Will
05-05-2008, 03:11 AM
The upstart Affliction promotion, which debuts July 19 with an announced main event of former PRIDE champion Fedor Emelianenko vs. former UFC title-holder Tim Sylvia, has lost the American Airlines Center as its venue.
The news comes from fiveouncesofpain.com, which reports that the loss of the Dallas-bases venue is likely part of a bigger, failed deal with HDNet.
As part of the deal, Affliction's preliminary card was expected to air live on HDNet, and the pay-per-view main card would air on the all-high-definition cable station on a one-week delay.
However, that deal has reportedly fallen apart.
Affliction, which first launched as an MMA clothing brand, has since announced its intentions of becoming a fight organization, as well. The organization's debut show has had many notable names attached to it. In addition to Emelianenko and Sylvia, Matt Lindland has confirmed he'll fight at the event. Josh Barnett, Ben Rothwell, Andrei Arlovski and Aleksander Emelianenko have also been rumored for the card but are far from confirmed.
According to Randy Couture, the Affliction show could now instead take place at The Pond in Anaheim, Calif. He mentioned the possibility on Saturday's "Rear Naked Radio" on 105.3 FM in Dallas.
Its a really bad sign when you lose your PPV sponsor and your arena. I hope this show still happens, but if it doesn't than it is just another failed mma company on the ever growing list of companies that tried to challenge the UFC and failed.
The news comes from fiveouncesofpain.com, which reports that the loss of the Dallas-bases venue is likely part of a bigger, failed deal with HDNet.
As part of the deal, Affliction's preliminary card was expected to air live on HDNet, and the pay-per-view main card would air on the all-high-definition cable station on a one-week delay.
However, that deal has reportedly fallen apart.
Affliction, which first launched as an MMA clothing brand, has since announced its intentions of becoming a fight organization, as well. The organization's debut show has had many notable names attached to it. In addition to Emelianenko and Sylvia, Matt Lindland has confirmed he'll fight at the event. Josh Barnett, Ben Rothwell, Andrei Arlovski and Aleksander Emelianenko have also been rumored for the card but are far from confirmed.
According to Randy Couture, the Affliction show could now instead take place at The Pond in Anaheim, Calif. He mentioned the possibility on Saturday's "Rear Naked Radio" on 105.3 FM in Dallas.
Its a really bad sign when you lose your PPV sponsor and your arena. I hope this show still happens, but if it doesn't than it is just another failed mma company on the ever growing list of companies that tried to challenge the UFC and failed.