(Photo via the Justin Levens Remembrance Album on CombatLifestyle.com / Props to Deadspin‘s brilliant “Dead Wrestler of the Week” feature for the inspiration.)

By Ben Goldstein

All murder-suicides are shocking. Not all of them are entirely surprising.

On December 17th, 2008, UFC/WEC veteran Justin Levens and his wife Sara McLean-Levens were found dead inside their condominium in Laguna Niguel, California, both from gunshot wounds. Initial evidence suggested that Justin was the shooter. “It was a chest wound that penetrated her heart and killed her, and his was to the head,” said O. C. Sheriff Coroner’s Office spokesman Jim Amormino.

Amormino confirmed that painkillers and anti-depressants were discovered in the Levens’s home, along with the handgun Justin allegedly used to end their lives. Police had visited Justin and Sara at least twice in the previous month, once to investigate a possible drug overdose.

At the time of his death, Justin Levens was 28 years old and hadn’t won an MMA match in over two years. He’d gone 0-5 in 2007 — an agonizing year in which his close friend and IFL teammate Jeremy Williams committed suicide, also by shooting himself — and was dealt a six-month suspension by the California State Athletic Commission in July 2008 when a pre-fight drug test came back off-the-charts for the painkiller Oxymorphone. For the last five months of his life, Levens was unable to earn a living as a fighter, and fell deeper into a spiral of depression and prescription drug use.

Justin didn’t leave a suicide note. There were no signs of a struggle. He and Sara had already been dead for four days when their bodies were discovered.

(Props: afflictionvideos)

You know, just once I’d like to be referred to as "God" by a long line of hot chicks. Anyway, here’s Georges St. Pierre signing some of his new 2010 calendars last weekend at the Affliction store at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. To quote Todd Duffee, the ladies want to romance him, and the boys want to bromance him. This video is particularly worth watching because it reveals Tom Atencio’s new role at Affliction — awkwardly stumbling through interviews with UFC stars. (It’s cool, because he says he’s drunk!) Later, Randy Couture shows up to tell Tom about his upcoming "Advil and Viagra" fight with Mark Coleman. Semi-related: According to Randy, reports of GSP’s Olympic wrestling bid have been blown way out of proportion.

Bonus, after the jump: The badass new trailer for Spike’s Best of PRIDE.

(Bobby Lashley vs. Bob Sapp. Props to MMA Scraps.)

We were promised a train-wreck — what we got was slower and far less dramatic. (An ice-cream truck crashing into a tree, maybe?) Bobby Lashley got down to business right away in his main event fight with Bob Sapp at last night’s "Ultimate Chaos" show in Biloxi, taking the Beast down immediately and working some steady ground-and-pound in half-guard for a couple minutes, until Sapp tapped from the abuse. Unfortunately the ref didn’t see it, so Lashley was forced to beat on the helpless 322-pounder some more until a second tap finally caught the ref’s attention. Lashley moves to 4-0 in his budding MMA career, and plans to fight again in September.

The co-headlining fight looked like it was going to turn out the same way, with Pedro Rizzo quickly establishing top position on Gilbert Yvel and throwing down elbows. But Yvel stayed active, kicked Rizzo off and escaped to his feet. Back to his comfort zone, Yvel unleashed a striking assault that sent Rizzo to the mat, and knocked him out cold with strikes from the top. Yvel increased his record to 35-12, with 30 wins by KO/TKO; after the fight, he confirmed that he’ll be facing Paul Buentello at Affliction: Trilogy on August 1st.

(What’s he looking for?  A war.)

I spoke with Affliction VP Tom Atencio for this week’s SI column on his fight with local card dealer Randy Hedderick at tomorrow night’s “Ultimate Chaos” event in Biloxi, Mississippi.  Contrary to my suspicions before our talk, I came away convinced that Atencio isn’t doing this so much as a self-promotional Affliction publicity stunt, but rather because he genuinely wants to.  What makes me think so?  Mostly his reluctance to even talk about the fight, as well as mild surprise that anyone would want to talk about him considering the other fights on the card.

