The Tailgate Blog

Today is a great day for tailgating MMA fans. There are two intriguing shows going down tonight. UFC Silva vs Irvin is live on SpikeTV tonight at 9PM. This show was thrown together by the UFC at the last minute. The reason? There is a huge pay-per-view tonight, Affliction: Banned, put together by the fast-charging clothing maker, Affliction.

The t-shirt meteor decided to start its own MMA promotion after the UFC forbid fighters to wear Affliction t-shirts at their shows. The UFC countered with a hastily thrown together card to put up for free against Affliction’s pay-per-view. Now, Affliction has responded by broadcasting the first hour of undercard matches live on Fox Sports Net starting at 8PM. Let’s take a look at highlights from Affliction:Banned.

Affliction: Banned

• Fedor Emelianenko (28-1) vs. Tim Sylvia (24-4) for WAMMA Heavyweight Championship
• Andrei Arlovski (13-5) vs. Ben Rothwell (27-5)
• Josh Barnett (22-4) vs. Pedro Rizzo (16-7)

Announcer: Michael Buffer
Live Band: Megadeth

Affliction really comes out swinging with the best heavyweight fighter in the world, Fedor Emelianenko. His last match was a short spar against Hong Man Choi in which he dispatched of the giant with an armbar two minutes into the first round. Tim Sylvia is the former UFC heavyweight champion. He has lost two of his last three matches and really wants to prove himself against the best heavyweight in the world. This is the only reason to purchase the pay-per-view.
Arlovski is another former UFC heavyweight champion. Andrei has never really impressed me as an all around fighter. He has recently been talking about entering the heavyweight boxing scene. Something tells me his head is not in the right place for this fight. His opponent, Ben Rothwell, made a name for himself in the IFL. His record gets very little respect entering this fight.

Josh Barnett and Pedro Rizzo are both former UFC fighters. Barnett took his skill over to Japan around 2003 where he fought in PRIDE. He is a well versed fighter with a good ground game. Rizzo was an early superstar of the UFC before taking a number of losses including two by Randy Couture. Rizzo has a kick from the depths of hell and this is his only hope against a more well rounded Barnett.

Megadeth will be playing live at Banned. Really? Megadeth? This wreaks of amateur promotions. Will they also throw in dancing girls like EliteXC? Despite Megadeth, the do have the number one announcer in the fight game, Michael Buffer.

The UFC has thrown James “The Sandman” Irvin (14-4) out for Anderson “The Spider” Silva (21-4) to devour. The only other fight on the UFC card that interests me is Jesse “The Drunk Guy” Taylor (6-2) taking on the Ultimate Fighter second place resident douchebag, C.B. Dollaway (6-1). Taylor was originally scheduled to fight in the Ultimate Fighter finale in June, but due to his antics around Las Vegas he was kicked off the show. Dana White has decided to turn the UFC into a circus with this fight and I have to admit it works for me.