(I still refuse to believe that Tim Sylvia is banging her.)

It looks like Andrei Arlovski is taking advantage of the competitive freedom that comes from not being under contract with the UFC. According to ESPN.com, the former UFC heavyweight champ will make his professional boxing debut on September 13th in Las Vegas, in the opening fight on the Joel Casamayor vs. Juan Manuel Marquez card, which will be shown live on HBO PPV; an opponent hasn’t been announced yet.

Previously, we reported that Arlovski has been training with Freddie Roach at Wild Card Gym in L.A., and that Roach would be cornering Arlovski during his Affliction: Banned bout against Ben Rothwell on July 19th. We’re curious to see if their partnership is more than just a one-off, and if Arlovski tries to maintain careers in both MMA and boxing simultaneously. With world-class training from Roach, along with Arlovski’s natural abilities, the Pitbull could potentially become a two-sport star. Stay tuned…

The 10 Most Important Fighters to the Business of MMA, part 1. (MMA Payout)

Mac Danzig discusses his knee injury, Clay Guida, advice to Amir Sadollah, and who he’d like to fight next. (MMA Weekly)

How a fighter might, theoretically, beat Lyoto Machida. (Fightlinker)

UFC/WEC/TKO vet Mark Hominick blogs his training for his upcoming Affliction fight against Savant Young. (MMA Training)

Fuck Delaware. (Five Ounces of Pain)

UFC marketing targets insomniacs and the unemployed. (BloodyElbow)

Affliction is using a quote from Dana White to publicize their event. That’s chutzpah! (MMA Madness)

Rich Franklin to return at UFC 88? (MMA Junkie)

Eight Truthful Celebrity Autobiography Covers. Mario Lopez’s life story is so close to my own… (HolyTaco)

Wal-Mart’s new logo looks terrible. (WallStreetFighter)

In an attempt to dispel the rumors that he may be a punk for avoiding Lyoto Machida, Brandon Vera claims he had good reasons for turning that fight down (he needs time to train with awkward kung fu enthusiasts) and insists that Wanderlei Silva and Dan Henderson both turned down fights against him. So now who’s the punk? Answer: everyone but Machida.

It’s all here in this MMA Rated video, where Vera goes on to say that he moved down to light heavyweight to take the fight against Reese Andy as “a favor”.

Seems like a lot of UFC fighters are doing favors in order to get this July 19 Anti-Affliction card off the ground. And you know what they say, fighters are like the mob when it comes to favors. One day — and that day may never come — they’ll call upon you and ask for a favor in return. That is what they say, right? If not, they should.

(LOFL!)

— Brock Lesnar has brought in seven-time BJJ world champion Rodrigo “Comprido” Medeiros to help out with his ground game in preparation for his match against Heath Herring at UFC 87 (August 9th, Minneapolis). Lesnar by flying cockswordplata?

— UFC: Silva vs. Irvin is now officially listed on UFC.com’s events page, while UFC 88 (September 6th, Atlanta) has been dubbed “Breakthrough”; no matches are listed yet other than the Liddell/Evans headliner.

— Fightline.com reports that Jared Shaw has confirmed Kimbo Slice and Brett Rogers will fight in October. The fight will “more than likely” take place on CBS. A Nick Diaz/KJ Noons match is being discussed as a co-main event for the same card.

— Affliction: Banned will feature a performance by Megadeth (!), who will be rockin’ out at key points throughout the event. Hopefully that means they’ll be playing the end of “Peace Sells” during Fedor’s ring entrance, and then “Killing Is My Business” during the main event fight itself.

— A “Japan and South Korea friendship event” called Kakutougi Taikai GLADIATOR has been scheduled for August 16th in Okayama, Japan, featuring a headlining bout between crusty American legend Don Frye and Japanese middleweight Ikuhisa “The Punk” Minowa, aka “Minowaman.” Minowa is no stranger to freak show bouts, as he already holds wins over Paulo Cesar Silva, Eric “Butterbean” Esch, Bum Chan Kang, and Phil Baroni.

(‘This shirt, she is…how you say…totally sick, yes?’)

In case you were wondering how the people at Affliction are feeling about the UFC’s all out counter-programming assault, USA Today’s Sergio Non has an article that looks at where the clothier/MMA organization stands right now. Turns out that with a month still to go, they aren’t in bad shape.