He also offered some insight on his life as a highly-publicized but low-level MMA fighter, as well as his career as a fight promoter.  And naturally he managed to slip in some shots at the UFC…

("After I’m through with you, your face is going to be as stylishly distressed as our premium denim." Photo courtesy of OCRegister.com.)

Betting odds have been posted for some of the key matchups at this Saturday’s Ultimate Chaos show (props to BloodyElbow for the tip), and oddsmakers have labeled Affliction VP/occasional fighter Tom Atencio as the favorite in his fight against Randy Hedderick, who is 4-3 as an amateur and will be making his pro debut against Atencio. Hedderick welcomes the attention that comes with fighting The T-Shirt Guy; in a recent Ultimate Chaos press release, he was quoted as saying:

So let’s peep those odds, shall we?

(Well, you sleep on the job as much as Andrei does and you’re bound to get fired at some point. Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Andrei Arlovski’s career options just got even slimmer. After suffering back-to-back first-round knockouts against Fedor Emelianenko and Brett Rogers — both of which were humiliating in their own special ways — Affliction has declined to renew the Belarusian’s fight contract. Affliction VP Tom Atencio did his best to spare Andrei’s feelings:

(They should have used a safe word. Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle.)

Just because Tom Atencio wants to give up a couple weight classes and fight Dana White doesn’t mean it’ll actually happen. Quote of the day, via Kevin Iole:

(Check out the high kick from Tom at the end.  It sure freaked the cameraman out and shut his whole operation down. Props: MMA Videos.)

Yeah, that’s Tom Atencio in the camo trunks getting his scrap on against David Martinez back in 2005.  You have to like the intensity and aggression from t-shirt guy.  He is not afraid to come right after you, guns a-blazin’.  He went on the win this fight via decision and it cemented his place as the rare fight promoter who actually has the grapefruits to get in and fight.  But apparently the positive attention that’s been coming his way since he agreed to his second MMA fight has only emboldened him to get more proactive about painting Dana White as a total punk.  First he suggested that maybe Dana should try being an actual tough guy, rather than just talking like one.  And now he’s stopping just short of issuing a full-on challenge. 

(Tom wishes a motherf*cker would call him t-shirt guy to his face.)

Affliction VP Tom Atencio saw a rare opening to take a shot at UFC president Dana White during the press conference to promote “Ultimate Chaos” in Biloxi, Miss., and damned if he didn’t make the most of it.  Atencio’s entering into his second MMA bout against Randy Hedderick, who as far as we know does not run either an MMA organization or a t-shirt company.  And while it’s not exactly like fighting for a UFC title, Atencio points out that at least he’s got the balls to do it, unlike some other promoters:

"I’ve been seen in front of the cameras before as far as the business side, but it’s time to fight. I’m doing something Dana White won’t do and that’s fight. He talks like a fighter, so why doesn’t he fight? I’m stepping up to the plate and win, lose or draw I attempted it. I don’t ever think he would fight."

(He’s not kidding, Dana — tap or nap. Photo courtesy of MMA Mania.)

He might be a "t-shirt guy," but Affliction VP Tom Atencio has enough balls to actually compete in the sport that he promotes. According to MMA Fanhouse, Atencio will be fighting on the supporting card of the June 27th MMA event at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Coliseum in Biloxi that will be headlined by Bobby Lashley vs. Bob Sapp. Another heavyweight match between Pedro Rizzo and Gilbert Yvel has also been booked. Said Atencio on his decision to get out from behind his desk and strap on the gloves:

No, Atencio’s fight won’t be a celebrity MMA bout against arch-nemesis Dana White (who could smash Ricardo Arona, by the way). He’ll be taking on a yet-unnamed lightweight, probably at a weight of 160 pounds: "Not sure I can make 155 at 42 years old."

While we give huge props to Tom for the effort, we can’t help reading into what this means for Affliction as an MMA promotion. It can’t be a great sign when their main promoter and two of their heavyweights are planning on keeping busy with other endeavors for the month of June. When asked why he wouldn’t be fighting under the Affliction banner, all Atencio would say is "They don’t think it’s right for me to fight for my own event." (They?) Still no word on when/where Affliction’s third event will be held, if they are indeed having one, but we’ll keep you posted.

