Affliction 2 Day of Reconing turned out to be a good sophomore effort in my opinion. None of the main card fights went to a decision and most fights turned out great with definite outcomes. If you read my Affliction: Fedor Emelianenko vs Andrei Arlovski picks you know I missed the mark on some of the picks, but I have real good explanations though, I swear!

 

So, I'm going to get the negatives of the show right out of the way because it was mostly good and this can be just nitpicking, though a lot of casual fans agreed with me on these:

• Tito Ortiz is a dumbass. He embarrased Affliction at the pre fight press conferences and continued on with crappy commentating and post fight interviews. You can put lipstick on a pig, it'll still be a pig though. I don't know if he completely blocked out his embarassing exit from the UFC but he was very pretentious in his comments through out the show. I wonder if Donald Trump got him the gig. He is a joke and I hope he get a shot at Babalu so Babalu could embarras him yet again and send him off to whereever Sokoudjou will go. WEC?
• The "Rabid" commentator that went behind the scenes to show Babalu relaxing before the fight and kept calling Babalu "intense" and "rabid". Too bad Babalu was yawning throughout. Where the hell did he come from? Get rid of that joker!
• Extensive public display of poor Matt Linland's waking up after a brutal KO. On thing UFC does good if someone get badly KO'd is not show their wake up process until the fighter is ok and can stand on his own. There was no reason to show all that, especially when it was clear that Linland wasn't waking up well at all. 

On to the good of the show.

• Production was just fine. There were plenty of replays and the show moved along at a good pace.
• John McCarthy - I was very happy to see him and that he is still an active MMA referee. I guess his retirement was only from UFC.  Good for him, I'm sure he is being treated better and doesn't have to deal with Dana White. That along be huge in my book!
• The "Fight Quest" alumni was a decent commentator and should definitely be a mainstay for Affliction.

On to the fights.

Paul Buentello vs Kiril Sidelnikov  - well I was right about one thing, just cause you can hang with Fedor in training doesn't mean you can beat everyone else. Sidelnikov also did not take it to the ground where he most certainly would have done better than Buentello. Why? He only tried for one takedown and it was when it was already too late for him in mid round 2. With a big debut like that, his coaches let him down or may be he just didn't listen to them. I am also questioning his training. Was he just helping Fedor with Fedor's fight and getting beat on by Fedor mostly, or was anyone actually helping him train for his fight? I'm leaning towards the first. Hopefully next time when the Russian promoters pretend they're in it to promote other younger fighters, they actually bring a huge camp of fighters to Starii Oskol, if that where Fedor must train, and concentrate on their improvement and preparation and not just Fedor.

Buentello did ok but seemed to be very apprehensive about throwing more than just a jab. He won so that's all that counts for him. Superstar he is not though. Beating an overweight Fedor's very young training partner is not exactly impressive, especially on the heels of three round decision over Gary Goodridge. Who decisions Gary Goodridge? Not a lot of fighters, they usually beat him very quickly.

Renato "Babalu" Sobral vs Thierry Sokoudjou - this one I was exactly right about. If there was any doubt that Sokoudjou had a few great wins early but folds everytime the going gets tough, he folding to Babalu should have cemented his lack of heart and ability to keep any stamina past round one. Yet again another example of how he gives incredibly hard time to Team Quest luminaries like Dan Henderson, but that doesn't mean he can beat other guys. Not sure where he goes from here, he may get another chance in Affliction, may be. If it's anyone decent, he may very well choke again. Then what? Japan? WEC if he is lucky?

Babalu leveraged his experience and weathered everything Sokoudjou had for him and easily took over in round two. It was pretty painful to watch him going through "show and tell" D'arce choke drill in the middle of the fight cause his opponent just sat there already given up. Great win for Babalu and his confidence. I guess stupid Tito was challenging him during the post fight interview. I think it'll be a good fight for Babalu, what can Tito do to him? Babalu's punching is better, wrestling is probably better and definite edge in submissions.

Vitor Belfort vs Matt Linland -Matt Lindland didn't get a chance to out work Vitor Belfort like I thought he would. Belfort took advantage of the very first exchange and Linland's striking weakness. A precise left straight from Belfort put Linland on the floor and Belfort did great capitalizing on the downed Linland. Four punches later fight was stopped with Linland laying almost lifelessly on the floor except for the uncontrollably shaking left leg. He got cought and should have been way more careful than rushing in with his weak sloppy striking against some one like Belfort.

