evertonfan
Chairman of Selectors
I like Forrest Griffin.
I would love Fedor in the UFC but can't see Affliction going anywhere if Golden Boy and Trump really believe in it.Could see some serious competition in the HW division soon. Affliction's going down the pan and Fedor could finally be signed by the UFC, Cro Cop's back, Overeem's apparently on his way to the UFC as well + the TUF HW series coming soon. Could finally be some real competition in the HW division.
A new report from the U.K. based Fighter's Only magazine states that the UFC will be returning to the United Kingdom two more times late in 2009.
Per the report, "October will probably see the promotion return to Manchester - which hosted UFC 70: Nations Collide - and in November the show will head north to Newcastle, scene of UFC 80: Rapid Fire."
The report also states the October event could possibly take place in Liverpool, which is 30 miles from Manchester. Liverpool also is home to the vaunted Wolfslair, where Michael Bisping, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and more train. Liverpool also "has produced more UK UFC fighters than any other place in Britain."
There are no indications as to the exact dates or event numbers, though that will likely develop over the next couple of months.
Affliction MMA is Done.
Tom Atencio will be making an announcement soon.
A third show will probably happen to fulfill Affliction Entertainments larger contract obligations unless a deal with Zuffa can be arranged to offset some of the costs while Affliction pays off their contract obligations via "sponsorships"...
You could hear in Tom's voice after the event - the realization that:
Everyone is making money here (Trump, Golden Boy, the fighters, etc...) at the expense of Affliction losing millions.
With Affliction footing virtually the entire bill and after PPV distributor: Showtime and Promoter Golden Boy taking their cut - Affliction is left with less than $13 per PPV buy to cover expenses.
Making the initial estimate of 250,000 buys not even close to what will be needed to break even.
That was stupid fom Sylvia.Sylvia mutually agreed to keep the fight standing up, as it was changed to an MMA rules match very late in the piece as they couldn't get the boxing rules match authorised, so just cunningly called it an MMA match so it could go ahead. Sylvia was never going to take the fight to the ground, and deservedly got pwned and had his Affliction payout taken away from him. What a twat.
TUF Finale on Saturday night as wellLooking forward to that. Hopefully Wilks the 'arrogant prick' will pound Damarques' face into the mat. Can't see it happening though, Damarques is a superior fighter to Wilks in both stand-up and BJJ so that'll be a Damarques win. As for the other final, I'm backing Pearson. I've liked him from the start and reckon he could just pull off a decision win against Winner. Should be an excellent fight though. Dollar vs Dent is on the card as well, and I'm backing Dent for that fight due to his experience. Then Lester vs Osipczak which is a fight that I can see Nick winning, although if Frank pulls off a win he'll definitely get at least 1 UFC fight I imagine, as Dana seems to be a fan of his passion and detirmination. His skills are pretty ropy, but if he can train hard and improve he could be a bloody good fighter, same with Dollar.
Then there's Guida-Sanchez, which I can see going the way of Sanchez. I respect Guida alot, he's got tremendous cardio, but I can see Sanchez's skills pulling him through. Lytle vs Burns will probably be a close fight but I can see Lytle winning by decision. The final main card fight is Stevenson vs Diaz, which should be another close fight. If Diaz keeps the fight standing up, then Stevenson will batter him, but if he gets it down to the ground then he could pull off a submission win. I'm going to back Stevenson for this one though.