Report: Donald Trump to Announce Affliction's Signing of Andrei Arlovski

MMARated.com has learned that at tomorrow's Affliction press conference in Manhattan, Donald Trump will be announcing that former UFC heavyweight champion, Andrei Arlovski, has officially signed with the upstart promotion. The Executive Vice President of The Trump Organization and the Special Counsel to Donald J. Trump, Michael D. Cohen, confirmed the news with MMARated.com.

Trump will also announce that he has become an equity partner in the Affliction promotion. When asked what percentage of the organization he now owns, Mr. Cohen would only say "a significant amount."

Finally, when asked if Trump's relationship with Tito Ortiz would help bring the former UFC light heavyweight champion to Affliction, Cohen said:

"Everything that Donald Trump does is the biggest and the best and the "Afflcition: Banned" show will be just that.

Due to the status of the Trump mark, and Donald Trump as a mogul business man, Mr. Trump has received dozens of phone calls from fighters who are interested in joining the Affliction family."


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They are really raising the profile of the promotion with Trump coming in. They could actually sell some PPV's.

Maybe the UFC should start worrying. Elite XC is on mainstream tv and Donald Trump has a stake in Affliction. Donald makes good good business decisions, and he won't do something half-assed, if he's going to jump into mma promotion he's going to do it right. For that sole fact I'm at least a little more intrigued about Affliction.

Obviously the UFC isn't dropping from the top spot in MMA for a while, they've been established for 15 years. But they may see their piece of the pie shrink.

This is bad news, imo. Big shot greedy assholes like him are not gonna be good for the sport. Yes, fighters making more is good. One or two super cross promotional fights making a ridiculous amount is bad, because then we get into boxing territory, with no one signed to an org, and top guys only taking either spoon-fed cans(Kimbo*), or big ass pay-day 'super-fight' once a year(Fedor), on barren PPVs. Few MMA fans are looking forward to that. Love Dana or hate him, I doubt few people will argue he loves the sport of MMA, and in the long run, I think he'll be a hell of lot better for it than anyone else. I'm pretty worried about this, honestly.


*Yeah, I know Kimbo's not a "Top Guy" talent-wise, but he is money wise. Well, was, anyway. We'll see.

So this is where all the money is coming from....


Finally i'm starting to have faith and beleive in Affliction as a legitimate contender for 2nd place with DREAM and Elite XC