Affiction’s first MMA event on July 19 has been named “Banned” as a stab back at the UFC for banning its fighters from wearing Affliction-sponsored clothing at UFC events. The announcement was made on last Friday night’s edition of HDNet’s “Inside MMA.”
Details have been slowly emerging about the event in the past month or so. As previously reported, Fedor Emelianenko, widely regarded as the world’s top heavyweight mixed martial artist, will square off in his first meaningful fight in two and half years against former UFC Heavyweight Champion Tim Sylvia. Matt Lindland, a top ten middleweight, has also announced his participation on the card, although it is still unknown who his opponent will be. Other rumored participants include Josh Barnett, Renato ‘Babalu’ Sobral, Andre Arlovski, Ben Rothwell, Aleksander Emelianenko and Pedro Rizzo.
The big buzz surrounding this card has been the amount of money required to put it on. Fedor Emelianenko’s $2-million-per-fight asking price is rumored to have been met. His opponent, Tim Sylvia, is rumored to be pulling in $800,000, which is eight times the disclosed amount he received in his last performance at UFC 81, and higher than any guaranteed contract amount a UFC fighter has ever received. MMAPayout.com is hearing the total cost of the show could be $5-6 million.
That’s a large amount of cash that event organizers will likely not make back. One has to wonder what, if any, the long-term plans of the promotion are. There has been speculation that Affliction is merely using this as a way to promote their clothing line, much in the same way Bodog used BodogFight to attract people to their gambling business. That didn’t quite work out for them. BodogFight is all but done.
It will certainly be interesting to see how it all plays out.
Affliction: Banned is expected to take place at the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, Texas, on July 19. It is still unknown whether the event will air on PPV or HDNet.
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