Affliction 3 card

So the August 1 Affliction card just keeps getting better and better. Case in point. The original rumored match-up was Gegard Mousasi vs Vitor Belfort. Now instead of that one great fight, we get Renato Sobral vs Gegard Mousasi and Vitor Belfort vs Jorge Santiago. So that's two great fights instead of one. Just look at the current line-up with record and there place in my monthly rankings.

*Fedor Emelianenko (#1 HW/30-1-0-1) vs Josh Barnett (#2 HW/24-5)
*Gegard Mousasi (25-2-1) vs Renato Sobral (#7 LHW/32-8)
*Tim Sylvia (#7 HW/24-5) vs Paul Buentello (27-10)
*Vitor Belfort (#10 MW/18-8) vs Jorge Santiago (#7/21-7)
*Paul Daley (21-8-2) vs Jay Hieron (17-4)
*Chris Horodecki (12-1) vs Dan Lauzon (12-2)
*Ben Rothwell (30-6) vs Chase Gormley (6-0)
*Mark Hominick (16-8) vs TBA (maybe Din Thomas)

That is a great card top to bottom. The main event alone is enough for you to purchase this card but then when there are 4 ranked fighters underneath (should be 5 but Gegard just left the middleweight rankings to fight at higher weights) And to take that further, Fedor/Barnett and Gegard/Babalu alone would be enough to justify putting down $50 or whatever for this card. I really hope Affliction does last longer than just this show. I realize there is no hugely marketable fights after this card by the looks of things, but I hope they do survive. Tito Ortiz could be brought in (him vs Bablau would be good as those two do not like each other). But assuming that Fedor gets by Barnett, there is no real huge money fights left for him. Outside of the UFC, the only three Heavyweights I would be interested in seeing him fight would be Antonio Silva, Alistair Overeem, and Fabricio Werdum. Of course, Silva can not fight in the US for the foreseeable future.

MMA fans are spoiled right now with the UFC holding about 14 numbered UFC events a year and then a half dozen or so fight nights or ultimate fighter finale shows each year. Affliction is currently only putting on two cards a year and I love it. I get excited for Affliction cards two or three months in advance. UFC card I can really only be excited about for two or three weeks because that is how long it is between events. Affliction cards are worth the build and you are excited for a long time in advance, much like the UFC was shortly after Zuffa bought it.