(Whaddaya say, Baby Face, feel like taking a pay cut and burning some bridges?)

According to FiveOuncesofPain, Affliction is looking at holding their third event on July 11, 2009.  If you’re thinking that this date sounds familiar for some reason, congratulations, you are an astute observer!  Yeah, July 11 is when UFC 100 is.  And it’s kind of a big deal to the UFC.  So why would Affliction guarantee that their event gets counter-programmed by scheduling it on the same night as one of the biggest UFC cards ever?  Possibly because they know they’re done and want to hurt the UFC however they can on the way out.

That’s what Sam Caplan thinks, anyway.  According to his report Affliction is offering “restructured” contracts to their fighters (read: asking them to fight cheap) in the hopes of lowering overhead costs and getting the event on network TV or basic cable.  They know that no pay-per-view distributor wants to go head to head with the UFC, but if they can offer their show up for free they figure it might hurt the UFC’s PPV buys just a little, and what the hell, Affliction isn’t looking to promote any events after this one anyway.

(Props: CombatLifestyle)

BloodyElbow kicked up a lot of dust last night when they published a rumor saying that Affliction was preparing to shut its doors as an MMA promotion, and might be trying to arrange a deal with Zuffa to cut some of their extensive losses. In response, Tom Atencio went on the Hardcore Sports Rage show (Sirius 98) to deny the reports, saying that Affliction’s MMA promotion still had the backing of Golden Boy Promotions, Donald Trump and M-1 Global:

The rumor apparently originated from an incident on the Tom Leykis Show, where someone called in claiming to be the Affliction VP. The real Tom Atencio denies he was on the show, and denies that Affliction is reaching out to the UFC for a parachute, though he wouldn’t speak about the details of the company’s financials. ("That’s like me coming in and asking you how much you make at your company," he said.) Atencio suggested that the UFC felt threatened by Affliction’s relationship with Fedor Emelianenko, and asked everyone to just please chill out:

("Yes, thanks you very much for this commemorative dinner plate.")

Though we enjoyed much hearty debate about how quickly Affliction’s MMA promotion would crash and burn after "Day of Reckoning," the official company line is that a third event will be held this summer, possibly in Anaheim (again) or Atlantic City. As Tom Atencio told FiveOuncesofPain:

Atencio, like everyone else, expects Fedor Emelianenko vs. Josh Barnett to headline this theoretical third show, saying "That’s what I’m hoping for but right now I’ve got to sit down with these guys and figure everything out." Sounds like they’ve got a lot of figuring to do, so we’ll just leave them alone for now. In the meantime, these post-"Day of Affliction" news bits may interest you…

— The paid attendance for Saturday’s event was 8,946 for a live gate take of $1,512,750, though some of those tickets could have been paid for by Affliction itself. If Tom Atencio’s total attendance figure of 13,228 spectators was accurate, then over 4,000 seats were straight-up given away. Affliction’s debut show, "Banned," brought in 14,832 total attendees. On the same night as "Day of Reckoning," 20,820 people packed the Staples Center in nearby Los Angeles to watch Shane Mosley take out Antonio Margarito.

(Looks like Andrei’s the only thing standing between Fedor and another trip to the scary rollercoasters.  That is not a safe place to stand.)

Is it sad that this installment of Ben vs. Ben is forced to dwell on questions surrounding Affliction’s possible demise?  A little, but that’s life.  We can’t just pretend that they aren’t paying Andrei Arlovski roughly 20,000 t-shirts for an event that has no clear path to a profit…or does it?  That discussion and more awaits you below.

What are the odds that this is Affliction’s last show?

BF: -300.  In other words, 3-1 odds that we’ll never see another Affliction MMA event again.  I’m not happy about that, but if I’m being honest I have to look at how difficult it’s been for them to get a second show together, how much they’ll spend on it and how little of that will be recouped in ticket sales or pay-per-view revenue, and I can’t see how they justify another money pit of a show after this.

