Affliction: "Banned" featured many of the best heavyweight mixed martial arts fighters in the world. The debut show for Affliction brought in a little below 15,000 fans, producing a live gait of 2.1 million dollars. Not only did Affliction do well at the Honda Center in Anaheim, but Vice President Tom Atencio assures that that there were more or less than 100,000 pay per view sales.
Atencio wants to change things up a bit for the upcoming Affliction 2 card event, which is scheduled for October 11th, "I’m going to make some adjustments in the next fight, and we’ll take it from there…If we want this to be a viable business, we have to make some changes."
Affliction 2 expects to have Fedor "The Last Emperor" Emelianenko vs. Andrei "The Pitbull" Arlovski as the main event. Fedor will be defending the WAMMA heavyweight title against the former UFC heavyweight champion Arlovski. Arlovski is coming off a knockout win over Ben Rothwell, while Fedor stunned MMA fans around the world with a quick victory over the former UFC heavyweight champ Tim Sylvia.
Also on the card is the possible bout between free agent Tito Ortiz and Renato "Babalu" Sobral. Ortiz has not yet finalized a contract with Affliction nor has he signed to fight Babalu. However, a deal is relatively close according to Tom Atencio:
"[Signing Ortiz] is definitely not a priority, but it is something that when he’s finished with his contract — I know [the UFC] has a negotiation period and some kind of a grace period — when he’s done with that, we can talk to him If that’s a fight that seems financially viable, then absolutely. It’s going to come down to dollars and cents, and it’s going to come down to if it works for us."
It has been known that Ortiz detests Dana White and everything about him, which means that he would never go back to the UFC. Therefore, it would not be a surprise to see Ortiz signing with an organization that looks to have great potential. When Babalu was asked about his next opponent at the Affliction 2 card, he seemed to hint the Huntington Beach Bad Boy:
"I’m looking for [a] guy," Sobral said. "Wait for the name. It’s coming. I think (Affliction Vice President) Tom (Atencio) is going to bring a name for me. And I’ll be here to kick his ass…That’s my dream fight"
