Former Affliction fighters and where they are going to be now -

UFC

• Vitor Belfort
• Paul Daley
• Chase Gormley
• Ben Rothwell
• Dan Lauzon
• Oliviera

WEC

• Javier Vasquez
• LC Davis
• Mark Hominick

STRIKEFORCE

• Gegard Mousasi
• Jay Hieron

With all the rumours of the announcement of Fedor signing to the UFC floating around, the collapse of Affliction’s promotion business might turn out to be a good thing for a lot of the fighters. Of course, this does not include fighters who have since signed with STRIKEFORCE such as Gegard Mousasi, Jay Hieron et al.

This makes UFC’s Friday conference call an even more anticipated one with all the major announcements that can come through at the call.

It had to happen and it did. Gegard Mousasi now has the chance to announce his arrival on the US scene in grander style when he takes on veteran Renato Sobral for his Strikeforce Light heavyweight title on August 15th. The fight will be telecast during the SHOWTIME portion of the Carano vs Cyborg card.

“STRIKEFORCE is one of the world’s top promotions and I am proud to be a part of their roster of world-class fighters,” Mousasi said.

Mousasi, the last DREAM middleweight champion relinquished his belt to move to the light heavyweight division had in the past two days expressed his regret about the demise of Affliction just days before the event in which he was to be featured. This announcement, I am sure, comes as a major relief to not just Mousasi but to Sobral as well.

Sobral, a very highly respected and dangerous fighter, is on a 5-fight win streak and was last seen choking out Sokoudjou on the second Affliction card.

This is going to be a major fight in the LHW division and the addition of Gegard Mousasi to the roster only means that STRIKEFORCE is once again moving in the right direction in becoming a legitimate top two organization in the MMA sphere.

Back to the UFC?

The rumours are strong and the rumours are good! The latest rumour coming out of the demise of Affliction is that Vitor “The Phenom” Belfort is finally making his return to the UFC.

Belfort was scheduled to fight Jorge Santiago on Affliction’s now defunct MMA event on August 1st. With Dana White’s previous comments about wanting Belfort back in the UFC, the recent happenings made it easier to get the deal done apparently.

The question is, of course, who gets to fight Vitor first as he gets back in the octagon. The possibilities are amazing!

Well, I guess its wait and watch again as far as Fedor’s future holds but a contract with Strikeforce only means that Fedor will have an option of fighting against Overeem, Brett Rogers and Fabricio Werdum as big names …

With the UFC of course, you get the entire gamut of big names coming in. The only problem is that M-1 and the UFC have not always met eye to eye to say the least. Keep tuned in to MMARumours to hear the latest on this development.

Of course, the damage due to this news is mostly to the Affliction MMA figters who are now without an expected pay day and bills to pay on top of that. Another major player who will be hit by this is possibly M-1 Global who just lost one of their major sponsors/ partners.

Meanwhile Affliction Co-Founder, Eric Foss. had this to say:

“Our brand is synonymous with the “Live Fast” approach to life and UFC is the perfect venue for us to market our brand. We have come to an agreement with the UFC which we feel will be the best for the sport and will help the UFC continue delivering the highest caliber of fights.”

Affliction has seemingly cancelled its Trilogy event officially. According to SI.com, Affliction has now officially cancelled its Trilogy event scheduled to happen on August 1st after the Josh Barnett failed drug test debacle.

“Finding an opponent for the number one ranked MMA heavyweight champion in such a short period of time was a huge endeavor and I’m thrilled at the amount of fighters willing to take on this challenge,” Affliction Vice – President Tom Atencio said in a press release. “But in the end, we just didn’t have enough time to promote a new fight to our standards.”

Following Barnett’s drug results, there was a lot of speculation of who could replace him against Fedor. The list included Brett Rogers, Middleweights Vitor Belfort, Jorge Santiago, Strikeforce Heavyweight Fabricio Werdum, perennial fighter Jeff Monson, etc.

However, in the end, Affliction MMA seems to be most hit by this turn of events and it remains to be seen as to whether they will continue promoting events or not.

In related news, the rumours have started as to whether Fedor will actually cross over and fight in the Strikeforce event scheduled after the August 15th Carano/ Cyborg card against Fabricio Werdum, although the chances of that fight happening are not as bright as it would otherwise have been.

Werdum to replace Barnett?

The Rumour Mill is working overtime! The latest rumour to hit the MMA scene is that Strikeforce Heavyweight Fabricio Werdum is all set to replace Josh Barnett at Affliction: Trilogy against Fedor.

Werdum, who is thought of by some as the best heavyweight Jiu Jitsu fighter outside of Minotauro Noguiera, is a dangerous fighter who has upped his striking game after joining the always infamous Chute Box camp. Werdum, who started gaining notoriety after working as Mirko Cro-Cop’s Jiu Jitsu coach, is a championship level grappler and will prove to be a relaly tough test for Fedor, if the fight does happen.

Werdum was slated to fight Alistair Overeem for the Strikeforce Heavyweight title in August on the card headlined by the Carano-Cyborg fight but had to sit out due to Overeem re-aggravating an injury to his hand.

“I didn’t care about the postponement because I couldn’t fight anyways” Said Vitor. ” But now, I spoke to Tom Atencio about being on the Jan 2009 card. I want to be in shape to be able to fight anyone. If they want me to, I will fight Fedor.” Said Belfort.

Although still in recuperation and training, Belfort says that he can’t wait to get back into the ring and show the world that he can still do this and be at the top of the middleweight division.