Affliction started as a clothing line that just made t-shirts with pictures of skulls, black roses, dragons and various other winged creatures. Eventually, they decided they would start their own MMA promotion to compete with the UFC. They held their first event, Affliction: Banned, on July 19, 2008 and it did decent business, both live and on PPV. (Keeping in mind it was against a free UFC Fight Night on SpikeTV.)

Saturday night, we get Affliction’s second offering, “Day of Reckoning.” Originally scheduled for October 11, the card was rescheduled when Affliction’s most important property, Fedor Emelianenko had to pull out due to injury. Now Fedor is healthy and the “day of reckoning” has arrived. Tomorrow night Affliction will attempt their second go-around as legitimate competition for the UFC.

Fedor Emelianenko vs. Andrei Arlovski

In his last fight, Fedor fought Arlovski’s best buddy, Tim Sylvia. Sylvia is a former UFC heavyweight who has won multiple championships. He’s legitimate. Fedor was just on another level.

At 29-1-1, Fedor is still somewhat of a mythical creature to the American public. He hasn’t lost since December 22, 2000. Arlovski is a former UFC heavyweight champion riding a 5-fight win streak. Most recently, Arlovski defeated a chubby guy during EliteXC’s swan song.

Josh Barnett vs. Gilbert Yvel

The winner of this fight will take on the Arlovski-Fedor fight winner in the culmination of a sort of mini-tournament. Barnett is another top-level heavyweight who has only lost 5 times in his MMA career. 3 of those losses came to a then-in-his-prime Mirko Cro Cop. In one of the original incarnations of the Day of Reckoning card, Barnett was going to fight Arlovski – as you can see in the poster over there.

Yvel is on a 7-fight win streak that started in 2006. From what I’ve read, Yvel is some sort of Dutch-Mike Tyson with a wild temper and amazing skill set. Just a few weeks ago, it wasn’t certain if Yvel would be allowed to fight in California “due to a checkered career history that includes two disqualifications due to unsportsmanlike conduct as well as a 2004 assault of a referee.” (h/t: Junkie) He sounds like a nice guy.

Vitor Belfort vs. Matt Lindland

Lindland has won 10 of his last 12 fights and his two losses are nothing to be ashamed of. Lindland lost to Fedor in 2007 and Rampage Jackson in ‘06. Belfort is a former UFC light heavyweight champion whose last loss came in 2006 against Dan Henderson.

Renato “Babalu” Sobral vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou

I haven’t seen Babalu since his dominating and dispicible performance at UFC 74. (Full video) Babalu beat David Heath to a bloody pulp and then choked him out. When Heath tapped, Babalu held on and tried to put him to sleep. His post fight comments sealed his exit from the UFC.  It marred what had been a tremendous performance. Even I was pissed. The UFC cut Sobral later that week.

I figured then we had seen the last of Babalu and if he was going to come into our living rooms again, he would have to put together a stretch of fights in smaller organizations. He’s done just that winning his last three.

He’ll be fighting the man simply known as Sokoudjou. Just over a year ago, he was one of the UFC’s most promising acquisitions. During that year, Sokoudjou went 1-2 and was released by the UFC. While he disappointed in 2008, I still hold out hopes that he can turn it around in 2009.

The rest of the card:

  • Jay Hieron vs. Jason High
  • Paul Buentello vs. Kiril Sidelnikov

PRELIMINARY CARD (HDNet)

  • Vladamir Matyushenko vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
  • L.C. Davis vs. Bao Quach
  • Antonio Duarte vs. Albert Rios
  • Patrick Speight vs. Brett Cooper
  • Dan Lauzon vs. TBA

When Affliction hosted their debut show on July 19th, the UFC put together a Fight Night on SpikeTV. Tomorrow they’ll counter-program with a rebroadcast of UFC 91 which featured Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Couture.