Though the fight didn't show much, Belfort did what he had to do and didn't waste a single opportunity to exploit Linland's weakness. He looked fast, precise and showed good reflexes to get in there and finish the fight. It was interesting to see K-1's showman Ray Sefo in his corner.  Nice to see him keep sharp.

Josh Barnett vs Gilbert Yvel - wow, what a huge disappointment! Barnett looked aweful! Three rounds to finish a huge underachiver and non-crosstraining lazy striker in Gilbert Yvel!? Barnett's corner should have left him in the ring to celebrate his disappointing win by himself. He disrespected their time and efforts by just sitting on top of Yvel for almost 2 full round and not finishing him. What was that? How dared he do his "throat cutting" win gesture after that? Anyways, if he thinks he has a chance against either Fedor or Arlovski with that type of fighting....he probably doesn't though. I just hope he can snap out of his depression in time to get good training in before those fights. Oh, and how stupid was his excuse/give away about his poor nose bleeding and making him choke? I think very. Watch his nose being busted first thing in any of his future fights.

Gilbert Yvel was the winner in my book. Not like a winner in a sense that he'll amount to anything after this display of toughness. But he kind of redeemed himself for all those cowardly times he tapped out at the first sign of trouble. If only he was this tenatious when he was younger and more popolar.  May be he earned another fight with that? Gilbert Yvel vs Paul Buentello? That could actually be a good fight, given how Buentello has self admittedly never initiated a take down in his whole career.

Fedor Emelianenko vs Andrei Arlovski - News flash!!!!! Fedor again looked very beatable and human! This isn't really news by now, is it? Definitely not. 

• Fujita had Fedor sliding on ice when he rocked him
• Nogueira reversed him and got on top
• Coleman had his back and was on top
• Randleman damn near killed him when he slammed him on his head
• Mirko CroCop bloodied him up and landed a bunch on him
• Mark Hunt out of all people was  on top
• Hong Man Choi stuffed his takedowns

He almost always looks beatable. Well in this fight against Andrei Arlovski he looked very beatable again. Arlovski was bigger, a little faster and was actually landing some glancing shots. Why was it such a big deal though? Because Sylvia didn't land any? CroCop did, Fujita did, Mark Hunt did. It's a fight, you're going to get hit! But as long as you don't get rocked or KO's or get hit too many times it's ok. That front kick that Arlovski landed towards the end that pushed Fedor back looked ok, but it wasn't like it doubled Fedor over.  I'm sure that if the fight went on longer Fedor would have adjusted to Arlovski's timing and would have found his rhythm.

Arlovski's jump for the flying knee was aweful! Looked like he was going to do an olympic board diving jump. WTF was that? Per his own words he truly did dump his chance down the toilet. Fedor stood calm and capitalized on the first opportunity Arlovski gave him and finished the fight. Is that his magic? May be.

All I know is that I can't wait to see it again. Affliction together with it's great allies in Trump and Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Productions should strike again while the iron is still hot and promote yet another Fedor headliner event. Hopefully in another six months. I wish they wouldn't give Barnett a chance at Fedor because while it will be entertaining I think it won't have that "this is the fight Fedor may finally lose" type hype. Arlovski vs Fedor 2 would garner more attention and may be Arlovski won't go to boxing just yet. Arlovski is just so much more marketable than Barnett - he is Russian, very hairy, thick beard and those vampire/werewolf teeth gimmick will just sell tickets and PPV buys. We'll see what happens. Until then Fedor is KING!

Check out and learn Fedor's MMA style from his new book:  Fedor: The Fighting System of the World's Undisputed King of MMA

 

I just HAD to find time to writing at least something about this card/fight. I can not wait till tonight and am really hating the anticipation. It really doesn't matter how the fights turn out because of the fact that Fedor is fighting again just few months after fighting Sylvia and is fighting a legit threat in Arlovski.

HD Net put tugether a pretty good, not great, "get to know Fedor" show "FEDOR: The Baddest Man on the Planet". It was good to have a few fighters that have fought Fedor and give him credit that he never takes himself. I was disappointed with the fact that there really wasn't that much "new" footage. A lot of the Fedor footage was taken right out of Pride FC's "Champions" series they did on Fedor, Nogueira, Sakuraba and Silva. BUT... this is one of the few Fedor specials that actually had him LAUGH. That's right, Fedor actually laughs and it was great to see some type of emotion out of him. If you missed the show on HD Net, go visit Afflictions website and watch their promo videos, they're pretty much the gist of the whole Fedor show and you get to see some Arlovski training as well. AND if you watch the press conference, you'll get to see the surprize "superstar" that Affliction unfortunately decided to deal with, Tito Ortiz, make a total fool and tool of himself and Affliction too. The dumbass can't even read a fight card and as usual reiterated to everyone that he can't present himself in any other manner other than pound his chest before fights and then get embarrased by his inability to fight any good. Thank you Lyoto Machida! You gave me one of the most satisfying experiences when you exposed Tito Ortiz for what he is - a one dimensional never-improving hack. I just hope Affliction didn't spend a lot of money on him or sign a multi deal contract. Who's next? Ken Shamrock, just for Tito?

