Tito Ortiz No Shows Affliction Press Conference

Which is why most of the fight community tuned in to a news conference Wednesday in Las Vegas for the Oct. 11 Affliction 2 “Day of Reckoning” only to hear that the fighter would not only not be attending, but also that he has not yet been signed by the promotion.

SI.com reported Tuesday that the boisterous light heavyweight had become a free agent on Monday and was hours away from announcing a deal with Affliction, though the report was later updated to describe Ortiz’s signing as a possibility.

Legal counsel for Affliction Entertainment said Wednesday that Ortiz’s signing was only a “rumor,” and that when he was released from his contractual obligations, the promotion would be interested in signing him.

Hmm…Tito lying again possibly? I think he could be maneuvering for one last offer from the UFC…stay tuned with me as all of this unfolds.

Props: Sherdog

Report: Tito Ortiz To Affliction

Tito Ortiz has found a home outside the octagon in the form of Affliction according to SI.com:

“I guarantee you that my contract will be like no other,” said Ortiz, stopping short of giving away the specifics of a deal that could include responsibilities outside of the ring. “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. That’s something I’m interested in doing. They’re going to bring me on, not just as a fighter but also doing some of the back work also.”

Nothing new here…Tito doing what he does best…talking bout himself. In my honest opinion, Ortiz is done as a top tier fighter as evident by the last couple of UFC fights. Affliction breaking the bank to pay him isn’t a good move on their part, although I can understand their stance as well.

“Mr. Trump works fast and gets busy in a lot of the things he does and he’s going to give me the best deal possible,” said Ortiz. “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.”

ROFLMAO!!! Tito can’t be serious here…not only did Affliction’s initial show NOT surpass 100K PPV buys, he’ll NEVER pull in 500K PPV buys without the UFC brand behind him. It’ll be funny if Affliction folds by this time next year, and Tito has to go crawling back to Dana White.

Arlovski vs. Fedor Scrapped?

That’s the word according to 5ouncesofpain:

FiveOuncesOfPain.com learned late Friday that a proposed main event for Affliction’s second-ever show on Oct. 11 between WAMMA heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko and Andrei Arlovski appears to be off for the time being.

The word is that Josh Barnett could face Arlovski instead…while a good fight it’s not the main event Affliction wanted. According to rumors, Fedor has a lingering hand injury that will not be healed by the time this card rolls around in October.  I think Barnett deserved to fight Fedor more than Arlovski, although I understand why they went with Arlovski initially. A Barnett win over Arlovski would raise his profile here in America even more…thus making a Fedor/Barnett main event more enticing than it would be at this point.

However, with the rumors swirling that Affliction is asking fighters to take pay cuts and bleeding money profusely…they may not make to that third show. Which would be a travesty, because in my opinion, Barnett is the only fighter out there that could give Fedor a competitive fight right now.

Affliction Asking Fighters To Take A Paycut?

According to Dave Meltzer of the wrestling observer

Top tier HW Josh Barnett has already given his thoughts if asked to take a paycut:

Barnett replied by saying that he was not going to take a pay cut to fight.

In addition, when asked about whether or not he’ll fight Fedor, Mr. Barnett said that it’s not up to him as far as whether or not the fight gets booked. He wants to fight Fedor, but can’t worry about the politics surrounding why the fight hasn’t been booked.

Who could blame him…it seems that Affliction lost way more money on the first show than they care to admit. Signing all those profile fighters to ridiculous salary amounts was not a smart move by a company conducting it’s first show ever. Not only does this hurt their credibility, this hurts the sport of MMA. Kind of like a wild animal tasting blood for the first time…once they taste it there is no turning back. Once these fighters experience those outrageous salaries…they’ll continuously think they are possible.

I wonder how all the fighters that left the UFC to fight for Affliction feel now.

Tito Ortiz vs. “Babalu” Sobral At Affliction 2?