VP Tom Atencio claims they’ve sold between 7,000 and 8,000 tickets so far, which is good news this far from the event if it’s true. Anaheim’s Honda Center holds around 17,000. That’s about on par with the Prudential Center in New Jersey, where Elite XC sold just over 8,000 tickets when all was said and done.

Affliction’s big marketing push is planned for two weeks before the show, and as for the impact of UFC Fight Night 14, Atencio is planning on the miracle of modern technology to protect him:

“As far as I’m concerned, people are going to Tivo (the UFC show) and watch our fight, and then go back to (watch UFC) later,” he said. “Obviously you’re going to get those people who are going to watch something for free (rather) than pay. … But our card is definitely stacked. I don’t know anybody that can say it’s not a great card.”

That’s a valid strategy as it relates to hardcore fans. We’ll see whether it will work on those people we always hear about who only know the UFC.

Atencio is right when he says the card is stacked, though it’s stacked largely with fighters who appeal to that hardcore fan base and much less so to the casual fan, who may or may not have heard the name Fedor at any time in his life. Their success with this show — particularly with the UFC going up against them on Spike TV — could tell us a lot about the actual interest level in MMA as a sport, rather than simply the UFC as a brand.

(Props: MMA Payout)

(‘Who shall I beat up for you, my friend?’)

Every company should be lucky enough to have a team player like Anderson Silva in their employ. You ask him to move up in weight and fight on short notice just to help you stick it to a competitor, and he doesn’t complain about overtime pay or make up an excuse about needing to go to his kid’s piano recital — he just does what needs doing.

In fact, he seems pretty unconcerned about the whole thing. He told Si.com’s Josh Gross recently that he’s walking around at 212 pounds and is ready to pitch in and do his part for the UFC’s global domination efforts:

“If the UFC asks me to do something, and it’s within my capability to do so, I’m going to do it,” he said. “I feel like I’m part of the UFC family and the head of the family asked me to fight. I’m in condition to fight, my coaches say I can fight — I’m going to fight. I want to do whatever I can to help make UFC the No. 1 event around the world like it is.”

Keep talking like that, Anderson, and Dana White’s going to show up at your house with flowers and an engagement ring.

Silva’s manager, Ed Soares, has a realistic though mathematically hazy take on the champ’s move up in weight.

(Who can you count on in a jam? This guy.)

Remember that UFC event they’ve been planning for July 19? You know, the one they only started putting together recently, and which is purely by coincidence on the same day as Affliction’s MMA debut? Yeah, well, looks like it may actually happen. And it looks like the UFC is pulling out all the stops.

MMA Rated is now calling the July 19 event on Spike TV “official” and says it will be headlined by Anderson Silva making his light heavyweight debut against James Irvin.

What’s that you say? It’s totally insane for one of the sport’s pound-for-pound best to be pushed into moving up a weight class to face, of all people, James Irvin, on a show that is being thrown together a month in advance just to screw with Affliction? Yes, you’re right. Deal with it.

The initial story had Wanderlei Silva taking on Brandon Vera, who is said to be dropping to light heavyweight after his loss to Fabricio Werdum. And MMA Rated also reports that a rematch between Silva and Dan Henderson was considered. But Silva has reportedly turned down the fight because — get this — he doesn’t have enough time to prepare.

What? A last-minute offer to fight in a month on a hastily thrown together show doesn’t appeal to you, Wanderlei? Man, don’t make Dana White question your heart in the press again. He’s not above it.

Cain Velasquez is also said to be a candidate to fight on this show, which is expected to take place at the Palms in Vegas. The UFC is still looking for someone to face Brandon Vera at the time of this report, though the way this thing is going he could be signed to face BJ Penn by tomorrow morning.

Legendary boxing guru Freddie Roach — who has trained a long list of superstars including Oscar De La Hoya, Mike Tyson, Bernard Hopkins, and James Toney — will enter the world of mixed martial arts on July 19th, when he’ll be working the corner of Andrei Arlovski at Affliction: Banned. According to Fighthype, Arlovski has been developing his hands at Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles, in preparation for his bout against Miletich-trained bruiser Ben Rothwell.

Roach fought as a pro boxer from 1978-1986, beginning his career on a 26-1 run before retiring with a 39-13 record. Casual boxing fans may know him best from his appearances on De La Hoya/Mayweather 24/7, the HBO documentary series that followed his training of the Golden Boy. For your viewing pleasure, here’s a short HBO feature on Roach, which details his rough upbringing, boxing career, transition to training, and recent battle against Parkinson’s disease.

