Affliction – Banned Preview
M1-Global was an ill fated attempted at merging Russian and North American promotions. As with any businesses, the result from failing can create something much more successful and promising than the intention of the original endeavor. Enter Affliction.
The major complaint of certain fighters in the UFC lately have been that they are underpaid, under promoted and too restricted by their contracts. Affliction may be trying to revolutionize the sport by avoiding all of these problems. Tim Sylvia has expressed that he appreciates freedom in his contract so that he may fight in other organizations. He does make a good point in that if he fights and he does incur any injuries that require lengthy healing, he may be able to fight again shortly thereafter and consequently make more money in a short amount of time and have the opportunity to either continue momentum after a win or recover following a loss.
What gives Affliction a lot of promise is putting together a great card full of competitors that were either ousted by the UFC or estranged from there:
MAIN CARD (PAY PER VIEW)
- Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia
- Josh Barnett vs. Pedro Rizzo
- Ben Rothwell vs. TBA
- Paul Buentello vs. Aleksander Emelianenko
- Matt Lindland vs. Fabio Nascimento
- Renato “Babalu” Sobral vs. Mike Whitehead
PRELIMINARY CARD
- Ray Lazama vs. Justin Levens
- Mark Hominick vs. Savant Young
- J.J. Ambrose vs. Patrick Speight
- Brett Cooper vs. Mike Pyle
This card gives everyone the opportunity to see whether the hype behind Fedor is deserved or not as he is fighting a former UFC champion who has proven himself as one of the best heavyweights over the past several years (despite the Tim haters opinions).
I am really excited to see Babalu fighting again. He was supposed to fight Vernon Tiger White not too long ago but that show was cancelled due to financial reasons on behalf of the company. I will very interested to see how he does against Mike Whitehead who is a talented opponent.
The matchup of Paul Buentello vs Alexsander Emelianenko could be a real war as well. It’s great to see Mark Hominick back in action again also.
The MMA world is getting bigger and Affliction is just one way of realizing the growth of the sport.
Affliction Banned will be available to watch on July 19th on Pay Per View. There could be connections with HDNet in the future as well for airing events.
Check out the event trailer