Of course, three has always been their magic number.  That’s how many shows they said they were committed to, and it would give them the chance to put on the Josh Barnett-Fedor Emelianenko fight they’ve obviously been angling for since the start.  But if Arlovski’s getting over a million bucks for this fight, imagine what it would cost to put on Barnett-Fedor alone, not to mention the rest of the card.  It would be an obvious money-loser, and even Affliction can’t bleed cash forever.  If they don’t pull out a miracle on Saturday night, they’re going to pack it in.

BG: I really hope nobody at Affliction has their fingers crossed and breath held for this miracle of which you speak. Between Margarito/Mosley and the UFC’s usual counter-programming and market saturation, Affliction won’t even be outperforming their first event in terms of ticket sales or pay-per-view buys. But I have to assume that they already know this. Maybe Atencio & Co. are bad at running an MMA organization, but they’re not childish enough to believe that money will literally fall out of the sky. And yet they sign Gegard Mousasi to fight in their third event, and announce they’ll be promoting four events a year with Golden Boy.

I’m not Affliction’s CFO, so I don’t know how much money the company is willing to lose on this MMA pursuit. But is it naïve to think that they wouldn’t be making these concrete plans if their future really depended on the financial performance of "Day of Reckoning"? Short answer: yes. Still, I’m going to set the odds for this one at a more generous -200. Now if I could just find a gambling site that offers a parlay bet on "Affliction won’t put on a third show" + "Tito Ortiz will never fight again," I could probably make a decent profit…

(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.

(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.

(‘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…

(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.

(‘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.

(‘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.”

(Photo courtesy of Combat Lifestyle.)

In an attempt to make Affliction’s decision to, let’s just say not go through with their planned October 11 event in Las Vegas, company VP Tom Atencio is getting specific about the semantics involved. You see, they aren’t canceling their event. Everyone knows that’s a bad sign for an MMA company. And they aren’t postponing it, either. Again, another bad sign. No, it’s nothing like that.

Atencio explains it all to MMA Weekly:

“We’re not canceling it, we’re not postponing it, we’re rescheduling it completely,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense to do it where we wanted to do it, it’s a positive.”

[...]

“It was a business decision. We came out strong, and we want to continue with that momentum and continue strong. We don’t want to come out and be weak and have to give tickets away. We want to continue to be a force in this industry.”

[...]

“From a business standpoint, we don’t want to lose money,” he said. “We want to be here long term. It’s a wise choice. This is definitely a positive.”

So they scheduled an event, paid for a Nascar sponsorship and a Times Square billboard touting the date, then couldn’t sell any tickets. So what did they do? They scheduled it again, for a different time and place. They re-scheduled it. Completely different than postponing or canceling.

Atencio also said there would be an announcement about the company’s future during the Marquez-Casamayor boxing match this Saturday, while Affliction COO Michael Cohen has been more vague, promising an announcement “within two weeks” and saying a press conference would take place at Trump Towers in New York City.

Could this big announcement have something to do with a boxing co-promotion? Or absolutely nothing to do with boxing? Will we continue to play this guessing game until someone comes up with some answers? Where’s Waldo!? Who’s on first?!? Gaaah!

(Times Square, meet “The Pitbull” and “The Baby-Faced Assassin.”)

The dispute between the UFC and Randy Couture may be over, but the one between the UFC and Affliction still rages on. After telling reporters that he would be “fucking horrified” to see Affliction still in business in 2009, Dana White may be trying to speed their demise as Affliction heads to Las Vegas for its October 11 event. According to VP Tom Atencio, Affliction is being hindered by the UFC in their Sin City efforts:

“They’ve been messing with me every step of the way,” Atencio said. “There have been issues that I’ve been dealing with. So I can’t say it’s them, but there’s been things we’ve been dealing with that have never happened before, so I guess that’s why.”

