MMAConvert.com

Ever get the feeling that the Affliction-Golden Boy “partnership” really isn’t much of a partnership at all? Was it when they decided that mixing boxing with MMA on the same card wasn’t the great idea they once thought it was? If that didn’t raise a red flag for you, how about when they decided they were going to promote an event on Jan. 24, just not with Affliction? Well, if that wasn’t enough, guess what? Golden Boy doesn’t want to talk about Affliction, apparently nothing’s finalized as MDS learned earlier today on a conference call with Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer.

While an official announcement has yet to be made regarding Affliction “Day of Reckoning” (redux), the website for the event has been updated to reflect the changes in venue, date, card, etc. Am I crazy to think that the info on the site is official???

Last we heard, Fedor Emelianenko vs. Andrei Arvolski was still not signed, however, the website is listing Fedor vs Arlovski as the only match-up thus far on the card. From the image, it appears that Vladimir Matyushenko, Jay Hieron, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Babalu Sobral, Josh Barnett, Matt Lindland, Chris Horodecki, and Vitor Belfort will be on the card though. Also from the images, it looks like Jan. 24 will be the date and the event will be held at The Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

One interesting item to note is in the top right “In Association With” section of the image above there is the Showtime PPV logo. Unless I totally missed it from “Banned,” Affliction hasn’t worked with Showtime before, with the minor exception of their co-promotion with EliteXC on big sister network, CBS. My understanding with Golden Boy is that their pay-per-views run through HBO, so please correct me if I’m wrong if they work with Showtime as well. Point is, perhaps that’s a sign of things to come.

With Affliction rescheduling their second event, “Day of Reckoning,” from October to the beginning of 2009, that gives another fighter who broke his hand at “Banned,” Vitor Belfort, more time to recover from his injury to get back on the card.

Belfort recently confirmed the news with Tatame.com.

“My hand is getting better. I’m doing a lot of physical training and physiotherapy. I didn’t care about the postponement, I wasn’t going to fight anyway”, jokes the fighter, the confirmed to TATAME.com he’ll be at Affliction’s next show.

Check out more photos at CombatLifestyle.com

According to comments made by Vitor Belfort in an article at Tatame.com, Belfort will not only be fighting at Affliction’s second show, which is tentatively scheduled for October 11, his opponent will be top ten middleweight Matt Lindland, and it will be for a title.

“The doctor will analyze [my broken hand], but I may stay four weeks out. I’ll come back in October 11th to fight Matt Lindland for the belt.”

Andrei Arlovski

If you happened to missed this one in various other places around the net, make sure you watch it till the end. It’s worth it, trust me.

Interviews with Fedor, Sylvia, and Rothwell.

More interviews after the jump.