Three more fights were added to Affliction’s “Day of Reckoning” card over the past few days. Matt Lindland, Jay Hieron, and Chris Horodecki were all confirmed or rumored to be competing at Affliction’s second event, which is scheduled to take place on Oct. 11 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. They, however, did not have opponents until now.
Jake Shields has been waiting patiently to get his chance at EliteXC gold for quite awhile now. A back injury of his own prevented him from fighting for the EliteXC Welterweight Championship against Drew Fickett at the Strikeforce/EliteXC show on March 29, 2008. The bout was rescheduled for June 14 at “Return of the King,” but Fickett withdrew from that match with an injury. So one would think the two would finally meet on July 26 on the second installment of CBS/EliteXC Saturday Night Fights. False. Fickett, who claimed he couldn’t fight on June 14 with his injury, fought on June 7 at a Rage in the Cage event. EliteXC is obviously pissed off and is likely going to drop Fickett from the organization, which leaves Shields without an opponent.
Despite the mess Fickett has created for himself, Shields will still get his chance to fight on CBS for the EliteXC Welterweight Championship, likely against BodogFIGHT veteran, Nick Thompson, or IFL Welterweight Champion, Jay Hieron.
EliteXC officials tell MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that Shields will next fight during the organization’s second CBS show, which takes place July 26 — possibly in St. Louis.
Two previously scheduled title fights between Shields and former UFC fighter Drew Fickett (34-5) fell apart due to injuries, and it now looks like Shields could fight either Nick Thompson (36-9-1) or Jay Hieron (15-4) for the first-ever title.
I hope Drew Fickett has a good excuse for fighting in the Rage in the Cage event, like making a few million dollars, because he just blew the biggest opportunity of his career.
The latest EliteXC on CBS: Unfinished Business fight card and event info can be found in our fight cards section.
Drew Fickett and Jake Shields had already been rescheduled to fight for the EliteXC Welterweight Championship on June 14 in Hawaii; Shields suffered a back injury that caused him to withdraw from their March 29 match at EliteXC/Strikefore: Le vs. Shamrock. Now it looks like the match will have to rescheduled once again due to a knee injury that Fickett sustained during training.
Jared Shaw, EliteXC VP, informed MMA Weekly on the news:
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