Atencio didn’t specifically list how the UFC was messing with him, but when the IFL attempted to break into the Vegas market, they faced radio stations that wouldn’t air their ads and marketing groups who refused to work with them. The rumor was that the UFC had threatened any ad networks or radio stations who cooperated with their competition, suggesting that they’d lose out on much greater business in the future from the UFC.

Affliction could be facing some of those same problems, or worse, as they try to drum up interest in their live event. Ticket sales were a major boon for their first show, but if they can’t get that same level of fan support for this effort they’ll be forced to rely on pay-per-view revenue, which could very well be weaker than their first show due to the lack of Fedor Emelianenko‘s star power. That may be why they’re shelling out the dough for a Times Square billboard, hoping that PPV buys will save them even if no one shows up to the live event.

(Props: Steve Cofield)

(One is the loneliest number. Photo courtesy of Combat Lifestyle.)

With Randy Couture going back to his ex to try and work things out, this has to be a tough time for Affliction. They thought there was a real connection there, maybe a future between them. They even carved ‘Affliction + Randy Couture’ in the big tree out back. You have any idea how long it takes to carve all that with a pocket knife?

Then, out of the blue, Couture is back in the UFC’s arms and they’re as happy as ever. But Affliction VP Tom Atencio isn’t upset that the biggest fight they could possibly make is now impossible any time in the near future:

“Randy needs to do what he needs to do to handle his problems,” Atencio said. “I’m happy for him.”

“I think the biggest problem is people assume everything,” Atencio said. “The bottom line is Randy is our partner with Xtreme Couture. Randy is sponsored by Affliction. He’s been with us and we work with him. Randy needs to handle his legal problems with the UFC and he did so I am happy for him.”

That’s the spirit, stiff upper lip. You’ve still got Josh Barnett and Andrei Arlovski to put against Fedor. All is not lost. But what about Dana White’s assertion that he would be “fucking horrified” if Affliction is still in the MMA biz in 2009? Them’s fightin’ words!

Or not:

“Dana has his right to his opinion and he is very open about it and that is completely fine,” Atencio said calmly. “Since day one, I have always handled things this way. I don’t need to bite my tongue because I don’t need to talk shit about people.”

Man, I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I almost miss Gary Shaw. At the very least, can’t Atencio have a son who will go flying off the handle from time to time? Is that too much to ask?

(Jerome would like to know if you’re going to finish that baguette.)

MMA Weekly is reporting that Affliction is in negotiations with French kickboxer Jerome Le Banner, with the intention of setting up a fight between the former K-1 star and Tim Sylvia for Affliction’s third MMA show (early ’09, location TBA). According to Le Banner’s agent Alan Kermorvan, “We have been talking with Tom Atencio for about two weeks about this possibility…I’m pretty sure we can work out something pretty quickly, it’s just not signed yet.”

Though he never held a title in K-1, Le Banner holds notable kickboxing wins over Peter Aerts, Ernesto Hoost, Gary Goodridge, Don Frye, Mark Hunt, and Hong Man Choi. He is 3-1-1 as a mixed martial artist, with his last MMA fight resulting in a first-round knockout victory over Jimmy Ambriz at K-1 Hero’s 4 in March 2006.

A matchup between Sylvia and JLB would represent the culmination of a rather-entertaining war of words that’s gone on for the last couple years, which began with Le Banner publicly dissing the Maine-iac for being a boring fighter with overrated striking. Sylvia responded by challenging Le Banner to a fight on his home turf, but the match didn’t come together due to Le Banner’s refusal to sign an exclusive, multi-fight deal with the UFC. In an interview with Fighthype last December, Le Banner referred to Sylvia as “big sausage,” and called him “so ugly and annoying.”

In addition to Affliction’s pursuit of Le Banner, Tom Atencio told MMANews.com that he’s interested in signing Sergei Kharitonov, the heavyweight PRIDE standout who was briefly rumored to be fighting Antonio Silva for EliteXC’s heavyweight title.