(“Tim is hands-down the greatest shorts-shitter in the world.” Photo props to FiveOuncesofPain.)

From a press release distributed yesterday:

MANHATTAN, NEW YORK (June 3, 2008) — Affliction will pull out its Trump card Thursday when the company officially announces its partnership with Donald J. Trump at a press conference to be held in Trump Tower at 12:00PM. Trump will take the podium to address the press and outline his involvement with Affliction and their entry into the world of professional mixed-martial-arts (MMA) with their first event named, “Affliction Banned,” slated for July 19th 2008 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

“We are very excited to be partnering with the most recognized and accomplished business mogul in the world, ” said Tom Atencio, vice president of Affliction. “Trump is a true visionary who shares our belief in the future of MMA.”

“I have been a fan of professional sports since childhood, and I am particularly impressed by the athleticism, courage, and strength of these disciplined athletes.” said Donald J. Trump. “This particular sport resembles my business style of being fast paced, strategic, and aggressive…remembering to never give up. I am particularly excited to partner with Affliction and become a major player in promotion of MMA; the youngest and fastest growing sport to emerge in the last century.”

We’ll update you tomorrow; as for now, let the speculation begin. It could be as simple as Trump signing up to be the money-man for the fledgling MMA promotion. Though if he’s going to get involved with MMA, we would have thought he’d be hooked up with his Apprentice buddy Tito Ortiz, who has floated the idea of launching his own MMA organization. Stay tuned…

The source for this one is a bit shaky, but Fightline is passing along news that Ben Rothwell will indeed be taking on Andrei Arlovski at Affliction: Banned (July 19th; Anaheim, CA) according to a Sherdog thread where Rothwell personally confirms it. As Rothwell writes:

I tried to never say if i was/was not fighting AA but most all the forum took it that way, sorry i guess.

anyway I’m excited to fight a top10 HW, so thanks for the support, peace

CagePotato reported this rumor two weeks ago, but there has been no official statement from the organization yet. Speaking of Arlovski, the Pitbull’s presence in an upcoming Adrenaline MMA meet-and-greet could suggest that he will fight for that outfit as well.

In other non-UFC news…

— HDNet has agreed to broadcast Adrenaline MMA’s first three fight cards. The first one is going down June 14th in Chicago (headlined by Jeff Monson vs. Mike Russow), and the second is slated for September 6th in Moline, Illinois, and will feature Tim Sylvia and Ben Rothwell; yep, just like the first Affliction show. Personally, we wouldn’t book Tim to fight less than two months after throwing down with Fedor Emelianenko, but hey, we’re not Monte Cox.

(“FU2,” available only at Triumph United.)

Good goddamn work, people: With over 150 entries, this week’s caption contest was our most popular ever, and so many of them were LOLworthy. I must say I was surprised by how many of you referenced Brad Pitt and Angelina Joile — I’m not judging, I was just a little taken aback, that’s all. Thanks again to Triumph United for making this possible. Now onto the honorable mentions…

MMA-hole: It was at that point that Fedor began to wonder…were his wife and Sakuraba more than just “friends”?

Brad: Fedor and Aleks stop by the Affliction sweat shop to thank the tailors.

Toner Breath: SPUTNIPS!! [Ed. note: I racked my brain trying to think of a good one-word pun for this picture. Toner Breath's is kind of horrible, but I give him mad props for trying. And judging from the exclamation points, he was also pretty psyched that he thought of it.]

Mike: It’s cheaper than a graphing calculator.

Erick: “Phuk An’ Run is the little-known Chinese martial art of having a kid and making your opponent raise them.”

Kimbo’s Lice: “…The stars signify that I’ll never be brought to my knees. This spiderweb on my elbow signifies that I’ve committed murder in service to the brotherhood of thieves. The grim reaper and baby on my back…you know what, I probably shouldn’t be telling you kids all this.”

And the winners are…

Dude, how slick is this? I didn’t care about Mike Whitehead until just now, when I learned that he enjoys head-butting through glass. They may have spelled “Lindland” wrong, but Josh Barnett’s classic throat-slashing thing and the voice of Michael Buffer more than make up for it. Whatever you’re selling, we’ll take two!

(Props: MMAScraps)

(An early trailer for the upcoming UFC video game.)

The boring but important notes and errata currently floating around this crazy MMA world of ours…

— THQ’s planned UFC video game has been give a rough release date of Spring 2009, which will coincide with “one of the UFC’s major events.”

