Affliction "Day of Reckoning" Rescheduled to January

http://rearnaked.blogspot.com/2008/09/affliction-day-of-reckoning-rescheduled.html

In an odd twist of events, Affliction has postponed their second Pay-Per-View, "Day of Reckoning", scheduled for October 11 and rescheduled it for January 2009. The event will also change locations and be held in Anaheim, CA at the site of their first event, the Honda Center. They did not give any definitive answers why, but did imply the UFC could be to blame. It is widely believed the UFC and Zuffa have been doing every thing in their power to disrupt Affliction's second event, which was originally to be held in Las Vegas, the UFC's de facto home base. Affliction Vice-President Tom Atencio addressed the reports by saying, "They've been messing with me every step of the way. There have been issues that I've been dealing with. So I can't say it's them, but there's been things we've been dealing with that have never happened before, so I guess that's why."

Affliction was largely silent about the reason for the rescheduled show, but did mention that they want to make sure it is a success. A source who works for the Thomas and Mack Center, where the event was to be held, informed me ticket sales were slow. I do not think they would cancel the event a month away simply because of low ticket sales. It appears some thing else is at play. The only details Affliction revealed was that they had a huge announcement coming in the next couple of weeks. Affliction COO Michael Cohen said, "Unlike others who call for a press conference for groundbreaking MMA news, the Affliction announcement will truly change the sport, and not through a toy deal.” The obvious jab was aimed at Dana White, who has a tendency to call every announcement he makes "huge".

An announcement that will "change the sport" makes me think Affliction will partner with another MMA promotion, most likely EliteXC. Unless they have 3-4 big names ready to sign, I cannot see any other sort of announcement being large enough to warrant that statement. Other than Tito Ortiz, there are not any big free agents out there, either. My guess is the announcement will be that Affliction and EliteXC have joined forces to overthrow Dana White's evil empire.