Heavyweight

Afternoon Notes: Silva Fires Back at CSAC, EliteXC Show Being Planned & More

- Former EliteXC heavyweight champion Antonio Silva has filed a civil action suit against the California State Athletic Commission in an attempt to try to fight his suspension stemming from a positive steroids test last year. According to Sherdog.com, Silva is looking for a ruling that will temporarily release him from his suspension and potentially grant him another hearing with CSAC officials.

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Video: Barnett, Yvel Talk Affliction Bout

In the above video courtesy of Showtime Sports, former UFC heavyweight champion Josh Barnett and PRIDE Fighting Championships veteran Gilbert Yvel discuss their upcoming heavyweight bout, which will take place at Affliction Entertainment’s “Day of Reckoning show on January 24 in Anaheim, California.

Report: Silva vs. Emelianenko Possible for Next Sengoku Show

Former EliteXC heavyweight champion Antonio Silva may be set to defy the California State Athletic Commission again as he is reportedly likely to face Aleksander Emelianenko in his next fight for World Victory Road’s “Sengoku” promotion.

According to Fighters Only Magazine, the fight would take place as the second fight in Silva’s three-fight, non-exclusive deal with the Japanese promotion, but a date was not mentioned.

Silva was suspended by the CSAC following his second-round TKO victory over the late Justin Eilers at EliteXC’s “Unfinished Business” show on July 26 after testing positive for the banned steroid, Boldenone. Silva was suspended and fined by the commission but opted to fight anyway, accepting a fight against K-1 and PRIDE Fighting Championships veteran Yoshihiro Nakao and defeating him at Sengoku’s January 4 show.

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Video: Arlovski 360, Episode Four

Here’s the fourth episode of Andrei Arlovski’s documentary, “Arlovski 360”, which chronicles his training for his upcoming showdown against perennial heavyweight king Fedor Emelianenko at Affliction’s “Day of Reckoning” show on January 24 in Anaheim, California.

Mir, McCarthy Tapped for Next Series of Round 5 Figures

ARLOVSKI, McCARTHY, MIR, NOGUEIRA TO BE FEATURED IN NEXT SERIES OF ROUND 5 MIXED MARTIAL ARTS FIGURINES

MARKHAM, ONTARIO, CANADA - Mixed martial arts stars Andrei “The Pit Bull” Arlovski, “Big” John McCarthy, Frank Mir and Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira will be featured in Round 5’s Series 3 of mixed martial arts collectible figures, it was announced today by Round 5 C.E.O. Barron Lau and President Damon Lau. Series 3 figures are projected to be available at retail outlets throughout North America and online at Round5MMA.com beginning in April.

The Series 3 figurines follow successful launches of the first two series in April 2008 and November 2008, respectively, which featured eight MMA fan favorites. Randy Couture, Matt Hughes, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Tito Ortiz comprised Series 1 while Rich Franklin, Sean Sherk, Anderson Silva and Wanderlei Silva were released in Series 2.

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Lashley vs. Hayes to Headline PFC Joint Boxing & MMA Event in February

Former WWE superstar turned mixed martial artist, Bobby Lashley, will co-headline the Palace Fighting Championship’s latest offering - a joint boxing and MMA event on February 7 - against fellow undefeated heavyweight prospect Mike Hayes.

PFC President Christian Printup announced the event’s lineup over the weekend at The Underground. Lashley and Hayes will headline the MMA portion of the card while former Olympic boxing gold medalist Andre Ward will face Henry Buchanan in the night’s main event. The boxing portion of the card will be televised live on Showtime.

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Affliction’s Day of Reckoning Ticket Sales?

We are now just 15 days from the second Affliction show, aptly named Day of Reckoning.  The show will headlined by Fedor Emelianenko vs Andre Arlovski for the WAMMA Heavyweight Championship.  Sandwiched the weekend between two UFC PPV’s, the show will take place at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA. 

Much ado was made about the fact that Afflicion’s co-promoter, Golden Boy Promotions, was planning on promoting an HBO Boxing telecast featuring Shane Mosley vs Antonio Margarito on the same night, across town in the Staples Center.  While no definitive correlation can be made, one can gain some insight into how the ticket sales might be going for these two events.

