(UPDATED) ‘Affliction: Trilogy’ canceled, apparel company to join UFC; Ortiz may as well

Posted on 24 July 2009 by admin

Headliner Josh Barnett’s failed drug test that Affliction vice president Tom Atencio called “just another bump in the road” on Wednesday became a monster sink hole Friday as the start-up mixed martial arts organization was forced to not only cancel its third show, “Affliction: Trilogy,” set for Aug. 1 in Anaheim — but fold as a promotion all together.

Yahoo’s Kevin Iole is reporting that the embattled apparel company will no longer challenge the Ultimate Fighting Championship and will instead become an official UFC sponsor.

Earlier in the day Atencio blamed the timing of Barnett’s failed sample to the California State Athletic Commission for hurting the promotion’s chances of finding a worthy late replacement to fight the famed Russian heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko.

“Finding an opponent for the number one ranked MMA heavy weight champion in such a short period of time was a huge endeavor and I’m thrilled at the amount of fighters willing to take on this challenge. But in the end, we just didn’t have enough time to promote a new fight to our standards,” Atencio said in a released statement.

The stacked card which was scheduled to feature such fighters as Vitor Belfort, Renato “Babalu” Sobral, Jorge Santiago, Gegard Mousasi, Paul Buentello and Jay Hieron, became in jeopardy late Tuesday night when results revealed Barnett tested positive for a banned substance in the first ever random drug test administered by the CSAC on June 25.

While Barnett, who lost the UFC heavyweight title after testing positive for anabolic agents back in 2002, was denied a license for next week’s event scheduled to be aired air on pay-per-view and HDNet, the show was thought to still be viable with notable fighters like Belfort, Brett Rogers, Don Frye, Jeff Monson and “King” Mo Lawal.

A deal couldn’t be struck and now Affliction — the high-end clothing company that gained fame from sponsoring several big name UFC fighters — which was already rumored to be in jeopardy of going out of business before “Trilogy,” appears to be tapping out for good.

But the apparel company’s released statement earlier in the day didn’t read that way: “Affliction stands behind the company’s brands and delivers premium products to the most passionate and loyal customers. Affliction’s first priority is to ensure that all future events live up to the company’s high standards.”

The acquisition appears to be a big boon for the UFC, on a day that already was chalk full of positive reports. Iole reports that UFC 100 set a record 1.5 million pay-per-views. Later tonight, UFC president Dana White will be honored as ESPN 1100′s Sportsman of the Year at a banquet in connection with the station’s 24-hour radio marathon to benefit The Caring Place.

Late Friday afternoon, White kept added more fuel to the action-filled MMA day with a post on Twitter that read “Welcome back Tito” — a possible indication that former UFC star Tito Ortiz could likely be back in the fold.

“Tito and I have been talking, and we’ve been trying to see if we can figure things out,” White said in an ESPN 1100 radio interview. “It’s a possibility.”