Postponement Afflicts Fighters with Frustration

First came Affliction “Banned,” then came Affliction Postponed.

Less than two months after Affliction’s heavyweight-loaded debut card on July 19, the fledgling mixed martial arts promotion last week set tongues a waggin’ throughout the fight world by abruptly postponing its scheduled second show on Oct. 11 and rescheduling it for Jan. 17.

Ticket sales for “Day of Reckoning” were slow, at least in part because unlike the July 19 card, MMA superstar Fedor Emelianenko, the top-ranked heavyweight in the world, was not in the Oct. 11 plans. The decision to delay the event was met with concern over Affliction’s long-term viability as a fight promotion.

At a joint press conference in Las Vegas on Saturday, Affliction and Golden Boy Promotions -- a high-profile boxing organization headed by 10-time world champion Oscar de la Hoya -- confirmed a hotly rumored landmark partnership between the two Southern California companies that includes the controversial plan to commingle boxing and MMA. Whether or not Affliction’s partnership with Golden Boy puts worries about its viability to bed remains to be seen.

Nothing concrete was provided at the news conference on reports that Emelianenko will headline the Jan. 17 show at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., scene of Affliction’s debut. The Oct. 11 card was to have been staged at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

Whatever factored into the decision on the corporate level, the sudden postponement rained down upheaval on the long-planned schedules of the fighters who had been training for Oct. 11 bouts, producing reactions from understandably deep frustration to a more resigned, MMA world-weary feeling.

Heavyweight Paul Buentello, who had been scheduled to fight International Fight League champion Roy Nelson, is among the former.

“It took the wind out of my sails, man,” said Buentello, back home in Amarillo, Texas, after leaving his training camp at the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, Calif. “It’s totally frustrating. I was pretty fired up. The past couple weeks of training has been really hard, and I walk into the gym ready to go and thinking about sparring, and then I got the news from [AKA trainer] ‘Crazy’ Bob [Cook].”

Buentello did not believe Cook until one of his AKA teammates, Trevor Prangley, walked into the gym. Prangley was set to take on 2000 Olympic silver medalist Matt Lindland in a middleweight bout at “Day of Reckoning.”

“I’m like, ‘Are you serious?’ I thought [Cook] was joking around,” Buentello said. “You know, I didn’t believe him until I saw Trevor Prangley’s face walk into the gym, and Trevor Prangley is like, ‘Did you hear about the news?’ And it was downhill from there. I didn’t want to train. As soon as I left the gym, I made my reservations, and I came back home.”

Buentello plans to stay on top of his training but says “now it’s time to focus on me and on the family, relax a little bit and find out” what the future holds for Affliction and where he fits into the picture. Reached by Sherdog prior to Saturday’s news conference, Buentello indicated he had “no idea” why the Oct. 11 card was cancelled.

“I’m just crossing my fingers [that I’ll be on the January card],” Buentello said. “So we’ll see what pans out.”

For welterweight Jay Hieron, who had been slated to fight Drew Fickett on the Affliction card, the postponement was déjà vu all over again.

“I’m pretty much used to that,” Hieron (15-4) said. “The same thing happened back in August with the IFL. I was training for that fight [against Brad Blackburn] for Aug. 15, and they ended up cancelling that show. And the promotion went under.”

Even so, the frustration is palpable, he said.

“The life of being a fighter,” Hieron said with deep resignation in his voice. “Ups and downs.”

Hieron learned of the postponement via a phone call from Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio.

“He told me big things are going to be happening. That’s why they postponed the show. From what he was saying, it’s a good thing,” said Hieron, also contacted by Sherdog before Saturday’s news conference and therefore unwilling to divulge the contents of his conversation with Atencio – which apparently included Affliction’s partnership with Golden Boy.

Not wanting the training for his now-canceled bout to be for naught, Hieron said he is actively attempting to secure another fight for October.

“The good thing about my [Affliction] contract is that it’s non-exclusive, so I’m trying to find something around the same time to jump on somewhere,” he said. “I’m just keeping my body in shape. I’m keeping the intensity up [in hopes of landing that other fight].”

Despite his disappointment, Hieron put his best foot forward.

“I really try not to stress stuff that I can’t control, like this whole situation,” he said. “Of course, on Wednesday [upon learning about the postponement] I was a little stressed out about it, but whatever. I got in the gym [at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas], and I started sweating. It’s water under the bridge now.”

According to Hieron, assurances from Atencio that he would be on the January card -- presumably still fighting Fickett -- helped alleviate some of his concerns.

Heavyweight Ben Rothwell, who was to have fought Pedro Rizzo on Oct. 11, struck a more philosophical note upon hearing of the postponement, also in a phone call from Atencio.

“That’s just MMA,” Rothwell (29-6) said. “Just like it is in the ring, you think you have a sure thing, and you don’t. Don’t ever assume anything in our sport. Luckily, my past has prepared me for such things. I’ve been on shows and had them canceled, pulled out from underneath ya. I’ve got kinda used to it.”

Even so, Rothwell admitted in such instances, “you’re putting time into something, and it sucks.”

But not as much as, for say, fellow Affliction heavyweight Andrei Arlovski, who at considerable expense moved his training camp from Chicago to Los Angeles for the now-postponed card.

Unlike Arlovski (13-5), Rothwell did not incur major expenses.

“I have everything I need here [at Miletich Fighting Systems in Bettendorf, Iowa],” he said, “so it doesn’t cost me that way.”

Rothwell, also reached by Sherdog ahead of Saturday’s news conference, said that while Atencio told him why the card was being postponed, he was not at liberty to discuss their conversation.

“It’s a smarter choice for them to do what they’re doing,” he said in an apparent reference to the Golden Boy partnership. “It sucks for me, because I ain’t getting this fight in now, but overall, to see them progress and be legitimate to our sport and keep helping the fighters and challenging the UFC more, I think ultimately it’s gonna be better for all of us.”

Rothwell’s manager, Monte Cox, president of the Adrenaline MMA promotion, said he thought it was “silly” for Affliction to have scheduled a show without Emelianenko as a centerpiece.

“He’s the horse they’re riding,” Cox said, “and if he’s not involved, then I think they’re making a mistake.”

Rothwell hopes to be on Affliction’s January card, but he has learned not to hold his breath.

“I don’t think there are any guarantees,” he said. “I don’t live my life with guarantees. I hope and I prepare for the best, but anything can happen.”