jakkups
06-24-2009, 11:55 AM
Atencio: Fedor vs. Barnett is fight of the century! (http://www.mmaunltd.com/news-detail.asp/NewsID/439/atencio-talks-fedor-barnett-and-more.htm)
Affliction Vice-President and mouthpiece for the organisation, Tom Atencio, spoke exclusively with MMABay.co.uk regarding the future of the company and its main figures, aswell as possibly promoting an event in the UK and worldwide.
Atencio, who fights himself this weekend, shared his thoughts on the Fedor vs. Barnett fight and the prospective signing of other superstar heavyweights to face his established stars in the future.
Regarding the Fedor Emelianenko vs. Josh Barnett bout, Atencio didn't mince his words as he claimed it would the 'fight of the century:
"I think it’s going to be the fight of the century. I think Josh Barnett is ranked number two in the world and Fedor is ranked number one in the world," he stated. A fan, fighter and promoter, Atencio continued, "I think it’s going to be the fight that I know I as a fan I’ve wanted to see and I know the Japanese market and Korean market have wanted to see for years. So I’m real happy that I’m able to put the fight on. It’s going to be a war.”
The seemingly unstoppable Emelianenko faces a stern test in Barnett, a strong wrestler and submission specialist, and he poses a totally different test than Fedor's last three adversaries who have all been strikers; Arlovski, Sylvia and Choi.
With the marquee division in the promotion clearly being the heavyweights, Barnett is the last remaining name on the list to challenge Fedor. Would he be interested in signing any of the other big names out there such as Overeem or Cro Cop?
"Yeah of course I’d love to see those guys come on board but right now I think the only real viable people that look like they would be in contention would be Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir and they fight in the UFC," he said, re-opening the discussion of a fight share with the Zuffa organisation. "I don’t ever see Dana White letting that happen but you never know. I don’t have a crystal ball, anything can happen and as a fan I would definitely like to see it happen but yeah I would love to bring Mirko on board and I would love to have other people like Mark Hunt and a lot of the other fighters that fight overseas, for sure.”
A lot has been made of the recent conclusion of Andre Arlovski's contract also with numerous sites using inflammatory language such as 'ditched' and 'sacked' when the reality is that his tenure had run its course. With regards to this Atencio said,
"His loss to Brett Rogers was his third and final fight with us so his contract is up with us. Unfortunately for Andre I think people figured his game out and he’s been knocked out now five different times by four different people, so unfortunately for Andre he may have to go back and re-evaluate what he’s doing and maybe change his game up a little bit."
Uk fans may be interested in another excerpt from the Affliction man, as he stated his intention was to try and take the product elsewhere than the USA.
"I would love to. I’ve been real fortunate that I’ve been able to travel a lot through my life and for me that would be another dream come true, to take it abroad. For sure Japan, for sure the UK. I’ve got a lot of offers right now, even Greece, I’ve got different areas throughout Europe and there’s a lot of opportunities out there so yeah, I would love to do that."
For now, we can look forward to the stackd card on August 1st.
For the full interview with Atencio, check out MMABay's audio link here. (http://www.mmabay.co.uk/Tom%20Atencio.wma)
Affliction Vice-President and mouthpiece for the organisation, Tom Atencio, spoke exclusively with MMABay.co.uk regarding the future of the company and its main figures, aswell as possibly promoting an event in the UK and worldwide.
Atencio, who fights himself this weekend, shared his thoughts on the Fedor vs. Barnett fight and the prospective signing of other superstar heavyweights to face his established stars in the future.
Regarding the Fedor Emelianenko vs. Josh Barnett bout, Atencio didn't mince his words as he claimed it would the 'fight of the century:
"I think it’s going to be the fight of the century. I think Josh Barnett is ranked number two in the world and Fedor is ranked number one in the world," he stated. A fan, fighter and promoter, Atencio continued, "I think it’s going to be the fight that I know I as a fan I’ve wanted to see and I know the Japanese market and Korean market have wanted to see for years. So I’m real happy that I’m able to put the fight on. It’s going to be a war.”
The seemingly unstoppable Emelianenko faces a stern test in Barnett, a strong wrestler and submission specialist, and he poses a totally different test than Fedor's last three adversaries who have all been strikers; Arlovski, Sylvia and Choi.
With the marquee division in the promotion clearly being the heavyweights, Barnett is the last remaining name on the list to challenge Fedor. Would he be interested in signing any of the other big names out there such as Overeem or Cro Cop?
"Yeah of course I’d love to see those guys come on board but right now I think the only real viable people that look like they would be in contention would be Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir and they fight in the UFC," he said, re-opening the discussion of a fight share with the Zuffa organisation. "I don’t ever see Dana White letting that happen but you never know. I don’t have a crystal ball, anything can happen and as a fan I would definitely like to see it happen but yeah I would love to bring Mirko on board and I would love to have other people like Mark Hunt and a lot of the other fighters that fight overseas, for sure.”
A lot has been made of the recent conclusion of Andre Arlovski's contract also with numerous sites using inflammatory language such as 'ditched' and 'sacked' when the reality is that his tenure had run its course. With regards to this Atencio said,
"His loss to Brett Rogers was his third and final fight with us so his contract is up with us. Unfortunately for Andre I think people figured his game out and he’s been knocked out now five different times by four different people, so unfortunately for Andre he may have to go back and re-evaluate what he’s doing and maybe change his game up a little bit."
Uk fans may be interested in another excerpt from the Affliction man, as he stated his intention was to try and take the product elsewhere than the USA.
"I would love to. I’ve been real fortunate that I’ve been able to travel a lot through my life and for me that would be another dream come true, to take it abroad. For sure Japan, for sure the UK. I’ve got a lot of offers right now, even Greece, I’ve got different areas throughout Europe and there’s a lot of opportunities out there so yeah, I would love to do that."
For now, we can look forward to the stackd card on August 1st.
For the full interview with Atencio, check out MMABay's audio link here. (http://www.mmabay.co.uk/Tom%20Atencio.wma)