The worst possible ending to the most hectic week in MMA history.
In a matter of days Affliction Entertainment’s “Trilogy” event when from promising the top heavyweight fight in mixed martial arts to being cancelled outright, multiple sources confirmed to SI.com Friday morning.
Affliction Entertainment vice president began making calls with the news Friday morning to fighters scheduled to appear on the Aug. 1 card, SI.com has learned.
Here’s the official press release:
Affliction Trilogy Cancelled
Seal Beach, California (July 24, 2009) – The highly anticipated fight between Fedor Emelianenko and Josh Barnett at the Affliction Trilogy MMA show has been cancelled. The mega fight was scheduled to take place at the Honda Center in Anaheim on August 1st. The unforeseen license denial of Josh Barnett gave Affliction limited time to find a replacement and adequately promote the new main event.
“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,” said Tom Atencio, vice president of Affliction Entertainment. “But in the end, we just didn’t have enough time to promote a new fight to our standards.”
Affliction is deeply disappointed that the under card is also cancelled through no fault of its own. 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.
Ticket holders for the canceled event should contact Ticketmaster or ticketmaster.com for a refund.
