January 25, 2009

  • Yesterday, Affliction MMA had their second event at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA; "Day of Reckoning." It's been six months since it's last event, so having the chance to go see this live again was pretty exciting. This time around, I had more people to go with me, so that was pretty cool.

    When we got there, one of the first things I did oddly enough was "The Miller's Lite challenge." They made me do a blind taste test, determing which one I like better (preferably for them, Miller's Lite). I chose the correct one, but honestly though, it was pretty obvious that they watered down the competition's beer (Bud Light), which made it easier for me to give them the answer they wanted to hear. Afterwards, I went to purchase an Affliction : Day of Reckoning shirt to commemorate the event. While I was by the merch booth, I noticed that they also had MMA trading cards, available for free on one of the tables. Imagine that, MMA trading cards! What is this becoming, baseball?

    Once again, we were at the cheap seats. The nose bleed sections. Since this is the Honda Center though, it's not that high up that you don't have a clear view of the fights. Unlike the last time, the place was filled enough that they did not need "seat fillers" anymore, so we were for sure stuck where we were. What's kinda funny was that me and my friends were trying to get "better seats" by taking seats that were closer, but not ours. The ushers however recognized us, and where we were suppose to be, so they kept telling us to move back to our seats. Bummer, but oh well.

    As for the fights themselves, I'm not going to spoil anything here, but feel free to check out other websites out there that have play-by-play accounts of the matches (http://www.sherdog.com). The majority of the fights were definitely great, and there were a lot of awesome high-light reel worthy knock outs. Fighters weren't just technically knocked out, they were knocked out cold and stayed on the ground for quite a bit. In fact, for one of them, the EMTs were ready with the stretcher, because it looked really serious. In another fight, a fighter got hit in the groin three times, which made that first round one of the longest I've ever seen, since the guy had to rest from the groin shot over and over again. I didn't even think two of those three groin attacks actually made contact with his balls though, so the guy might very well have been faking it.

    What's funny was that MMA fighter Tito Ortiz was doing the after fight interviews with winners, and a great majority of the audience must not like Ortiz, because everybody just booed whenever he was on. People were loud too, and it turns out that the people who were watching the pay-per-view definitely heard the boos as well. I felt sorry for the winners though, because they were probably thinking "why are they booing me?"

    The main fight that people were here for is ofcourse the Fedor Emelianenko vs Andrei Arlovski match. The main appeal to the match is that Fedor is the best heavy weight fighter in the world, that hasn't lost since the year 2000. Arlovski is on a five win streak, and honestly has a chance to break Fedor's reign. Needless to say, it was a great match, with a shocking knock out finish. After that main card, a lot of people started leaving, but the Jay Hieron vs Jason High fight that was suppose to be one of the opening bouts, but was delayed until the end of the night still had to go on. Too bad people left, because once again it ended with a nice dramatic exploding knock out. I swear, they should have just called this "Affliction : Knocked Out."

    This was a great fight card, that me and my friends got to see live for a little above $50. That's a great deal. We hope Affliction can keep up this quality and start getting more recognition (I actually saw a billboard and news coverage), because I really don't want this organization to fold under lack of profit like some others already have. MMA isn't just the UFC you know.