Forget our report that there is a 90 percent chance that Fedor Emelianenko would defend his heavyweight title against Andrei Arlovski: Kevin Iole of Yahoo reports that it's 100 percent: The fight will take place on October 11, and the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas has already been booked.
The October 11 date is significant because it's going to be very, very hard for UFC to counter-program Affliction the way it did last Saturday. UFC 89 is scheduled for October 18 and UFC 90 is scheduled for October 25, and it would just be asking too much for UFC to do three straight Saturday live shows.
UFC will put something on Spike TV at the same time as Affliction's pay-per-view show, but whatever that "something" is, it won't be as good as last Saturday's Anderson Silva show.
The Fedor-Arlovski fight will be a good one. Arlovski is a former UFC heavyweight champ who's on a four-fight winning streak, and he was impressive in knocking out Ben Rothwell on Saturday's Affliction undercard. Arlovski's striking power makes him dangerous for the easily cut Fedor.
The only question about the Affliction show is whether the promotion's stable of fighters is deep enough to put together a good undercard to go along with this very good main event. Look for Affliction to try to add one big name in time to be part of the October undercard: Tito Ortiz.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-24-2008 @ 10:39AM
Frederick said...
I think affliction is a real threat to the UFC
they have tons of money backing them. They offer btter deals then the UFC and I do not believe they are loosing money like dana wants us to belive
between ticket sales PPV sponsors etc I really doudt they are loosing
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7-24-2008 @ 12:09PM
Joe Lee said...
UFC has taken advantage of its fans. Having one good fight on a single card now instead of the two or three match ups they use to have and lowered my viewing. The undercard matches use to be as good as the main event. When your stars began to leave, ( Randy Coutor, Tito, Alrovaski, Timsylvia), and more will leave, trouble starts and other groups will step up. Take advantage of your fans and like a good ex wife, they will leave you too.
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7-24-2008 @ 7:29PM
Sean said...
I have to disagree with Frederick's post. Sure, affliction has tons of money backing them and they do compensate there fighters well, but no business venture will continue to operate unless it generates a profit. The PPV #'s haven't been released yet but it's hard to see this being a profitable first show. Also, much like Elite XC (Kimbo) affliction is a one trick pony (Fedor), where the UFC is capable of putting on quality PPV shows every month, with the exception of UFC 89.
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7-25-2008 @ 4:01AM
clayton said...
Thats the problem though, Sean...UFC hasnt really put up some awesome cards as of late. I mean calling Affliction a one trick pony, when they put on what will easily be defined as the greatest heavyweight card in history (keyword: card) is a bit of an overstatement.
UFC keep flooding their cards now with these gimpy TUF contenders, hyping them as being real talent, when for the most part, 90% of those guys were reality tv primadonnas who actually cant fight.
In time, UFC will lose more fighters to monetary squabbles, now that THEY arent the only one trick pony in town, and well see a more spread out talent base.
7-25-2008 @ 4:31PM
Frederick said...
Fedor Emelianenko: $300,000 (no win bonus) def. Tim Sylvia: $800,000
Andrei Arlovski: $750,000 (includes $250,000 win bonus) def. Ben Rothell: $250,000
Josh Barnett: $300,000 (no win bonus) def. Pedro Rizzo: $70,000
Mark Hominick: $10,000 (includes $5,000 win bonus) def. Savant Young: $7,000
Renato Sobral: $90,000 (includes $30,000 win bonus) def: Mike Whitehead: $50,000
Matt Lindland: $300,000 (includes $75,000 win bonus) def. Fabio Nascimento: $20,00O
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira: $50,000 (no win bonus) def. Edwin Dewees: $15,000
Mike Pyle: $20,000 (includes $5,000 win bonus) JJ Ambrose: $5,000
Ray Lizama: $3,000 vs. Justin Levens: $6000*
Vitor Belfort: $140,000 (includes $70,000 win bonus) Terry Martin: $30,000
Paul Buentello: $80,000 (includes $20,000 win bonus) vs. Gary Goodridge: $25,000
they gave out 3.31 million
the tickets sales where 2.081 million
PPV at 44.99$ I think it wasYou need 28895 PPV buys to make that other 1.3 million to cover add to that sponsors that pay huge money to have there logos
In my opinion they are not loosing money. They might not be making a ton but since they already have a bunch of money I can see them happy not making much in hope of building there product
I know there are other expenses and a more detail look would give us better answers on this subject
7-26-2008 @ 8:14AM
sublime said...
Fedor got paid one million dollars not three hundred thousand. The UFC has a lot of talent in every division, with some exception to the heavyweight division, although Antonio who is the interim heavyweight champ is an exception since he can probably beat a lot of the heavyweights out there. Obviously the Fedor and arlovski fight is of big interest to mma fans I am just not seeing how they can match the quality fighters from the ufc, they have great fighters but what are they going to do have the same fighters fight every time they put on a fight card? Even then unless they continue to aquire more talent their options for drawing mma fans is not at the level of the ufc. I am actually curious if Fedor is going to be on every fight card they put out with a revolving door of opponents. Don't get me wrong that would be a good thing for the mma fans. Fedor needs to fight Josh Barnett, what is the deal with him not fighting Josh all these years, come on already. Arlovski is a more dangerous fighter than Tim Silvia nevertheless I still think Fedor will defeat him. Thats my prediction.
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7-27-2008 @ 3:02PM
Rajeet Walia said...
where ever Fedor fights, thats the place to be!
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7-27-2008 @ 11:33PM
Michael Espinosa said...
I think that UFC Dana White is way to cocky and has let all this popularity go to his head he thinks that he is like the New Big man in Vegas and has no class about him he is cocky and has done his fighters wrong after they made him who he is. Id like to kick his ass myself.
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8-04-2008 @ 12:46PM
imps4343 said...
I read a lot on these blogs on how T silvia is washed up, these are the same individuals who claimed he would beat fedor... I dont understand how all these UFC fans and even some professional odds makers made fedor out to be a ground guy. They simply were unaware of his striking abilities from his pride fights. Kevin R was one of the few fighters to predict fedor outstriking TS. I do believe affliction will generate more money then the IFL and bodog, I never understood how they were going to generate money without PPV. ohh, and Dana White is the fucking Don King of MMA
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