from mmaweekly.com:

The worlds of mixed martial arts and boxing are about to collide.

Affliction Entertainment Vice President Tom Atencio on Saturday confirmed that his company has entered into an agreement with Golden Boy Promotions, the boxing promotion led by Oscar De La Hoya. The two will co-promote a hybrid evening of boxing and mixed martial arts to be held at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. on Jan. 17.

"It's very good news," Atencio told MMAWeekly.com. "It's good for the company, and it's good for the sport."

Ted's Take: I've got mixed feelings about this one. I can appreciate boxing; I can remember years back ordering the Mike Tyson vs. Lennox Lewis fight. I loved watching Micky Ward vs. Arturo Gatti on HBO. But I prefer MMA. When it comes down to it, I would rather see a card full of MMA fights than half-MMA, half-boxing. I'm not sure I'm going to buy the PPV at this point. Not to sound like a frickin' baby or anything ...

The bigger deal here if is I don't think Afflcition would be doing this if they didn't have to. Boxing's popularity, from all that I've read, is down. Why attach yourself to a sinking ship? But I guess Oscar de la Hoya's company, however, has scratch to spare. So it works out for de la Hoya, because he's attached himself to something on the rise.

Posted in Affliction News Golden Boy Tom Atencio

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By Chris Howie, mmanews.com

Forced out of a WAMMA Heavyweight title fight with Andrei Arlovski that was set for Affliction: Day Of Reckoning on Octocter 11th due to a hand injury, Champion Fedor Emelianenko has had his sights set on a New Year's Eve fight in Japan against an unnamed opponent followed up by a date with the winner of the WAMMA heavyweight elimination bout on the October 11th card between Arlovski and Josh Barnett.

Tom Atencio, Vice President of Affliction, told MMANews.com this week that the company has just extended their current contract with Fedor and will look to have the WAMMA Heavyweight Championship fight in January or February when they intend on holding their 3rd show.

"We've just extended our deal with Fedor and we are very happy about that. We absolutely want to put that fight on our third show." Atencio stated of the title fight "We are looking at the Arlovski/Barnett elimination fight right now with the winner fighting Fedor for sure in January or February."

Posted in Affliction News Andrei Arlovski Fedor Emelianenko Josh Barnett Tom Atencio WAMMA News

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Affliction Veep Tom Atencio talks with MMAnews.com. Here's line-up he gives (so far) for the organization's second show, Day of Rekoning:

Paul Buentello Vs. Roy Nelson
Andrei Arlovski vs. Josh Barnett
Antonio Duarte vs. Albert Rios
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Vladimir Matyushenko
Mike Whitehead vs. Jason High (sp?)
Pedro Rizzo vs. Ben Rothwell
Chris Horodecki vs. ???
Renato Sobral vs. ???

Looks like another stacked card. Contrary to earlier reports, Atencio says no one at Affliction had even spoken with Tito Ortiz about a contract, so we'll see if that changes in the near future.

Posted in Affliction News All about MMA Day of Reckoning HDFights MMA Mixed Martial Arts Tito Ortiz Tom Atencio

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