Affliction's Tom Atencio Backtracks on Emelianenko Versus Arlovski at Affliction 2

Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio announced Thursday in New York City that both Fighters.com’s third-ranked heavyweight “Pitbull” Andrei Arlovski (14-5) and sixth-ranked “Babyface Assassin” Josh Barnett (23-5) are being considered as opponents for Heavyweight Champion “Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko (28-1) at Affliction’s yet to be re-scheduled second event.

However, Atencio had already confirmed Arlovski as Emelianenko’s opponent to MMA Rated 10 October, according to that website.

Additionally, Barnett has announced that he won’t fight Emelianenko, according to MMA Weekly.

“It’s just not a fight that’s going to happen in January.  And I think that the feeling is actually mutual,” Barnett told that website 2 October.

Atencio also wouldn’t commit on a date or location of Affliction’s second event, originally scheduled for Las Vegas 11 October.

Atencio said Affliction: Day of Reckoning would “take place in the first quarter of ‘09.”

Atencio told Five Ounces of Pain, “I haven’t finalized or signed the papers [with a venue] yet, and until I sign the papers with the venue and everything else, I just don’t want to have to re-schedule again.  I don’t want to have to do that to the fans.”

After a successful debut in Anaheim, east of Los Angeles, 19 July that produced exciting heavyweight brawls between Arlovski and “Big” Ben Rothwell (29-6) and Barnett and “Rock” Pedro Rizzo (16-8) and re-established Emelianenko as the Heavyweight Champion after a 36-second destruction of seventh-ranked “Maine-iac” Tim Sylvia (24-5), Affliction has tread a rocky road to a sequel.

Affliction was criticized for the comparitively exorbitant purses paid to fighters on their first event.  According to the California State Athletic Commission, Sylvia was paid $800,000, Arlovski was paid $750,000, and middleweight “The Law” Matt Lindland (21-5) was paid $300,000.

Sylvia’s reported purse was eight times the $100,000 he was paid in his previous loss versus “Minotauro” Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (31-4-1) at UFC 81 in Las Vegas 2 February.  Arlovski’s was 4 1/2 times what he was paid in his previous win over “Irish” Jake O’Brien (10-2) in Columbus 1 March.

None of the reported purses include additional bonuses or percentage of pay-per-view buys.  It’s likely Affliction’s contracts are structured differently than the UFC contracts and the fighters may have grossed roughly equal amounts as they had earned for their previous UFC fights.

But, did Affliction’s event gross as much as a UFC event?

In August Wrestling Oberserver reported that Atencio had asked fighters to take a pay cut for the second Affliction event.

Barnett subsequently denied the report.