People have been praising the Affliction card as if it’s the greatest MMA card of the year, but if you look closer it's at best a C level card. Take the Fedor-Sylvia fight away and it’s a top level fighter versus a body.
Josh Barnett vs. Pedro Rizzo sounds good, but Barnett is a top five fighter and Rizzo was five years ago and is now 2-2 in his last four fights. Although Rizzo has stellar KO power, Barnett is way too good of an all-around fighter not to know that the right hand is coming.
Matt Lindland is fighting a guy named Fabio Nascimento of whom no one has heard—and by no one, I mean no one. If the powers that be were to have selected someone with even half an ounce more recognition, this fight would have been appealing.
Bablau is fighting Mike Whitehead who was living in IFL land. Though some would consider this a good match on paper, the problem is that Whitehead’s current win streak is full of no bodies, and Bablau has been in the ring with a ton more talent and has done well.
The only fight on the main card that is somewhat exciting is Andre Arlovski versus Ben Rothwell. The problem with this fight is similar to the Bablau vs. Whitehead in that you have a solid top tier fighter against a fighter who has been in the ring with some suspect fighters who make him look like a true contender.
Now don’t look at this and think that I’m not going to watch this event, because I’m truly excited to see Fedor disembowel Sylvia. I just wish Affliction had made the rest of the card as equally exciting.
7 comments Last one added 11 months ago — Leave a Comment
Micah Reller 12 months ago
I totally agree. I only hope that this event is the beginning and a gateway to even better matchups in the future. You are right that they should have evened the score card up a little bit better. Look at UFC's fight card. Ok so we have, Silva vs. Irvin, Vera vs. Reese Andy??, Hermes Franca (who is just back after his roid suspension) vs. Frank Edgar?. Everybody else, who the heck are those guys. The Affliction line up is much much better in my opinion. Not the best of the year but better than the UFC line up.
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Ryan Wales 12 months ago
We get to see one of the guys who is going to be a future player in the Heavies (Cain Velasquez) and I'm interested to see what Anthony Johnson has in store. He has looked somewhat impressive and is fun to watch.
As for the Affliction show the main card has four top ten heavies. It's their first card so they have to set up future matches like AA/Fedor, Aleks vs. Timmy, Fedor vs. Barnett etc.
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Micah Reller 11 months ago
Yes, Cain could be an impressive upcoming fighter. But again, what the heck is the UFC doing with the Heavy Weight division? Nothing. It is not worth it to be a Heavy Weight fighter in the UFC. If you can't become a champion, why stay?
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Bryan Trafford 12 months ago
How about this article is not as good as I thought it would be, either. Try hitting the enter key sometimes to start a new paragraph or something.
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AROM WELTOR 11 months ago
you UFC nut hugger
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anthonyl 11 months ago
How about taking the main event away from any ufc ppv and saying its better than a c class event. What logic is that
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dennis rahim 11 months ago
Are you paid by Dana? Are you from Bolivia or it is first name that came to mind?
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