As of this afternoon, one could log onto the Ticketmaster website and purchase tickets for either event.  Affliction’s ticket prices are $50, $100, $200, $300, $450, and $1000 each.  While no maximum number of tickets per household is listed per norm, it appears that the maximum you can get are 12.  At this point, blocks of twelve tickets are available at all price ranges for Affliction. 

Move to the Mosley-Margarito boxing card.  The maximum number of tickets available for purchase is 6.  The price range is much less expensive, available at $25, $50, $75, $150, and $300.  Currently, six ticket blocks are available for the 2 lowest price ranges.  Only single seats remain for the $75, $150, and $300 seats.  So it looking like the attendance will be pretty good for that event.

Obviously for the Affliction event, they are hoping for large walk up sales similar to what happened for the first show.  “Banned” drew 14,832 out of 17,000+ seats, with 11,242 sold and 3,590 given away, a very respectable figure indeed.  But that show took place in July before the current economic crisis in the US truly began.  The UFC recently had to give away close to a third of the tickets for their stacked UFC 92 card, a figure that was unusually high. 

It was just this past October that Affliction was forced to cancel their originally scheduled second show due to poor ticket sales.  That cancellation took place a little over three weeks from the event date, so this is a good sign. In the end, it will be interesting to see what the attendance for the Affliction event ends up being as it may go a long way to determining the financial stability of the organization. 

Afternoon Notes: Mir-Lesnar II News, Goulet-McCrory Proposed & More

- A planned middleweight title fight between Anderson Silva and Thales Leites might not be the only championship bout at UFC 97. Fighters Only Magazine is quoting UFC President Dana White as saying that the heavyweight title unification rematch between Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir could take place in April, which is when the UFC plans to return to Montreal, Quebec, Canada for the second time in the last two years. “Mir took little damage in his fight with Nog, and Lesnar wants to fight him soon, so April may be the time and place for that,” White said.

- Canadian welterweight Jonathan Goulet has told Sherdog.com that he has been offered a fight against Tamdan McCrory for April’s UFC 97 event also, but will be unable to accept the bout until Thursday at the earliest due to medical clearance needed to begin training again after injuring his right knee in his recent loss to Mike Swick at the UFC’s “Fight for the Troops” event in December. McCrory is coming off a loss as well - He fell to Dustin Hazelett via submission at UFC 91. Keep in mind thought that the UFC has yet to secure a date at the Bell Centre because of the Montreal Canadiens’ pending playoff schedule.

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Santiago, Kitaoka Win Belts at Sengoku; Gomi Falls Again

Jorge Santiago and Satoru Kitaoka each claimed vacant belts in their respective divisions while former lightweight king Takanori Gomi continued his fall from grace, losing his second straight fight at World Victory Road’s “Sengoku No Ran 2009” event in Japan on Sunday.

Santiago choked former PRIDE Grand Prix winner Kazuo Misaki unconscious in the third round of their fight and picked up his ninth straight win. Kitaoka meanwhile, was victorious in arguably the biggest fight of his career, quickly submitting Gomi with a heel hook just over a minute into the show’s main event.

Complete results from the event:

Jorge Santiago def. Kazuo Misaki - Submission (Rear-Naked Choke)
Satoru Kitaoka def. Takanori Gomi - Submission (Heel Hook)
Sanae Kikuta def. Hidehiko Yoshida - Split Decision
Antonio Silva def. Yoshihiro Nakao - TKO (Injury)
Eiji Mitsuoka def. Sergey Golyaev - Submission (Armbar)
Muhammed Lawal def. Yukiya Naito - TKO (Strikes)
Mu Bae Choi def. Dave Herman - TKO (Strikes)
Maximo Blanco def. Seigo Inoue - KO (Foot Stomps)
Hidetada Irie def. Minoru Kato - TKO (Strikes)

Video: Arlovski 360, Episode Two

Here’s the second episode of Andrei Arlovski’s documentary, “Arlovski 360”, which chronicles his training for his upcoming showdown against perennial heavyweight king Fedor Emelianenko at Affliction Entertainment’s “Day of Reckoning” show on January 24 in Anaheim, California.