The Weekly Wrap: Dec. 13 – Dec. 19

Affliction, Ortiz work media circuit

Affliction held its first media events to promote “Day of Reckoning” on Jan. 24 in Anaheim, Calif., holding a press conference in Los Angeles and a media conference call with fighters. Former UFC light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz made his first concrete step toward joining the promotion, moderating the press conference and announcing he will be doing color commentary on the pay-per-view broadcast. Ortiz, who’s recovering from an invasive spinal fusion surgery, indicated he will not make a decision on where he’ll fight next until June, when a non-compete clause in his UFC contract expires. Ortiz claimed he always wanted to pursue commentating in the UFC, but the company was not as interested.

“Day of Reckoning,” the second offering from Affliction, will be headlined by Fedor Emelianenko vs. Andrei Arlovski and also features Renato “Babalu” Sobral vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou and Josh Barnett vs. Gilbert Yvel. Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio indicated the winner of Emelianenko-Arlovski will face the winner of Barnett-Yvel. Six of the fights will be shown on pay-per-view, five more on a live preview show on HDNet. Notice of the press conference was sent out by representatives from the Showtime Network, which will help produce the Affliction pay-per-view. Sherdog.com News Editor Loretta Hunt reported that Showtime’s parent company, CBS, plans to broadcast MMA in 2009 and that Affliction has designs on three more shows in 2009.

“Day of Reckoning’s” original Oct. 11 date was called off due mostly to poor ticket sales, though it was stated publicly that the postponement came as Affliction sought to work out a deal to co-promote with boxing giant Golden Boy Promotions. The plan at one point was to stage Golden Boy boxing bouts and Affliction MMA fights at the Jan. 24 show. Golden Boy, however, ended up booking a Shane Mosley vs. Antonio Margarito fight on HBO the same night as “Day of Reckoning.” In addition, the UFC announced that it will replay UFC 91 “Couture vs. Lesnar” on Spike TV as counter programming on Jan. 24. A live World Extreme Cagefighting event on Versus is scheduled for the following night in San Diego.