Oh and I just found out that Fedor apparently has an instructional book too, Fedor: The Fighting System of the World's Undisputed King of MMA, though I haven't seen it yet. Onto the fights though, besides Fedor vs Arlovski there are a few good fights that are kind of compelling to see.

Jay Hieron vs Jason High - Jay Hieron has been on a tear in IFL and looked great. Training at Xtreme Couture's has been great for him, as it is for any other fighter. Picking Hieron. (really though I just haven't seen Jason High fight. If he beats Hieron, he'll definitely be on everyone's radar)

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs Vladimir Matyushenko - hmm, kind of a tough one for me. Matyushenko rediscovered his MMA career in IFL and looked great recently. Noguiera on the other hand had a decent run in Pride but hasn't really shined. His brother's disappointing catatonic performance against Frank Mir (who's delusional by the way, Brock will TKO him and then break his leg off and then eat it) is kind of weighing on my judgement here, they're twins you know. I think the style that Nogueira's developed and used recently isn't cutting it any more and Matyushenko will hit harder standing and will most certainly get on top and then ground and pound him for decision. Picking Matyushenko.

Paul Buentello vs Kiril Sidelnikov - one of the things that kind of surprised me is that, at least according to the HD Net Fedor special i mentioned earlier, Kiril Sidelnikov is Fedor's main training partner.  It's great for Sidelnikov on one hand because training with someone better than you always make you improve more, especially Fedor. On the other hand though, many times training with someone much better than you all the time may give you a false confidence. It has happened countless times before, a fighter comes from a huge famous fight camp and is fighting another fighter from a barely known camp. Then the fighter who's sparring partners are guys that don't even fight beats a fighter that can kinda hang with a group of pro fighters. I really hope that it will not be the case for Sidelikov. He's striking looks a lot like Fedors and ground will definitely be better than Buentello's, given his success in Combat Sambo tournaments. Buentello won't be a push over, his striking is dangerous and his KO's are a pretty good testament to that. Picking Sidelnikov by being smart and taking it to the ground.

Renato "Babalu" Sobral vs Thierry Sokoudjou - Sokoudjou made a huge splash in Pride FC's 205 division by KO'ing two top guys at the time, Rogerio Nogueira and Ricardo Arona. His UFC's showings however quickly took the air out of the hype he quickly build for himself in Pride. Powerful and athletic he appears to be lacking stamina and heart. Picking Sobral to weather a few hard kicks and punches from Sokoudjou early on and take over by whatever he wants, striking or submissions.

Vitor Belfort vs Matt Linland -  No matter how ugly sometimes Linlands fights turn out, I've always respected his tenacity, will to win and willingness to cross train. His striking may never be beautiful, but his jiu-jitsu is coming along very nicely. Too bad he lost a few years of fighting because of the self absorbed Dana White and is getting up there in age. Belfort's been hot and cold for years now and while still young will probably never get up to the hype level he initially garnered. Picking Linland by outworking Belfort and breaking his will and body. Hopefully beating Belfort will get Linland a couple more good and high profile fights.

Josh Barnett vs Gilbert Yvel -  Barnett finally avenged his loss to Pedro Rizzo in a so so fight. Barnett did pretty damn good in Pride FC's last heavyweight Grand Prix getting to the finals, especially after a long stint in japanese pro-wrestling. So another win is a win. Affliction must have spend a bunch of cash on Barnett liking his quirky personality and are giving him a gift fight to set him up with the winner of Fedor vs Arlovski.  Yvel has near zero chance to beat Barnett, if Barnett just takes him down and doesn't goof off standing up. Picking Barnett with one hand behind his back.