It’s official: Vitor Belfort will not face Matt Lindland at Affliction: Day of Reckoning on October 11. The hand he broke on Terry Martin’s face won’t be healed in time, though Affliction VP Tom Atencio sounds just a little suspicious of the whole thing in his remarks to MMA Weekly:

“Vitor is out, I spoke with him I think yesterday and he told me,” said Atencio. “Actually, it was on Tuesday we had a conversation for about an hour or so, and yeah, I guess he broke his hand in two places is what he told me and he had been having 2, 3 and 4 opinions on it. He finally got the opinion that he wanted I guess and they told him to step out for a while.”

This might be just an accident of poor phrasing, but Atencio seems to be suggesting that Belfort went looking for a doctor who would tell him not to fight. That hardly sounds like “The Phenom,” who told a slightly different tale to Tatame:

“Man, I’m doing physiotherapy now and won’t be able to fight at October 11th, I wanna fight with 100%, so I’ll be at the next show to fight for the title”

Belfort also said that he expects to face the winner of Matt Lindland vs. TBA for the currently non-existent middleweight title in Affliction’s third event. Naturally, Atencio cast doubt on that too, saying that the proposed Belfort-Lindland bout would not have been for a title because “it didn’t make too much sense.” He said they may eventually decide to make it a title bout, but for now the task at hand is finding an opponent for Lindland, and guess whose name keeps coming up? Jake freakin’ Shields.

(Tito and Jenna, still trying to solve that age-old argument about which is the more lucrative industry: fighting or screwing?)

Here’s what you know going into contract negotiations with Tito Ortiz: he is going to insist that you pay him waaaay more than he’s actually worth, and he will genuinely believe that it’s justified. That’s what Affliction is finding out. After claiming he had a “ground-breaking record” contract in the works only to have his statement directly contradicted by Affliction COO Michael Cohen, Ortiz is now actually said to be in negotiations with Affliction, though it isn’t going well.

Affliction VP Tom Atencio told MMA Weekly, “We’ve got a contract, and it’s just not feasible.”

I think we can untangle that odd syntax enough to infer that what he means is Ortiz has told them how much money he wants and it’s absolutely ridiculous. Color me surprised. The problem is that Ortiz has an inflated sense of what he can bring to an MMA organization at this point. For example, he claims that he’ll do a guaranteed 500,000 pay-per-view buys for Affliction. This is what’s known as “crazy talk.”

Ortiz isn’t that big a star anymore. He only thinks he is. MMA fans have seen him limp along the last few years with victories over an over-the-hill Ken Shamrock and his more recent loss to Lyoto Machida, so it isn’t likely that too many of the hardcore faithful are dying to see “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” back in action.

If his reasoning is that fans of “The Apprentice” are going to plop down forty bucks to see him fight “Babalu” Sobral (who most of them have probably never heard of) in Affliction (an organization they may or may not be aware of), then he’s overestimating the reality TV crowd’s attention span. They’ve forgotten him in favor of Brooke Hogan and Mr. Boston by now.

When the people who paid Matt Lindland $300,000 and Tim Sylvia $800,000 think your expectations are “not feasible,” you must really be off the mark.

(“Yaaaaaaaay!” Photo courtesy of MMA Mania.)

According to SI.com, Tito Ortiz signed a deal with Affliction yesterday that will make him the highest paid fighter in MMA history, and will compete at Affliction’s “Day of Reckoning” card (October 11th, Las Vegas); his opponent is expected to be Renato “Babalu” Sobral. Though he wouldn’t drop specific numbers, Ortiz told SI’s Arash Markazi:

“I guarantee you that my contract will be like no other…It will be a ground-breaking record contract for sure, without a doubt. There’s so much money to be made right now in mixed martial arts and it’s all about the fighters trying to make that money. It’s going to be a long-term deal where I put my heart and soul into the company and help build them…They’re going to bring me on, not just as a fighter but also doing some of the back work also…

I’m going to a company that’s going to take care of me, a company that’s going to respect me, a company that’s going to put me in the forefront and make me the ambassador that I’ve always been.”

