'Affliction: Banned' Debut Card Set for July 19th

Affliction Clothing has officially released details of its debut card, which takes place July 19.

The event is set for the Honda Center ("The Pond") in Anaheim, Calif., and features a previously announced main event between Fedor Emelianenko and Tim Sylvia. The main card airs live on pay per view.

The organization has also confirmed a number of former UFC and PRIDE veterans for its event, entitled "Banned," which is a knock at the clothing company recently being banned as a sponsor of UFC and EliteXC fighters.

The UFC has obvious reasons for banning the clothing line due to Randy Couture's affiliation with the company. Promoting another fight organization is a breech of Randy Couture's contract. EliteXC is banning the clothing line only because Affliction is now an official MMA organization and it wouldn't make sense for them to promote the competition.

The Affliction fight card is a very impressive one. They haven't released their complete roster due to there being signings very rapidly but if they can put together fight cards like this one, they could pose a serious threat to the UFC.

Company executives report the following line-up:

MAIN CARD (PAY PER VIEW)

Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia
Josh Barnett vs. Pedro Rizzo
Ben Rothwell vs. TBA
Paul Buentello vs. Aleksander Emelianenko
Matt Lindland vs. Fabio Nascimento
Renato "Babalu" Sobral vs. Mike Whitehead

PRELIMINARY CARD

Ray Lazama vs. Justin Levens
Mark Hominick vs. Savant Young
J.J. Ambrose vs. Patrick Speight
Brett Cooper vs. Mike Pyle

Rumor's are flying that Ben Rothwell's opponent will be former UFC heavyweight champ Andrei Arlovski which gives the card even more credibility.

This card clearly proves that Dana White's disclaimer that the best fighters are in the UFC is not even close to being true. The most popular organization is the UFC and that's it.

That being said, it's gonne be extremely tough for Affliction to be able to lay down fight cards of this magnitude with their temporary deep pockets. They're spending just about every dime from their clothing line to pay the fighters. And these guys are getting paid well for this fight card.

They need to draw some serious numbers to be able to put on another packed card like this one just to be able to pay the fighters in the future. Time will only tell but if they promote and market the fighters properly it could make for a very interesting couple years in the MMA world. They're already getting help from Dana White and the UFC for cutting some serious talent from their organization.

Mir, Nogueira set to coach 'The Ultimate Fighter' 8

The current interim UFC heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir will coach next season's "The Ultimate Fighter" on Spike TV.

Nogueira will defend his interim title against Mir in a pay-per-view event at the end of the year.

"The Ultimate Fighter 8," which showcases light heavyweights and lightweights, will begin taping on May 18 for six weeks. The season premiere is scheduled for Wednesday, September 17 at 10:00pm ET.

Upon learning this I realized that the once meager heavyweight division is basically history now. Hey, it's not that Mir and Big Nog aren't great fighters but is this really a heavyweight championship fight? That's the best they could come up with?

Unfortunately yes, this is the best they can come up with. There is absolutely no one in the UFC worth anything in the heavyweight division. There's nothing to look forward to at all except for maybe Brock Lesnar but only because of his prior reputation. Losing Randy Couture and Tim Sylvia were worse than they appeared at the time. Even if they did land Fedor Emelianenko there wouldn't be anyone to fight him. But why is it that as soon as someone loses in their championship fight, they get abolished from the organization? Look at how many awesome heavyweights are out there. Guys like Jeff Monson, Kevin Randleman, Josh Barnett would be able to stir things up in the division. Even a lousy Mirko Cro Cop is better than an awesome Antoni Hardonk.

The UFC only has 2 worthy divisions at the moment with the 155 lb and 170 lb weight classes with the 205 lb weight class somewhat bearable.

Anderson Silva owns the middleweight division and Rich Franklin is his pawn that can beat everyone else except Silva. The lightheavyweight division has potential but guys aren't fighting more than twice a year which is a snoozefest. Plus the loss of Tito Ortiz, even though he hasn't been dominant, will affect the division because he always was a huge draw.

The UFC is trimming their roster but they're not cutting the worst fighters. They're cutting the fighters who won't do what the establishment wants them to do.

Dana White preaches that the UFC has the best fighters in the world and he's so far off the mark it's ridiculous. He's cutting or losing good talent which is supposed to be the marketability of the sport of MMA but he'd rather promote the UFC, The Ultimate Fighter, and himself. We know he's smart but we've been talking about how he might be the undoing for the UFC. This is a sign that the apocolypse might be upon us.