Fedor Emelianenko vs Andrei Arlovski - historic fight this may be not, but a huge mega fight it sure is! Everyone is waiting for Fedor to finally to succumb to the reality of MMA - everyone loses and it's ok. There are just too many variables and ways to win that at some point you get caught. This will be a tough fight. Arlovski looked great against Rothwell, but I really think Rothwell made Arlovski look good. Sometimes certain bodytypes/styles make the same fighter look better than others. After his second loss to Sylvia, Arlovski didn't look all that great against Jake O'Brian, PeDepano or that other boring brazilian dude that trains with CroCop that made Gonzaga give up before their fight even started. So one fight where Arlovski kinda let go and looked like the former aggressive self made him into the guy that can beat Fedor? Almost everyone that fought Fedor could have beaten him, not that Heath Herring hack though. Even Tim Sylvia, while not landing a single shot on Fedor, still had a good chance of beating him. It just hasn't happened yet. Arlovski does look awesome in training, very fast, he's got a new famous boxing coach. Fedor? Fedor still trained in Starii Oskol with a handful of trainers and Kiril Sidelnikov who he just beats on. He's just special like that. I'm picking Fedor to beat Arlovski after Arlovski will put up a pretty good fight, though I think it will go to the ground where Arlovski isn't that good and Fedor really shines.

I also have to say that it's VERY PETTY of UFC to run Brock Lesnar vs Randy Couture's UFC for free tonight on Spike. D$ck move. I'm sure fans are getting tired of all the UFC cards one after another and are itching for some even a little different. I think Affliction will pull through this and continue on their decent card and if they manage to have Fedor on each one, they'll be even better. I'd always pick Fedor's PPV vs Rich Franklin or Henderson, no offense to Rich.

 

I really hope Lorenzo Fertitta is calling Dana White right about now, starts off with a huge sigh of disappointment and says:

"I should have quit my casino job about a year ago. --another sigh-- I just watched Affliction's , as you called a T-Shirt company's, PPV event and I gotta ask you Dana, W..T..F... Better yet, How TF did you F that up? Why wasn't this a UFC card? Crazy Russians you said? Who cares if they wanted a few bum Red Devil fighters bundled with Fedor? So what? We have bums fight all the time in UFC! I mean, take tonight for example! I wish you didn't have that black mail on me, so I could Fn get rid of your rude "personality" and non existent negotiation abilities. Did you see Arlovski? Did you see Barnett? Did you see Fedor? WTF Dana!"

Anyways, as of now I only caught the few last fights of the event and in short it was awesome!

• John McCarthy is one of the most elloquent commentators/interviewers ever and who comes with the unmatched experience of being "in" the most fights ever. He was always good in interviews, but he was great as a commentator. Why didn't UFC add him on their commentating team?
• Production Quality - who cares!? It's about the fights for me, but I liked the whole "boxing like" atmosphere and the production was pretty good for a first event.
• Celebrities - Affliction by far beat UFC Fight night in this category. UFC had like what? Usher and some basketball dude who was texting instead of watching fights. PFFFFT! Affliction had like a whole part of the show where they showed Donald Trump and announced like over ten+ other celebrities. Say what you will Dana, but "T-Shirt" companies do pretty good with celebrities cause they like "all the cool kids are wearing it" t-shirts.
• Josh Barnett is one the top guys at heavy. It was a pretty good fight and he knocked Pedro Rizzo out cold with a hook ala Roman Zentsov, in a sense that Rizzo fell the same way after a hook. After the fight he said he wanted to avenge his loss to Rizzo from 7 years ago, I don't believe it though. Come on, Rizzo used to be tough, used to. He had way too many knock outs in recent years and since this event was Barnett's return to US and a big deal, he played the revenge angle to get an easy fight. No matter, he'll take other top competition after this warm up.
• Andrei Arlovski was awesome in his third round TKO victory over Ben Rothwell. Arlovski was the agressive fighter he used to be during his UFC heavyweight champion days. He did it all, flurries of puches, kicks, flying knees and leglock attempts. Rothwell did ok for a while but Arlovski kept a fast pace. Rothwell did have a good chance to do some damage after Arlovski's failed leglock attempt, but didn't take full advantage of it.
• Donald Trump is a pimp and I'm glad he's somehow involved in Affliction's  or WAMMA's or whatever event. He was all up Lennox Lewis during last apprentice because he likes fighting. So hopefully he can make an impact in MMA too, especially if this event was any indicator of what may happen in the future.
• Many thousands of Afflictions shirts in one place was making me dizzy. I hope they can scale back on requiring everyone to wear them, especially Fedor's old coach. It was just wrong.
• Fedor Emelianenko is freakin awesome! He yet again proves everyone why he is the number one heavyweight fighter in the world! Cause he is Fedor, that's why. Again when everyone is doubting his chances against an ugly huge and dangerous monstrocity in Tim Sylvia, an effective UFC representative in this case in my opinion, Fedor comes out and punches Tim Sylvia with such ferocity and speed that Sylvia falls where Fedor follows up  to punch him some more, take his back and choke Sylvia out! Fast, furious and easy. About 30 seconds is all it took to dispose of Dana's boy. Dana's next best boy is Noguera who Fedor already beat 3 times!

