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UPDATE! Aleks Emelianenko has been replaced with Gary Goodridge, because Aleks did not meet his licensing requirements!
UPDATE! Entire Card to be Televised!
Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio announced that FSN will air 3 bouts, instead of the previously reported 2 fights, and the PPV will be four hours long and will feature the remaining eight bouts. That means the ENTIRE card will be televised!! This is apparently, an answer to Dana White creating a free card, UFC Fight Night 14 out of thin air on the same night that Affliction is having it’s first event.
The event starts with an hour long, free live telecast on FSN at 8 pm Eastern, followed by fights on PPV 9 pm Eastern on iN DEMAND, TVN, Shaw Communications, Viewers Choice Canada, DirecTV, DISH Network, Bell ExpressVue and Star Choice in the United States and Canada for $39.95.
Promo/Teaser Video and Weigh-In Info!
Friday, July 18: PLEASE NOTE: OFFICIAL WEIGH OPEN TO PUBLIC AT 2 PM, ENTER ON KATELLA AVENUE SIDE OF HONDA CENTER
2:00 PM/PT – Doors open for weigh in
3:00 PM/PT — Official Weigh-In, Honda Center, Anaheim, CA
Affliction: Banned! Main Fight Card! (Picks in bold!)
Fedor Emelianenko (27-1) vs. Tim Sylvia (24-4)
Andrei Arlovski (12-5) vs. Ben Rothwell (29-5)
Josh Barnett (21-5) vs. Pedro Rizzo (16-7)
Mike Whitehead (20-5) vs. Renato “Babalu” Sobral (29-7)
Matt Lindland (20-5) vs. Fabio Nascimento (19-7)
Edwin Dewees (35-12) vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (13-3)
Justin Levens (9-8) vs. Ray Lazama (5-5) (Swing Bout)
Affliction: Banned! Prelim Card on FSN! (Picks in bold!)
Aleksander Emelianenko (13-3) vs. Paul Buentello (23-10)
Vitor Belfort (16-8) vs. Terry Martin (16-4)
Mark Hominick (15-8) vs. Savant Young (9-7)
Andrei Arlovski vs. Ben Rothwell
The “Pitbull” has fought far better competition and is a dynamic striker and submission artist. I think he will be far too fast and powerful for Rothwell. In Ben’s defense, he is on a 13 fight win streak and just beat Ricco Rodriguez.
I predict a fast KO, by Andrei.
Babalu vs. Mike Whitehead
Babalu is another of my favorite fighters and I am STILL pissed that he got banned from the UFC. UFC has a double standard, as one of it’s poster boys BJ Penn held his RNC on Jens Pulver long after he tapped and the heferee had to get involved. Identical same length of time the sub was held on (against David Heath) and heferee involvement as with BJ, but Babalu got banned.
BULLSHIT.
After his win over Heath and last fight in the UFC, he went on to fight in the Ring of Fire and got a submission win over Rodney Faverus. Here’s to hoping Babalu is back in the limelight smashing and subbing along the way. He certainly has his hands full with Mike Whitehead, who has 15 stoppages in his 20 wins.
Unfortunately, he has the “big fight curse” and hasn’t had the big fights as Babalu and this IMO will be one of the deciding factors in this fight. His biggest wins are against Travis Fulton, Aaron Brink, Ben Rothwell, Ruben Villareal, and Vernon “Tiger” White, but in his “big” fights against Tim Sylvia, Brandon Vera, and Keith Jardine he has lost them.
Babalu by G&P or sub!
Matt Lindland vs. Fabio Nascimento
Matt Lindland is coming off of a loss to Fedor, but before that his most recent wins were over Carlos Newton (by Guillotine) and a TKO win over Jeremy Horn. Matt has really evolved into a decent submission specialist with 40% of his wins (8) by sub.
Hi opponent Fabio Nascimento is a Brazilian, who prefers….SHOCKER…submissions. 14 of his 19 wins have come by submission. His quality of opposition simply doesn’t compare to Lindland’s and I think this combined with Lindland’s excellent submission defense will be huge factors.
Lindland by anything he wants! Even by water bottle!
Josh Barnett vs. Pedro Rizzo
Josh is one of my favorite fighters and this is a rematch to avenge his KO loss in what was a fantastic pugilistic match at UFC 30. Since that first fight Josh has gone on to have 18 fights, winning 14 of them. The wins included good guys like Semmy Schilt, Bobby Hoffman, Randy Couture, Aleksander Emelianenko, Mark Hunt, Nog and recently against Yoshida. His losses were nothing to be ashamed of considering 3 of them were from Cro Cop, and a decision loss to Nog. He consistently fights the best opposition.
Pedro on the other hand, has had 11 fights, losing 6 of them. He has good wins over Ricco Rodriguez, Arlovski, Tra Telligman, and Jeff Monson and losing 2x to Randy Couture, and losses to Gan McGee, Vladdy Matyushenko, Sergei Kharitonov, & Roman Zentsov.
For a while it seemed Pedro was losing his touch, but wins over Eilers and Monson show that he has plenty of fight left in him. I don’t foresee Josh have too much trouble with the sprawl and brawl style.
Josh does like to throw hands, but in this fight if he takes it down it will be a short easy night as he is just too big, athletic, and has an unorthodox grappling style. I predict Josh Barnett by submission.
Aleks Emelianenko vs. Paul Buentello
Aleks is yet another of my favorite fighters, fighting a guy that is a fellow UGer and one with concrete blocks in his hands, Paul Buentello. With only 2 losses in the past few years to Josh Barnett and Fabricio Werdum, Aleks has wins over Kharitonov, Silvao Santos and Eric Pele. Not huge wins, but he has been very active and fighting decent opposition and 9 of his last 10 wins have been by stoppage. An exciting fighter to watch!
Aleks will have to be very careful against Buentello, because until that bell rings Buentello only needs to land one clean punch to put you to sleep. His most recent fight was a loss to Alistair Overeem, but before that impressive wins over Carter Williams, Rubin Villareal, Stank Abbot, and Gilbert Valdana.
ALL of Paul’s wins are from finishes….18 KO/TKOs and 5 Submissions! Only one of his 10 losses are a decision, so you KNOW this fight isn’t going to the final round. Win or lose, Paul puts everything on the line and gives fans what they want. This fight has all the makings for stealing the show.
I am picking Aleks to win by finish, sometime in the first round. I think he has more ways to win. This is a fight where I am rooting for both guys. I just want to see a good fight.
Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia
Fedor has received quite a bit of criticism as of late, because of the quality of opposition he has been fighting and inactivity. In his defense, he has been bouncing around from organization to organization. With two fights in 2006 (wins over Mark Coleman and Mark Hunt), and two in 2007 (wins over Matt Lindland and Hong Man Choi), he needs to begin to fight more frequently to regain his best in the world status and respect.
Taking on Tim Sylvia is a step in the right direction in the terms of quality of opposition and hopefully he will stick with Affliction for at least a year or two and fight regularly. The problem with Fedor fighting for new organizations, is that their heavyweight ranks aren’t exactly swelling. They don’t begin with some of the best fighters on earth. Bummer that he never made it to the UFC.
Regardless, Tim’s height and lankiness have made him very susceptible to the right hand over his long, lazy jab. Fedor has a sneaky right hand and he will land it. On the ground matters will be even worse for big Tim. I don’t see this as a long fight.
A quick, easy win for Fedor.
What do YOU guys think? What are your fight picks? Thoughts on this event?
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