Affliction has taken a few more steps towards becoming a real MMA promotion powerhouse this week.  Most of the news was leaked as rumors spread across the Internet over the past few day, but today everything became “official”

Donald Trump has become a financial partner with Affliction, providing some additional financial and reputational clout. The flashy money man has become an American icon over the years and his business savvy and marketing success can only mean good things for Affliction.

Affliction Management, including Trump, confirmed their relationship this afternoon and took the opportunity to announce the signing of former UFC Heavyweight champion Andre Arlovski.  The departure of Arlovski was pretty much inevitable, although it isn’t entirely clear why the UFC didn’t take the necessary measures to lock the “Pitbull” into  another contract with their organization.  Arlovski has all kinds of personality and plenty of skill.  He could be a number one contender in the UFC today if not for contract negotiations that sidelined him the better part of a year.

A post on The Fight Network confirmed that Arlovski’s first bout will be against Ben Rothwell on the July 19th “Banned” card which features a main event (or Maine event)  between Tim Sylvia and Fedor Emelianenko.

The article also quoted Trump discussing another former UFC Champion, Tito Ortiz, who left the UFC with a well publicized history of bad blood between him and UFC President, Dana White,

“We already have many, many great fighters, but we’ll be asking Tito to come along.”

The news about Tito isn’t very surprising considering his recent Celebrity Apprentice experience with Trump. In fact, the addition of Trump to the mix and the sense that he is a legitimate business mogul means that we can probably expect to see a number of quality fighters signing up to compete with Affliction.

So… lot’s of development for Affliction and it all is positive in terms of them positioning themselves as a true competitor to the UFC.  More to come in the next few weeks for sure…

Afflcition “Banned” will take place July 19th at the Honda Centre in Anaheim, CA

The current fight card is:

• Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia
• Ben Rothwell vs. Andrei Arlovski
• Josh Barnett vs. Pedro Rizzo
• Matt Lindland vs. Fabio Negao
• Renato “Babalu” Sobral vs. Mike Whitehead
• Aleksander Emelianenko vs. Paul Buentello
• Mark Hominick vs. Savant Young
• Justin Levens vs. Ray Lazama
• Mike Pyle vs. Brett Cooper
• J.J. Ambrose vs. Patrick Speight

For more details, ceck out the official site for the Affliction “Banned” Event.

 (Photo:Sherdog.com)

The waiting game seems to continue for Andrei Arlovski and the UFC.  The former Heavyweight Champion who is in free agent status has taken a little break following his recent defeat of Jake O’Brien , who was since released by the UFC.
Arlovski who is sitting on a 3 fight win streak should be marketed as one of the premier Heavyweights in the UFC, but instead his position is a clear reminder of the business side of the sport.  In a division that is arguably the weakest in the organization, the UFC could have been hyping up Arlovski following the departure of Couture, but they didn’t .
Rumours are that the two sides can’t come to an agreement on money and Arlovski is likely looking to increase his per fight take.  The UFC left Arlovski for almost a year before scheduling the fight against O’Brien which was the final fight on Arlovski’s contract.  The widely reported preference for the organization is to have fighters locked into a contract or ready for release prior to that last fight.  It gives additional leverage to the organization so that they don’t get caught bargaining with a recent winner or get played between organizations in a highest bidder scenario.
In this case, Arlovski seems to be able to weather the storm and he will either be returning to the UFC with a handsome contract or he will soon be moving on to other opportunities.  The one opportunity that is repeatedly mentioned is the upcoming Affliction event scheduled for July 19th.  Adrenaline MMA fighter and confirmed Affliction event participant, Ben Rothwell is currently reported to be facing the elusive TBA… although the rumor mill says that TBA = Andrei Arlovski.

It would be a smart move for Affliction, to round out their Heavyweight focused event  by picking disgruntled talent from the UFC.  With the massive growth of MMA in recent years, the market is primed for competition and if Andrei Arlovski is dead set on a big payday… he will get it . At least in the short term.  The Rothwell fight is a legitimate one with both fighters representing the upper echelon of Heavyweight MMA competitors today.  Arlovski is playing his cards relatively close to his chest, so the exact issues in the contract negotiation are not well known yet.   If they do come to terms, it will be a case of I’m  happy with the deal and looking to the UFC only, etc.
If the deal isn’t done, Affliction will likely be throwing around numbers that are too good for Arlovski to resist.  If he isn’t under contract with the UFC and they aren’t scrambling to retain his services, is there really a reason for the Pit-Bull to show loyalty to the UFC?  You can almost hear the clock ticking…