October Affliction Show Postponed until January

Multiple online news sources are reporting that the October Affliction show (which was scheduled to take place on October 11th in Las Vegas) has been pushed back to January. The show, which was originally scheduled to take place at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, will now apparently be held at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, site of the promotion's first event ("Banned").

When this news first hit the wires, reports were that the company had decided to postpone the show due to poor ticket sales in Las Vegas. Affliction COO Michael D. Cohen spun the news differently, saying that the reasons for the delay would become apparent over the next couple of weeks, and that the promotion would have an announcement that is "truly going to change the world of mixed martial arts."

The first thing that jumps to mind is that Affliction is close to inking a deal with Tito Ortiz, and wants to feature him on their next show. With the October show just about a month away, Ortiz wouldn't have had time to sign his contract and then begin training for his fight. If the announcement is in fact in regards to Tito Ortiz, then the company will have a number of months to promote the fight with Ortiz fronting the card.

There was no question that the promotion was having troubles selling tickets for their October 11th show. While the card was certainly solid for hardcore MMA fans, the event lacked that "big" name that would draw PPV buys. Arlovski vs Barnett would no doubt be an enjoyable main event for fans of the sport, but a lack of a Fedor or Tito Ortiz in the main event was undoubtedly hurting ticket sales.

Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, and Dana White for that matter, have deep connections to the city of Las Vegas, and I am certain that they were doing their absolute best to make sure that Affliction would have major problems in terms of promoting the show. Representatives from Affliction alluded to the fact that they were facing "difficulties" in terms of promoting their October show.

Details are still sketchy at this time, and representatives from Affliction are being extremely guarded about their "big" announcement. As we find out more details about the January show, we'll share them with everybody here.

Source: Affliction COO Says Huge Announcement That Will Change the World of MMA Forthcoming

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