That’s the rumor according to Yahoo’s Steve Cofield:

Sources have told Yahoo! Sports that free agent Tito Ortiz will fight Renato “Babalu” Sobral in the co-main event at Affliction’s next fight card, on Oct. 11 at the Thomas & Mack Center on the UNLV campus in Las Vegas. The main event will feature a heavyweight bout between WAMMA champion Fedor Emelianenko and Andrei Arlovski.

Affliction vice president Tom Atencio would not confirm the Ortiz-Babalu fight. He said details for the fight card will be released during an Aug. 6 news conference that most likely will be held in Las Vegas.

Atencio also indicated that he didn’t think Affliction could speak with Ortiz until Aug. 4 because of a 60-day non-compete clause in Ortiz’s UFC contract. Ortiz’s last fight for UFC was on May 24 at UFC 84. If the 60-day clause is accurate, the deal ended last weekend. Atencio said the biggest stumbling block for an Ortiz deal would be the financial terms.

The last portion of that quote speaks volumes…no way Ortiz let’s Affliction pay Tim Sylvia $800K and get away with it. While Ortiz would help Affliction PPV wise…he’s not the PPV draw that most people think he is…so I’m not even sure that’s break even on him. He hasn’t carried a PPV alone since the dark ages of MMA. During his last stint with the UFC, in 5 appearances…he was the main event once. That was against Chuck Liddell…who at the time was the biggest MMA star in North America.

If they do manage to sign Ortiz…he’ll just add to the growing lineage of UFC castaways to head to Affliction. Ortiz will take Babalu down and lay on him for a boring 3 round decision…if you can’t tell I’m not interested in this fight at all.

Fedor Emelianenko Vs. Andrei Arlovski On October 11th

That’s the report according to Yahoo sports:

LAS VEGAS – Fedor Emelianenko will defend his newly won World Association of Mixed Martial Arts heavyweight championship belt on Oct. 11 against Andrei Arlovski in the UFC’s backyard.

Affliction’s second MMA promotion will be at the Thomas & Mack Center on the UNLV campus, in the shadow of the UFC’s corporate offices, according to a venue official.

Although Josh Barnett deserves the next shot at Fedor…you can’t complain with Arlovski getting the nod though. He’s a bigger name in America, and a former UFC champion…and Affliction is looking at making money since they obviously lost a ton on their first show.

It’s interesting to note that this event will take place in Las Vegas…the home base of the UFC. The UFC October event is taking place in England a week after the Affliction show, and is rumored to be shown on Spike TV. This gives Affliction a great chance to see how they fare in terms of interest in their show. Which means this show shouldn’t be affected by over saturation of MMA in Las Vegas(UFC holds numerous events there throughout the year). If this show doesn’t do well…I think they’ll be folding sooner than later.

P.S.  This fight should be a little more competitive than Fedor/Sylvia…at least I hope so anyways.

Tom Atencio: Affliction “Banned” Surpassed 100,000 PPV Buys

Affliction VP Tom Atencio spoke with Yahoo and when discussing the details surrounding the Affliction Banned card…he dropped this nugget:

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,” Atencio said. “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.”

Atencio would only say the final number “definitely” would be beyond 100,000.

I don’t know if I believe Atencio…initially he said, “I don’t have anything on it yet”…then said, “I’m not going to release the (official) number.”

In other words, how can he release the official number….when he doesn’t have anything on it yet?  It’s not like he could have all of the PPV information 2 days after the event.   I think it’s just posturing in light of the success that the UFC had with it’s UFN event on Spike TV. There was little to no advertising for the Affliction event…which mainly attracted hardcore fans. Are there 100,000 hardcore fans that would have paid $39.95 for that card?  I don’t know…

UPDATE:  I do know now….NO…100,000 people would not order that card…according to Dave Meltzer(Wrestling Observer)…the show did between 50,000-85,000 buys.  As I stated initially,  Atencio was posturing in light of the successful ratings the UFC pulled on Spike TV.  This isn’t the first time he has lied…but who can blame him I suppose.