— Affliction is reportedly close to locking down Fabio Negao as Matt Lindland’s opponent at their debut event on July 19th. Negao (8-3) is a veteran of the Super Challenge and Fury FC promotions who last competed in December, losing to Rousimar Palhares via first-round leglock submission. (Translation: He’s kind of a scrub.) Pedro Rizzo, who’s fighting Josh Barnett at the event, claims that it will indeed take place in California, most likely at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

— The UFC is trying to distract its fans from the fact that a historic MMA event is taking place on May 31st by scheduling a Chuck Liddell-themed programming block on SpikeTV that night. At 9:00 p.m. ET/PT, Spike will premiere “Ultimate Iceman: Chuck Liddell,” a documentary chronicling Liddell’s life inside and outside of the Octagon. Directly following at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT will be “Liddell vs. Silva: UFC Unleashed – Special Edition,” featuring the UFC 79 fight between Liddell and Wanderlei Silva, which has never been broadcast on cable. The UFC might be clever, but I have a DVR, which makes me more clever.

— The WEC has already sold out nearly all of the 8,000 seats in the ARCO Arena‘s lower bowl for WEC 34: Faber vs. Pulver, and will be releasing tickets for seats in the upper sections for a quite-reasonable $35 bucks a pop. If you’ll be anywhere near Sacramento on June 1st, go get ‘em.

— Ali “#3″ Sonoma will be appearing on the fifth season of ABC’s The Mole, which premieres June 2nd. Catch a glimpse of her in the background on the promo vids at ABC.com.

Another high-profile matchup has been added to Affliction’s July 19th debut card (Location TBA), as Josh Barnett confirmed last night that he’ll be taking on Pedro Rizzo. It’ll only be Barnett’s second match on U.S. soil since UFC 36 (3/22/02), where “The Babyface Assassin” knocked out Randy Couture to win the UFC’s heavyweight belt, but was stripped of the title directly after for failing a steroid test; Barnett then re-launched his career in Japan, where the drug policies were, shall we say, less judgmental.

Adding to the drama is the fact that the two fighters have previously met. Barnett suffered his first career loss at UFC 30 (2/23/01) against Rizzo, who knocked out the Seattle native in the second round. Said Barnett:

“[A]fter he knocked me out with one of those really nice, well put together Pedro Rizzo right hands, I stood right there for the challenge and said you know what, I’m going to come back here, I’m going to fight him again and next time I’m knocking his ass out. So I’ve got to make good on my promises and I’ve got to stick to my word.”

Regarding Affliction 1′s current lineup — which includes Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia, and Matt Lindland vs. TBA — Josh was his usual sardonic self:

“As much as I love my buddy Fedor, it’s going to suck for him because I’m stealing the show.”

Barnett is consistently ranked among the world’s top ten heavyweights by any MMA news outlet with an opinion (this one included), despite the fact that he hasn’t had an impressive win since 2006. Beating Rizzo would help remind American MMA fans who he is, but a bout with the Brazilian UFC/PRIDE vet isn’t quite the return match we were hoping for. Rizzo has gone 2-2 since leaving the UFC in 2003; true, he scored both of his recent wins last year, but he’s also old enough to have fought Tank Abbott at Ultimate Brazil. Is anyone else getting a “Masters Superfight” vibe from this one?

Video of Barnett vs. Rizzo at UFC 30 is after the jump…

(As a rabid Dallas Mavericks fan, Fedor’s going to be very, very disappointed.)

Affliction’s first MMA show — previously slated to be held July 19th in Dallas, featuring the fight between Fedor Emelianenko and Tim Sylvia — has hit a major speed-bump, as it has reportedly lost its venue as well as a TV deal. FiveOuncesofPain bears the bad news that an agreement between Affliction and HDNet has fallen through, and Affliction was not able to book the American Airlines Arena as the venue for its debut card; according to Randy Couture on Saturday night’s installment of Rear Naked Radio, the event could instead be held at The Honda Center in Anaheim, CA. Perhaps more important than the venue change, Affliction’s up-in-smoke relationship with HDNet means they’ll have to find another TV broadcast partner. It was rumored that HDNet was going to televise several matches from the undercard on July 19th to drive buys for a live pay-per-view telecast, then air the tape-delayed main card a week later.