The stars lined up for Affliction's event tonight, the fights turned out great and they shut Dana's big mouth up with Barnett, Arlovski and Fedor having awesome performances. I don't know who else they have on payroll as far as fighters go, but I'm willing to bet there will be many fighters trying to get involved with these guys. I hope Affliction made good money or please investors to do another event or more.

Oh, ya, I almost forgot a minor happening at the event.  Fedor Emelianenko vs Randy Couture does actually look like a possibility, cause Fedor said he's interested and Randy came out to say he is too and called Fedor a TOVARISH. He messed it up, but at lease he tried. Respect was the aura of that face off. I can't wait for it and will definitely be buying it. If you consider yourself an MMA fan YOU should too, even if you split it with your buddies that's ok too.

Check out and learn Fedor's MMA style from his book: Fedor: The Fighting System of the World's Undisputed King of MMA

Not going to get into why posting has been lacking lately, that's for a later post about life getting in the way.....

Anderson Silva Vs. Dan Henderson - it's one of those fights for me where it's just very difficult to pick. I really like both fighters. Anderson Silva is really well rounded and only lacks in takedown defense where Dan Henderson excels. Henderson also, in my opinion, has more power to his wild punching style but Silva is extremely accurate with his. That's the beauty of MMA, this fight can end in a number of way. I'm picking Anderson Silva by slow methodical pick apart.

Heath Herring Vs. Cheick Kongo - I really don't like Herring and how perpetually over hyped he is even though he's been show up numerous times for what he is - sloppy mediocre fighter unwilling to improve any aspect of his MMA game. Just look up a pinnacle of his MMA evolution - fight against Gan McGee.  Anyways,  Cheick Kongo looks to be always in shape and his imposing size and reach combined with his good striking should lead him to beating the always under performing sloppy Herring. Picking Kongo.

Alessio Sakara Vs. Chris Leben - Already addressed this one. WTF is Sakara doing in UFC? I'm glad Leben is thinking exact same thing. In his last knockout victory, Leben showed he can improve himself to be a better fighter with good composure and go crazy when appropriate.  Picking Leben to clean Sakara's clock and send him packing once and for all. Warm up the bus Sakara!

Chris Wilson Vs. Jon Fitch  It's no secret that Jon Fitch has been the top 170 "parallel" contender for while now. Remember Chuck Liddell when Tito Ortiz was terrified of fighting him? Well, it's kind of the same with Jon Fitch right now except it's not the current champion who's scared, it's the UFC and the fact that their promotion strategies and campaigns take forever to unravel.  In the mean time Jon Fitch has been winning. Picking Fitch to continue his "parallel" contender streak.

Yushin Okami Vs. Evan Tanner Evan Tanner? Really? How desperate does an organization have to be to dig up a serious alcoholic homeless former fighter after years of drinking away his life??  Yushin Okami could have been fighting Anderson Silva tonight had he not picked a wrong "coast till 3rd round and try a submission them" strategy in his fight with Rich Franklin, which he could have won with more effort early on. He's not the most exciting fighter, but he's cleaned the 185 division's middle tier and is due for a desperate shot at Anderson Silva/Henderson winner. Picking Okami by mouthwashing with vodka before the fight and making sure Tanner gets a whiff and the ground and pounding for the win.

Jake O'Brien Vs. Andrei Arlovski It's garbage what UFC is doing to Arlovski after a boring loss on one knee to The Lame-iac Sylvia and a boring win over coma inducing Werdum. I hope the show the fight tonight because I think Arlovski is due for dealing out a vicious beating with a KO or at least a submission. Picking Arlovski to come back with a bang.

Luigi Fioravanti Vs. Luke Cummo Cummo looked pretty good in his last two fights and Fioravanti lost his last two, but I'm picking Fioravanti because he's faced much better competition than Luke did.

Dustin Hazelett Vs. Josh Koscheck  Koscheck should be ready to rip his opponent up after his loss to Georges St. Pierre, it just happens to be a less experienced Hazelett. Picking Koscheck

David Bielkheden Vs. Diego Sanchez Sanchez just dropped two close fights to Jon Fitch and Josh Koscheck and should be getting back on track in this one. Picking Sanchez to win in an exciting fashion for which he's been known for in the past.

John Halverson Vs. Jorge Gurgel  not really sure about this one, but leaning toward Gurgel by decision after taking a good beating as usual.