Tito Ortiz - Image: Zuma Press

Tito Ortiz returning to the UFC: The great thing about Dana White as UFC president is that he gets so giddy he lets things slip all the time. While tweeting about an appearance on a radio show Friday evening, he added an “Oh yea and welcome back tito :)” to the end. On his radio appearance he played it more coy than that, but you can blame that on his attempt to save all the juicy news for a July 31st press conference. Chances of Tito coming back to the UFC? I’d say they’re higher than 90% now, with a 10% chance of talks breaking down as these two haggle over contract details.

Affliction is dead, long live Affliction: The days of the Affliction company throwing live events is over. On Friday morning, the company pulled the plug on their third event and by the evening news had come out that they were in talks to work with the UFC again. No terms were disclosed on the deal yet, but a joint press release came out early this morning confirming their ‘collaboration’ and the return of Affliction Clothing as a UFC sponsor.

What happens to Fedor: The biggest question is what happens to top fighter Fedor Emelianenko now that the UFC and Affliction are ‘collaborating’? Fedor has one fight left on his Affliction contract. Will the UFC pick that fight up and bring him into their promotion? Chances of that are low since the UFC has consistently refused to sign one fight deals with the Russian fighter, but this opportunity might be too good to pass up. Expect some statements from both Fedor’s camp and the UFC regarding his situation which should clarify where the best heavyweight in the world is going. I’m gonna let my inner fanboy get hopeful, but I wouldn’t recommend you hold your breath on this one.

MMA is a pretty crazy sport … I can’t think of another one where interesting stuff like this happens on a fairly regular basis. I’ll keep you informed of all the major developments right here at Everyjoe, so stick around and enjoy the ride!

Post from: EveryJoe

MMA world gets a major shake-up

Affliction Trilogy Poster - Image: Affliction Entertainment

“Finding an opponent for the No. 1 ranked MMA heavy weight champion in such a short period of time was a huge endeavor and I’m thrilled at the amount of fighters willing to take on this challenge. But in the end, we just didn’t have enough time to promote a new fight to our standards.”

This sucks, especially considering how excited everyone was getting over the potential replacements for Fedor. The MMA community was making a case for Brett Rogers to get a shot, which would be a Cinderalla tale for the ages. Not even a year ago, Rogers had to return to his job balancing tires at Sam’s Club because he couldn’t make ends meet as a fighter. A surprise win over Andrei Arlovski last month propelled him into everyone’s top ten lists and a fight with Fedor would have made for excellent movie fodder, win or lose.

On top of that, Vitor Belfort was said to have actually signed a bout agreement to face Fedor, but never heard back from the promotion to confirm the bout.

So why cancel the event? Well, Affliction has already taken pretty epic financial beatings from their past two events. And relying on all this drama to turn into ticket sales and PPV buys is a risky proposition, especially when you don’t know how the silent masses will react to a last second main event shift. Word is Affliction’s pay per view partner Showtime had a big say in the final decision to shut the event down. I have no idea how they’re affected exactly but I don’t think it’s foolish to think it all had to do with money … or the lack thereof.

No one has said if this is the end of the road for Affliction but people are already talking about how the company will spread it’s card out amongst other events to fulfill it’s contractual obligations. That doesn’t exactly make it sound like they’re gonna ask for a do over.

Post from: EveryJoe

Affliction Trilogy gets canceled

Tim Sylvia - Image: Ben Kevan

A fight with #1 heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko at Affliction’s first event earned Tim a phat 800,000 bucks but also an embarrassing 30 second loss. And now another nail has been put in the coffin of his career: this past weekend he lost an MMA fight to an Olympic gold medalist boxer. That wouldn’t be such a big deal, except this boxer won that medal around the same time the Berlin Wall fell. “Merciless” Ray Mercer is now 48 years old and a rotund 256 pounds. But that didn’t stop him from knocking Tim Sylvia out in 9 seconds.

Mercer had already been dismantled several times in kickboxing and MMA contests, most recently to Kimbo Slice, who choked him out in just over a minute. He wasn’t expected to have much of a chance, especially after the threat of criminal charges forced the bout to be changed from a boxing match to mixed martial arts fight at the last second. But win he did, and in spectacular fashion.

But wait! It gets worse! Tim Sylvia was set to fight on the upcoming Affliction card August 1st for another huge paycheck (we’ll talk about Affliction’s out of control salaries in another post), but was removed from the card last night due to medical concerns stemming from his defeat. To say this has been a bad week for Timmy would be an understatement. Not only has he damaged his reputation, but he’s cost himself one of the last big paychecks he’s liable to be making for a very long time.

Post from: EveryJoe

Tim Sylvia knocked out by 48 year old boxer

MMA Trivia, the premiere mixed martial arts application has arrived for the iPhone and iPod touch. The application features hundreds of fun and challenging MMA trivia questions for all mixed martial arts enthusiasts. With questions of various difficulty levels, any MMA fan will enjoy this application.

Want to know more about this application? Visit MMA Digest.

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MMA Trivia Goes Mobile With iPhone And iPod Touch

According to Affliction-mma.com, Fedor only got $300K with no win bonus, while Arlovski banked $1.5 mil and had he won, he would have banked another $250K! I seriously think some of these promotions need to rethink their contract pay-outs. $1.5 million just to fight. It’s a win-win situation. Now he may say he wants a rematch and might get another fat paycheck just to fight and possibly lose again. Arlovski’s coach said that Arlovski may have won if he stuck to their original game plan…of not getting knocked out.

Post from: EveryJoe

Fedor Vs. Arlovski KO Video

• Brett Cooper Vs. Patrick Speight: Brett Cooper wins in round 1 Via Punches TKO.
• Antonion Duarte Vs. Albert Rios: Albert Rio Wins Via Unanimous decision.
• L.C. Davis Vs. Bao Quach: L.C. Davis wins Via Unanimous Decision.
• Vladamir Matyushenko Vs. Antonion Rogerio Noguiera: Antonion Rogerio Noguiera wins via strikes TKO in round 2.
• Bobby Green Vs. Dan Lauzon: Dan Lauzon wins via submission in round 1.
• Paulo Buentello Vs. Kiril Sidelnikov: Paulo Buentello wins via TKO by doctor stoppage due to cuts suffered bt Sidelnikov.
• Renato “Babalu” Sobral Vs. Raeau Thierry Sokoudjou: “Babalu” wins via Darce Choke submission in round 2.
• Vitor Belfort Vs. Matt Lindland: Belfort wins via punches TKO in round 1.
• Josh Barnett Vs. Gilbert Yvel: Barnett wins via submission via strikes in round 3
• Fedor Emelianenko Vs. Andrei Arlovski: Fedore wins via KO punch in round 1.
• Jay Hieron Vs. Jason High: Hieron wins via KO punch in round 1.

Post from: EveryJoe

Affliction: Day Of Reckoning Results