The failed deal follows a previous botched partnership between Affliction and Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions. At a recent press conference, De La Hoya shed some light on why his promotion company stepped back from Affliction’s upstart MMA league:

“We decided that we are going to focus all our energies on promoting boxing. Boxing is the game that we have to focus on because there’s so much room for growth and the potential is enormous. We definitely want to capitalize on that and have all our focus and energy be on taking boxing to another level…MMA is going through some very rough patches and transition issues…recently two companies that are public had FCC filings that raised doubt about their ability to continue [ed. note: Referring to the IFL and EliteXC]. We want to see what’s going to happen with the sport. Maybe we will enter the MMA business to diversify in the future.”

Fine, Oscar — don’t be a pioneer.

In an unrelated (but also crappy) development, FiveOunces reports that EliteXC has banned its fighters from wearing Affliction clothing during cage entrances; the UFC put the kibosh on Affliction back in January. No word yet on whether EliteXC’s decision was made to prevent their fighters from promoting a competing MMA league, or because Affliction’s t-shirts offend Gary Shaw’s finely-tuned sense of style.

(“Oh, hello poor people.” — philanthropist Calvin Ayre.)

“The only organization that wasn’t willing to make me an offer was the UFC. They don’t want the best fighters; they want the best fighters that they can control.”
— Matt Lindland on his new deal with Affliction. Lindland also revealed that EliteXC approached him with an offer, but was outbid by the t-shirt company turned MMA-promoter.

“We’re going to make the WEC the smaller weights and the UFC will be the heavier weights. We’ll probably take some of the guys in the higher weights, the champions over there and bring them into UFC. We’re still trying to figure that out.”
— Dana White on further distinguishing Zuffa’s MMA properties. He told the Canadian Press that the UFC has no plans to install a 145-pound division or a women’s division.

“While I know I can win against any lightweight in the world on a given day, I fell twice in a row [to Kenny Florian and Josh Neer]. Therefore, I’m going to bow out. Good luck to those guys. I’m going to drop down to 145 lbs and see if those guys down there will embrace me.”
— Din Thomas on his future plans, which will hopefully include the WEC’s featherweight division.

“You’ve likely heard the rumblings and rumors… and for once…. it’s true… I’m packing it in! Well, who am I kidding? I was really more of a brand ambassador for Bodog the past while anyway – but it was fun while it lasted.”
— Calvin Ayre announcing his retirement from Bodog, which will be restructuring and returning its focus to gaming, and not so much on money-losing fight promotions.

“I was asked by the UFC to help with security when the 2 fighters entered the ring area. They where more worried about Matt than GSP. Next thing I know some wack job is jumping over the barriers and charging the ring. I didn’t want to hurt the guy so I was just going to put him to sleep and then help get him out of there before he hurt someone or himself.”
— UFC ref Dan Miragliotta (who comes in at 6’4”, 296 pounds) on his rear-naked-choke of Joe Asshole at UFC 83.

(“We’re here to pick up your daughter.”)

No, it won’t be a re-match of their BodogFight brawl — on Friday, Fedor Emelianenko announced on his website that he would indeed be facing Tim Sylvia on July 19th in the United States, a match that was somewhat called into question when Vadim Finkelchtein started going on about unsigned contracts. Fedor also claims he’ll be fighting in October (date/location/opponent TBA) and New Year’s Eve in Japan (opponent TBA).

Matt Lindland added another piece to the puzzle during HDNet’s SportFight XXII broadcast on Friday night, confirming that he’ll also be competing on the July 19th card, and that it will take place in Dallas under the Affliction banner. Though an opponent for Lindland has yet to be named, The Law named Murilo Bustamante (who choked out Lindland at UFC 37) and David Terrell (who knocked out Lindland at UFC 49) as guys he’d like to fight. According to FiveOunces, Andrei Arlovski, Josh Barnett, Ben Rothwell, and Aleksander Emelianenko are rumored to be fighting on the Affliction card as well.

In unrelated fight-booking news, Frank Trigg has denied earlier reports that he’s signed to participate in DREAM’s middleweight tournament. Said Trigg:

“I haven’t heard anything from [DREAM] in about a week and a half. We started talking about a month ago, but lately, there’s been no communication…We have no contract, and we have no numbers we’re even close to agreeing on. Like I mentioned on TAGG, my wife is very pregnant and can’t fly. She’d miss the whole tournament, and that’s a big deal to take a fight without her there by my side.”

