Promoted from the FanPosts by Kid Nate.

Since the day Affliction announced Gilbert Yvel as Josh Barnett's opponent at Day of Reckoning, the reaction has been pretty similar across the board: WTF?

The problems with the match-up have been pounded to death:

• Barnett is top five in the world;
• Yvel isn't even ranked;
• This fight would have had relevance five years ago;
• The athletic commission shouldn't even sanction Yvel based on his past actions.

Despite these criticisms, I submit that this is one of the better opponents Affliction could have given Barnett. And, before anyone asks, I am not actually Gilbert Yvel nor am I related to him in any way. Nor am I working for Affliction. Simply put, for an organization that has made many misguided decisions, Affliction has done a few things that don't warrant the extreme criticism the internet MMA community has blasted it for.

While Yvel isn't a world beater, the guy has won his past 7 fights, all by stoppage and Affliction's audience of hardcore fans all know who he is. He's also, seriously, one of MMA's "bad boys" since he likes biting his opponents, beating up refs, and overall just causing more mischief than Amy Winehouse on a whiskey-and-coke bender. Match a guy like that up with an All-American boy like Barnett and you have a story; a contrived story, but a story nonetheless. We must also not forget that he has "all those tattoos" (thanks for that sound bite, Tom). In the full entry let's take a look at Affliction's other potential opponents for Barnett.

(1) Brett Rogers. Rogers was rumored to be Barnett's opponent before the Yvel signing broke. This seemed almost like a match made in heaven. Barnett needed a quality opponent and Rogers was in need of that top 10 match up that would finally allow him to become a "top fighter." While that fight made a lot of sense, let's not forget that Rogers is mixed up in the fiasco that is the EliteXC contract situation. If somebody presents you with two options for dinner, with one being obviously more delicious but potentially containing a stomach virus that won't go away, you tell them you'll go with the other one. Every time.

(2) Dave Herman. Same situation as above only the dish comes with a special white coating this time.

(3) Ben Rothwell. Depending on who you ask, Rothwell is a top ten fighter. Even those who don't concede him as a top ten guy just yet will admit that he has the ability to do so. The guy is a beast - plain and simple. There are two reasons Rothwell isn't facing off with Barnett. One is, plain and simple, money. As a community, we haven't stopped bitching about Affliction's payouts since they were released. Rothwell made a quarter million dollars when, realistically, he wasn't worth a quarter of that to the promotion. Barnett needed an opponent - not a sub-prime mortgage. Second is that Rothwell was just KOed by Arlovski in his last outing - the guy in the main event of this show. If he were to become victorious over Barnett and Arlovski over Fedor, there's no reason to re-hash that again. Let's give Big Ben one or two fights to work his way back to contender status.

(4) Roy Nelson. Same as above only the dish has lots and lots of unnecessary gravy. Also, I think there's a quota on how often you can show "Big Country's" gut on national TV before the censors start getting ornery.

(5) Aleksander Emelianenko. Aleks is equally dangerous as he is menacing-looking. If you take his prior loss to Barnett and couple that with the fact that he's Fedor's brother, you've got a built in storyline that is something Affliction doesn't know how to deal with: marketable. Sounds easy enough. Oh wait - Aleks has ghonna-sypha-lytus and no athletic commission will sanction him to fight. Maybe we can blame Fedor for allowing him to spend his down time in the red light district when he should've been training him some sambo but that's an argument for another day.

(6) Antonio Silva. Suspended for looking like he probably does steroids, maybe.

(7) Cro Cop. He has dominated Barnett on three separate occasions - do we need to see this one again? On top of that, his price tag is probably out of Affliction's range if they're listening to common sense and trying to cut down on fighter contracts.

(8) Kimbo Slice. Same EliteXC bullshit as Rogers and Herman, plus he most recently was knocked out by a guy with pink hair and a testosterone deficiency - on national television. Needless to say, a victory over Kimbo by a guy like Barnett wouldn't mean much.

(9) Tim Sylvia. Money. First and foremost. Big Tim just made $800,000 for his fight against Fedor and is probably picking his next opponent carefully (see: Shamrock, Ken). On top of that, even if he took a pay cut from his previous salary to fight Barnett, he just got KOed badly by Fedor and has fought Arlovski three times previously. Is anybody really clamoring to see Timmay fight either of those two guys again any time soon? Seriously. If you are, start taking your multivitamins. You have a chmical deficiency in your brain.

(10) Fabricio Werdum. He's a top 10 fighter and he just got released from the UFC after two very high profile victories coming between two very high profile losses. Honestly, despite his KO loss to Octagon newbie Junior Dos Santos, I think Werdum would have been the best choice as an opponent. I am assuming it had something to do with his management not being to come to terms with Affliction. Either that or Atencio had "badass tattoos" in mind instead of "fat beer-gut-looking Brazilian dude."