Regarding Affliction’s drawing power with him on board, Ortiz was optimistic — perhaps insanely so:

“I know they want to make some money and I know they got over 100,000 pay-per-view buys on their first show and with me it’s guaranteed to be over 500,000 pay-per-view buys just by the number of fans that are going to follow me no matter where I go so they’re going to get there money’s worth just in pay-per-view no matter what.”

(Photo courtesy of Combat Lifestyle.)

Affliction VP Tom Atencio is once again claiming that his organization sold more than 100,000 pay-per-views for their first event, and he doesn’t care what you heard. Atencio told MMA Weekly recently that they did “well over 100,000″ — a phrase that’s becoming all too familiar — but that he isn’t planning on proving it by releasing the official numbers. And why not?

“It’s been my experience that the UFC doesn’t release their numbers, and I try to learn from other companies with mistakes and what they’re doing right,” Atencio said.

[...]

“We did well over 100,000,” Atencio said. “At this point, we did well over, but I don’t want to give the exact numbers.”

Last week Dave Meltzer estimated the number of pay-per-views sold as being somewhere between 50-85,000, though it wasn’t exactly clear where he was getting that figure from. Now Atencio is basically asking us all to take his word for it and trust that he’s telling the truth. We’d like to, but ever since we dated that vaguely European girl in college we’ve had some real trust issues.

The big question we’ve been waiting to hear an answer to this week is, what of Affliction’s pay-per-view numbers? VP Tom Atencio claimed they did “well over” 100,000 buys. He also said, in the post-fight press conference, that he’d be releasing the numbers on Thursday or Friday of this week. And yet, so far nothing official. Subscribers to Dave Meltzer’s “Wrestling Observer” relayed the following tidbit from the latest issue via the Sherdog forums:

“As far as the numbers went, the big number everyone is looking for is the Affliction PPV number. Based on independent estimates we’ve heard, the number has been estimated at between 50,000 and 85,000 buys. Atencio claimed the number as being higher, saying it topped 100,000, although at press time, any numbers could only be considered rough estimates. Atencio told us that since UFC doesn’t release numbers, he’s not going to either (I know, after saying it was more than 100,000). Keep in mind that Pride claimed 150,000 buys for its first U.S. PPV in 2006, and the real number ended up being 40,000 (we know that because Nevada taxes on PPV revenue so you can get a real number; California does not so getting real numbers will be more difficult).”

“Independent estimates” is a vague phrase to begin with, but with all this speculation floating around the only way for Affliction to silence it is to release the numbers. If they don’t, we’ll have to assume that they probably didn’t hit that golden number of 100,000 buys as Atencio claimed.

It’s a big week for Affliction and dubious numbers. Next you’re going to tell me that the Tim Sylvia Signature Series Affliction t-shirt doesn’t really cost $58. No, that one checks out actually. At least there are some things you can still depend on.

(Tom’s the guy standing second from the right, stunned by Tim Sylvia’s body odor. Photo courtesy of Combat Lifestyle)

Speaking with Yahoo! Sports’s Kevin Iole, Affliction VP Tom Atencio claimed the final number of pay-per-view buys brought in for the company’s debut MMA card last Saturday would “definitely” be over 100,000:

“I don’t have everything on that yet, but for the people who felt this was going to be a total flop in that regard, I have news for them. It’s already done a lot better than what I’ve heard people speculating. I’m not going to release the (official) number, but it’s already well beyond what people have been saying. Well beyond.”

We’ll take that claim at face value for now, but Atencio could be blowing smoke, obviously. Iole reports that $500,000 of the event’s $2.1 million live gate haul came from tickets purchased by Affliction itself. Atencio also admitted that the show’s ridiculous payroll was intended to grab attention:

“We had to come out swinging and make a big splash and we did. Having said that, we realize this is a business first and that if we don’t turn a profit, we’re not going to be around. We need to have the guys understand that. We know (fighters) want to be treated well and we’re willing to work with them, but they have to be willing to work with us. We just can’t go out there and throw money around without thought. The guys have to be willing to work with us and can’t simply look at us as a cash cow.”

Of course not, Tom — they’re interested in you because of your mind.