randy’s wife) in partnership with boxing promoter Skip Kelp’s Superfights MMA have snatched up the October 11th spot at Thomas & Mack. Two Xtreme Couture fighters who were slated to fight at “Day of Reckoning” — Jay Hieron and Mike Pyle — will now compete at “A Night of Combat II,” as well as a host of other mid-level names. Tickets are available now, and the lineup is looking like this:

1. Mike Whitehead vs. Alan Goes (205)
2. Jay Hieron vs Bryson Kamaka (170)
3. Mike Pyle vs. Brian Gassaway (170)
4. John Alessio vs. Gideon Ray (167)
5. Josh Haynes vs. Steve Byrnes (185)
6. JJ Mix vs. John Halverson (155)
7. Mike Dizak vs. Erick Uresk (155)
8. Patrick “Kui” Gonzalves vs. Ryan Lamareaux (145)
9. Ian Omalza vs Ryan Hass (135)
10. Elana Reed vs Stephanie Palmer (115) swing

Not too bad, considering the most expensive ticket is $53. I wonder if Ozzy will still show up…

Related: “Day of Reckoning” headliner Josh Barnett is also moving on with his life. He will reportedly fight at Sengoku 6 (November 1st; Saitama, Japan) against an opponent to be named later. The event will be co-headlined by the semi-finals and finals of Sengoku’s lightweight grand prix, featuring Satoru Kitaoka, Eiji Mitsuoka, Kazunori Yokota, and Mizuto Hirota.

(Still waiting on that Affliction tracksuit.)

Former Elite XC honcho Gary Shaw dropped by Steve Cofield’s radio show to discuss the Affliction/Golden Boy partnership — something he is actually uniquely qualified to do as one of the few people who has experience promoting boxing and MMA with varying levels of success. His forecast for the partnership’s chances was grim, to say the least, and he doesn’t think much of Affliction’s plan to get into the boxing apparel biz, either:

Golden Boy’s doing a very good job in boxing. There’s nobody there who knows MMA. …I don’t think it’s going to work out… They’re talking about Affliction doing all the boxing gear, and I was looking around the room while they were doing the press conference, there wasn’t one person in the whole press conference wearing anything of a shirt, hat, or pants, having to do with boxing. And if you go to an MMA event, it’s a lifestyle, everybody’s in MMA clothing. And I think it’s going to be a lesson to both. I think they’re in for some surprises.

I don’t think they can build the market. I think it’s a good t-shirt. I love their line. I like all their MMA stuff. But boxing people, they come to an event, it’s not a lifestyle. The next day they’re not training. A lot of people in MMA train. It’s a cult, it’s a lifestyle, it’s different. They’ll learn.

If you’re wondering whether Gary Shaw’s doom and gloom attitude regarding the “cult” of MMA might be due in part to his failed attempts at trying to get them to believe any manner of bullshit, you just may be on to something. The frosty reception he got from fans, journalists, and other promoters seems to have had a lasting effect on Shaw’s fragile psyche:

(‘How’s taste my co-promotion clusterfuck?’)

The more we hear about the Affliction/Golden Boy partnership, the stranger it begins to sound. First there was the official press release, which seemed to put more emphasis on “signature shirts” and apparel than on fights. It’s almost as if Affliction is looking for a way to retreat with dignity from the money-sucking void of fight promotion and get back to what they do best: selling overpriced, hyper-stylized clothing.

But aside from their own line of skull-themed t-shirts, what does Golden Boy get out of it? According to CEO Richard Schaefer, they hope to siphon off some of MMA’s young fan base and bring them back into the boxing fold:

“We believe Affliction and the relationships they have with that demographic, the identification they have within that demographic group I think will help bring boxing to these people,” said the Golden Boy CEO. “We think as well, many of the mixed martial arts fans are fans of combat sports, and what they’ve seen of boxing is a very exciting sport as well that maybe they will discover their love for the sport of boxing.”

Naturally, Affliction VP Tom Atencio hopes for the same thing in the other direction, which should tell Golden Boy something (as should those Vegas ticket sales) about just how much of an MMA fan base they may have to draw from. But in theory, at least, it sounds like an idea that can work. That is, if you get the right fights in front of the right audiences. Already things are off to a slow start.

ESPN.com reports that Golden Boy tried to sell HBO on the idea of adding the original “Day of Reckoning” main event — Andrei Arlovski vs. Josh Barnett — to the Oct. 18 pay-per-view boxing bout between Kelly Pavlik and Bernard Hopkins. HBO “respectfully declined.”

(No homo. Photo courtesy of MLive.com.)

From a press release distributed late yesterday:

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (September 13, 2008) – Golden Boy Promotions and Affliction Clothing today announced a strategic, multi-level partnership between the two companies that will bring the popular Affliction-brand to the world of boxing and entertainment.

“We have been talking to Affliction over the past several months to figure out a partnership that will take advantage of the expertise of both of our companies,” said Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer. “We have found the solution and are extremely excited about starting this partnership immediately.”

“Golden Boy Promotions is the top boxing promoter in the world and we look forward to working with them on future projects,” said Tom Atencio, Vice President, Affliction. “With our companies working together, it gives Affliction another vehicle to deliver our products to our core customers, as well as utilizing Golden Boy’s promotional expertise to further our efforts in Mixed Martial Arts.”

The partnership includes: