Affliction III: May 2009 Archives

from mmajunkie.com
Top-ranked heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko (30-1) has confirmed what most of already knew: He's agreed to fight former UFC champion Josh Barnett (24-5) at Affliction's upcoming third show.

Affliction hasn't officially announced the fight, though Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio and representatives for Barnett have said agreements are in place.

Affliction III takes place Aug. 1. As Atencio recently told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio), it's expected to be held at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.

The night's main card airs on pay-per-view, and the preliminary card is expected to air on HDNet.

Emelianenko today told M-1Global.com about the fight with Barnett.

"I am always 100 percent involved in the negotiations especially with regards to the Barnett fight," Emelianenko stated. "We discussed this fight with the whole team (trainers, coaches, management), so as a team we agreed to a fight with Barnett."

Gegard Mousasi with his DREAM belts.

By Dann Stupp, mmajunkie.com:
Soon after his dominant victory over Mark Hunt in the open-weight "Super Hulk" tournament at Tuesday's DREAM.8 event, Gegard Mousasi said he was scheduled to fight former UFC champ Vitor Belfort at Affliction III.

Mousasi, who recently vacated his DREAM middleweight title to move up a weight class, assumed the fight would take place at light heavyweight.

However, after Belfort told Tatame.com that he would only fight at middleweight and questioned the starpower of his potential opponent, Mousasi has now issued a challenge: fight at a catch-weight.