Day of Reckoning

(Props: Bloody Elbow)

Originally scheduled for the undercard of Affliction's Day of Reckoning show last Saturday, the welterweight bout between IFL/UFC vet Jay Hieron and 6-0 prospect Jason High had to be postponed to the very end of the lineup due to time constraints — as in, directly after Fedor vs. Andrei, when 80% of the audience was out the door, the pay-per-view broadcast had cut out, and nearly everybody with a videocamera had already moved over to the post-event press conference. Fortunately, Inside MMA was able to show the fight on their Friday episode. And it looks like Emelianenko's mid-air knockout of Arlovski wasn't the only KO from Day of Reckoning that you'll eventually be seeing on "Best of 2009" lists. After about a minute of settling in, Hieron dashed in with a crushing right hook which floored High, then landed three or four uppercuts while High was already dead asleep. The Thoroughbred lets out a battle cry after being pulled off his opponent, which we'd imagine is partly joy over the highlight-reel victory, and partly relief that he finally gets to go home.

(Gegard Mousasi accidentally interrupts Tito Ortiz's brilliance at "Day of Reckoning" last Saturday. No, this has nothing to do with your comments; I just thought it was hilarious. Props to VIPete/Gnarly219.)

Scoring the CagePotato "Hall of Fame" t-shirts this week are...

realNick on "Affliction Payouts Are as Ludicrous as You Expect...": Never realized 'Arlovski 360' actually stood for the spin Arlovski makes when he gets knocked out.

schnetzler on "Ben vs. Ben: UFC 94 Edition": just to piss you guys off, let's rhyme more names on the card...

Georges "The Grizzly Bear" St Pierre
BJ "Mother Hen" Penn
Stephan "Badge of Honor" Bonnar
Dong Hyun "Trim and Prim" Kim
Jon "Nobody's Bitch" Fitch
Akihiro "Oh No" Gono
John "Powered" Howard
Dan "The Shamer" Cramer

Outstanding. If your name has been called, please e-mail us at feedback@cagepotato.com with your real name, address, and shirt-size.

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UNRELATED REMINDER: Fowlkes will be liveblogging UFC 94 tomorrow night from the MGM Grand Garden Arena, beginning at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT. Do not, under any circumstances, miss it.

(An enormous head, filled with 12 pounds of cookie dough. Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

We just wanted to share these quotes from Tito's absolutely stunning broadcast debut at "Day of Reckoning," collected from these threads on the UG:

Sobral/Sokoudjou

"Here we are with Seraldo Babalu, you did an awesome job, saw why you're a black belt in jiu-jitsu, getting an awesome submission there, I want to tell me what you see, let's go ahead and see by the fight, what you saw, in the ring."

"You showed the dominance by getting the takedown and looking for a choke in that position. We know the weakness that you had, but you actually showed the heart and determination of a champion of how tough of a light heavyweight you really are, here in the Affliction card. What do you think of the future of you, um, future opponents?"

"Yes, and uh, my back will be better in about three months, so I know all the fans would love to see me and you get it on. You know what, you're an awesome fighter, congratulations tonight. Everybody lets give a hand to Renato Babalu, one of the greatest light heavyweights, of the night."

Belfort/Lindland

"Matt the Lindland Law...The Law Lindland."

"Well, Belfort, we saw you with an astonishing left hand, that's the left hand that I used to see you knock people out time and time again, we're gonna go ahead and go over it. Walk me through it, show me exactly what you seen with this."

"Well, like I said, you show your hand-speed time and time again Vitor, 185 pounds, lady and gentlemen, let's give Vitor Belfort a round of applause, an awesome 105 pounder, you just beat the number two guy in the world, buddy, you're on top of the world tonight!"

"Wow! That’s all I got to say. Vitor at 185 pounds. I don’t know. I see him beating the, uh, what was it, Anderson Silva. I see him picking him apart because you have two great boxers, and, man, that was amazing. That was the old Vitor Belfort that we all want to see. Him at 131 years old. He’s back for vengeance."

Be honest, when Fedor's legs went briefly wobbly at around the 0:17 mark, you thought to yourself, 'Oh shit, Arlovski might actually do it.'  Then Arlovski jumped into one of those "overhand murderballs" that Goldstein warned against, and you remembered, 'Oh yeah, it's Fedor in there.'

More videos from last night's fights after the jump.
 

(Photo courtesy of daylife.com.)

Due to a training-related injury, Chris Horodecki has failed his licensing exam with the California State Athletic Commission, and will not be appearing at Affliction's "Day of Reckoning" event on Saturday night in Anaheim. Though early reports said the 21-year-old IFL vet was off the card because he failed a neurological exam, "The Polish Hammer" is actually suffering from a bulging disc in the base of his neck, which is restricting most of the strength in his right arm. Horodecki was supposed to face Dan Lauzon on the "Day of Reckoning" pay-per-view broadcast; Affliction is currently trying to lock down a replacement for Horodecki so Lauzon can still compete.

But on the bright side, at least "DoR"'s co-main event will still be happening. Gilbert Yvel has officially been cleared to face Josh Barnett after submitting his final paperwork yesterday afternoon. Said CSAC Assistant Executive Officer Bill Douglas:

Sure, Yvel told everyone that he'd be on his best behavior, and maybe he even believed it. But it's like the story of the scorpion and the frog — no matter what the consequences, getting DQ'd is simply his nature.