I ended up watching the Affliction card at a friend's place. Wow, what can I say, they did a helluva job. Now, we just have to sit back and see if they got the numbers through PPV. In any event, if they can survive, Affliction has the ability to be a serious contender to the UFC organization. First of all, if they have signed these fighters, Affliction has all the heavyweights. There are a number of main events that could be put together in the future with Fedor as was mentioned in the broadcast. A Couture/Fedor matchup would be off the charts, and honestly, I don't see a UFC matchup that would touch it. If Couture remains retired, you've got Arlovski, Nog, Barnett and Sylvia to match up with Fedor. Btw, Arlovski looked like a madman. He was in top form and as good as I've ever seen him. The fights were all pretty entertaining. I enjoyed Arlovski the most, but even the 36 seconds of Fedor destroying Sylvia was shocking and entertaining. Glad I got to see it.

Although I was skeptical at first, I actually liked the concert breaks by Megadeth. They played two songs (one before the main event and one earlier in the broadcast). It would be awesome to see Disturbed or Slipnot---maybe even Drowning Pool make an appearance. It was a nice touch imo adding the music.

Affliction went out and got a lot of big names to make appearances tonight. "Big" John McCarthy was on hand interviewing fighters after the bouts. Frank Trigg was commentating. Randy Couture was ringside as well as Tito and Jenna, Donald Trump, Don Johnson, Michael Madsen, and who knows what others. Everyone, and I mean everyone, except for Tito, was wearing Affliction shirts. I even thought Michael Buffer as the fight announcer outdid his brother Bruce. His signature, "Let's get Ready to Rumble," never gets old. I thought it was interesting that Herb Dean was reffing Affliction tonight instead of the UFC.

Honestly, I watched the UFC card on Tivo afterward, and it looked like a joke compared to the Affliction broadcast. Sure, it wasn't really a UFC card tonight, but damn I was impressed with Affliction. They covered all their bases and was imo the best MMA event of the year and maybe in quite some time. Dana White has a real contender to deal with in Affliction, and the US audience got a big-time introduction to Fedor.

The UFC is the king of MMA and has contracts with most of the best fighters, but Affliction has many great heavyweights including the top heavyweight in the world. It wouldn't be surprising to see a lot of fighters jump ship once their contracts run out with the UFC under White if Affliction takes off. We've already seen a lot of big-name fighters leave the UFC with a lot of resentment. Tito and Randy are two big ones that come to mind. It also seems like there are a lot of familiar faces that are willing to help Affliction's cause like McCarthy and other ex-fighters.

[This message has been edited by aggierogue (edited 7/20/2008 2:13a).]

thanks for the post. I'm interested in how this Affliction vs. UFC pans out.

thanks for the wrap up. wish i hadn't missed it.


oh yeah, bruce buffer sucks balls

From what little I've seen and kept up with UFC, Couture and Tito Ortiz are no longer considered the great fighters they once were. So there was no reason for UFC to promote them in the big time fights. They were going out and getting beat down pretty good and the fights weren't drawing the viewers. I bet that is a big reason why they left UFC. They didn't like the fact that they were not getting the love and attention they wanted and thought they still had it. When clearly they don't.

I would agree with you about Tito. Not randy, he was the freaking HW Champ.

Your post makes sense for Tito but not for Randy.

Was is the key word. But by the time he retired he wasn't nearly the fighter he used to be.

randy was the HW champ when he retired/resigned

I stand corrected. I guess for some reason I didn't realize that his fight against Sylvia won him the HW title.

well, it was confusing. he lost to chuck and retired, then got inducted into the ufc HOF. then a month or two later, he's fighting sylvia for the title. he even defended the belt once against gonzaga before "resigning".

finally got around to seeing the fights. man, fedor has some great hand speed. it's so rare in MMA to see that type of explosion...particularly in the weight class. throw in his toughness and ground game and it's a real mismatch.

i don't think couture can take him, but i'd love to see him try

also, great to see arlovski getting back in the aggressive mode.