Seriously! We can’t embed it, but go to their website and brace yourself. Just look at the partial cast of characters:

Ozzy!

GSP!

Quinton “Money” Jackson!

This terrifying clown!

Angry Randy!

A metal singer (the dude from Lamb of God, maybe?) with some truly breathtaking dreads!

I mean, fucking look at those things!

Babyface Barnett!

Again with the clown!

Fedor “Sleepy Boy” Emelianenko!

…and Dave Mustaine! WAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!

This joy ride happened when Joe was in Columbus, Ohio for UFC 82. An Affliction t-shirt-wearing douche decided to heckle Rogan during his set. We’ve learned you don’t fuck with Joe in an MMA bout. And we also know you don’t fuck with Joe in a “To Catch A Predator”-style bust. This guy wasn’t aware.

— Matt Lindland let it slip to MMA Weekly that he’s just signed a contract with a new fight promotion that will pay him more for his first fight than he made in his entire UFC career combined. He will be fighting only as a middleweight, and his first match is slated for June. Though Lindland wasn’t at liberty to discuss who’s behind the shadowy promotion, word is that Affliction is a primary partner in the deal, and another partner may be Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions. If you’ll recall, an earlier report suggested that the UFC had banned Affliction from sponsoring its fighters due to the fighting league it had in the works. Lindland — who has always sort of reminded us of Woogie Woganowski — hasn’t fought since his loss to Fedor Emelianenko via armbar at BodogFight: Clash of the Nations in April.

— Fightlinker found an image from a YAMMA ad that may reveal the design of their mysterious pit. If those are iron bars lining the cage, this thing is going to be run out of town faster than you can say “Meyrowitz.”

— I don’t think I’ve posted about anything non-MMA related on this site since I found out that Ben Curtis was taking orders at Tortilla Flats, but I have to give up the props when it’s necessary. This video list on HolyTaco is the greatest thing I’ve seen online since I discovered the Professor Brothers. Not the father FTW.

Over the last few months, we’ve often been surprised at how petty and short-sighted the UFC can be — but if this rumor is true, it represents a new low for Dana White & Co. According to a report on 5thRound.com, the UFC is trying to block the clothing line Affliction from sponsoring its fighters, due to Affliction apparently trying to start its own MMA organization. From the report:

We are still gathering all of the details about this story, but we have been able to confirm it with a couple of people within the MMA community. From what we’re being told, the UFC is no longer allowing the clothing line Affliction to sponsor its fighters…

The word is that the UFC was not happy about Affliction starting their own fighting organization. We currently aren’t sure if Affliction is partnering up with anybody or if they are going about it by themselves, but that was what we were able to confirm with our sources…

The last fighter to actually wear Affliction during an event was Georges St. Pierre at UFC 79 where he sported Affliction on his tights and gi. If you review UFC 80 and Wednesday’s Ultimate Fight Night: Swick vs. Burkman, you’ll notice that Affliction was noticeably absent from any fighter’s apparel.

Not sure how reputable these sources are, but since there’s more than one of them, we’ll put this in the “possibly true” file for now. What makes it more plausible is Affliction’s association with Randy Couture. Couture’s “Xtreme Couture” t-shirt line is a sub-label of Affliction, and if the UFC was petty enough to forbid the wearing of Xtreme Couture gear during Wanderlei Silva’s UFC All Access shoot, then we’d believe they’d try to exert pressure on his parent company by banning Affliction altogether. Of course, what makes this less plausible is that the UFC’s biggest stars — Chuck Liddell and Georges St. Pierre among them — all rep hard for Affliction. The UFC isn’t crazy enough to damage relationships with their last remaining big names over t-shirts. Are they? We’ll update you when we know more…

Randy Couture and Fedor Emelianenko met for the first time on Friday for an Affliction commercial shoot that also included Georges St. Pierre, Quinton Jackson, boxer “Sugar” Shane Mosley, Eagles defensive tackle Mike Patterson, and, unbelievably, Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine. HDNet’s Inside MMA was on hand to capture the action:

So, good video, but we could have probably used a little more fake sweat. The Fight Network has more on the shoot here, reporting that the whole thing was one big love-fest, which culminated in the fighters exchanging phone numbers and vowing to hang out again real, real soon. Could there be wedding bells for this beefy bear-pair? We’ll stay on the story and let you know when we hear more. Until then, keep it off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush!

UPDATE, 12:15 p.m.: And here’s the poster…