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Affliction announced earlier today that Jay Glazer, Frank Trigg and ‘Big’ John McCarthy will be calling the action at the organization’s debut MMA event.

“Affliction Banned,” the greatest MMA show of all-time, will feature an all-star broadcast team for its July 19th pay-per-view event, featuring the WAMMA heavyweight championship fight between the most lethal MMA heavyweight of all-time, Russian M1 superstar legend Fedor “The Last Emperor” Emelianenko (27-1), and former UFC heavyweight champion Tim “The Maine-iac” Sylvia (24-4), live from Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

Ariel Helwani of MMARated.com was hard at it again covering the Trump/Affiction Press Conference that took place earlier today. As reported yesterday, Andrei Arlovski was announced as a major signing for the upstart promotion, and will face Ben Rothwell on July 19 at Affliction “Banned.”

If you’re wondering if Affliction & Trump are just shooting to be the number two promotion behind the UFC, well they’re not. In an interview with BloodyElbow.com, Special Counsel to Mr. Trump, Michael Cohen revealed they’re planning to unseat the number one MMA promotion.

I think you have no choice but to go head to head with the UFC. I believe that the UFC right now is the only game in town. So the answer is any company that enters into the arena of mixed martial arts certainly is going up against the UFC. The UFC has the longest track record and they have certainly been the premier company. We anticipate that will change. And that it will change very quickly.

When the news first hit the internet, I speculated that Trump would use his connections with NBC to try and get the promotion on network television. It appears I wasn’t far off base.

Luke Thomas: Obviously he’s had many seasons of “The Apprentice” on NBC, but they currently carry Strikeforce, a rival but different promotion. Does Mr. Trump plans to use his business leverage to get Affliction beyond the Pay-Per-View landscape?

Michael Cohen: Certainly one of the benefits of having Donald Trump as your partner is all of the individuals he has access to via his rolodex, which is immense. So the answer is it’s something that’s being considered. We certainly do believe that mixed martial arts has a place on primetime television. As you know, he certainly has strong ties and connections to NBC. He was the number one show with “The Apprentice”. It is something that is being considered.

This is definitely going to get interesting.

Video interviews with Michael Cohen, Affliction VP Tom Atencio, and Mauro Ranallo after the jump.

All you Mauro Ranallo fans can breathe easy, and Bill Goldberg haters even easier, because Mauro will be a part of the broadcasting team for EliteXC Saturday Night Fights on CBS—Goldberg will not. Mauro will not be the play-by-play announcer, however. According to a press release issued by ProElite, Gus Johnson will be taking that spot at the broadcast table alongside Mauro and Frank Shamrock, who will serve as analysts. Karyn Bryant will serve as the cageside reporter.

For those not familiar with Gus Johnson, here’s a quick video of him wrapping up a Bills/Broncos NFL game in the broadcast booth. Johnson on the left.

A definite improvement over the Showtime team.