AFFLICTION 3: TRILOGY

From MMAjunkie and Affliction:

While details continue to slowly surface regarding the details of Affliction's third event, the long-rumored headlining bout between WAMMA heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko and former UFC champion Josh Barnett is finally official. 

Affliction Clothing recently added the Aug. event's fight poster to the home page of its official website. 

As previously rumored, the event will take place at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., the same site as Affliction's previous two efforts. 

While no official announcements have been made regarding additional bouts for the card, the event's poster does advertise appearances by Gegard Mousasi, Ben Rothwell, Renato "Babalu" Sobral, Tim Sylvia, Mark Hominick, Dan Lauzon, Chris Horodecki and Paul Buentello. 

The rumored fight card for the event currently includes:

• Champ Fedor Emelianenko vs. Josh Barnett (for WAMMA HW title)
• Vitor Belfort vs. Gegard Mousasi*
• Paul Buentello vs. Tim Sylvia*
• Paul Daley vs. Jay Hieron*
• Chris Horodecki vs. Dan Lauzon*
• Renato "Babalu" Sobral vs. TB
• Mark Hominick vs. TBA
• Ben Rothwell vs. TBA
  

Because the named event is Trilogy, many are now wondering whether this will be their last event, Affliction  COO, Michael Cohen, says otherwise in an interview to MMA Fanhouse

So, Affliction Entertainment will not stop promoting more MMA shows after August 1? Absolutely not. What it should indicate to people is that this is just the third event that Affliction will be promoting, and I can assure you that there will be a fourth; a fifth; and a sixth. 

Affliction is scheduled to make their official announcement on June 3rd, at the Trump Tower in NY, with the likes of Tom Atencio, Donald Trump, Mark Cuban, Donald Trump Jr, and Golden Boy Promotions.

Affliction COO Michael D. Cohen contacted FanHouse on Friday afternoon to share additional information about the third show. In addition to confirming that Emelianenko and Barnett will fight on the third Affliction show, Cohen mentioned that the organization will hold a press conference this Wednesday, June 3, at the Trump Tower in New York City to officially announce the event. Scheduled to be present at the press conference are Fedor Emelianenko, Josh Barnett, Tom Atencio, Donald Trump, Mark Cuban, Donald Trump Jr. and representatives from Golden Boy Promotions.

Cohen also mentioned that another event for 2009 is most probable, that the 4th event will be on the East Coast, and that the payroll will be considerably less than the first two events.  Here is what he said about what they plan on doing different this thim around:

I think that with each event we're certainly getting better and we're making changes that have made the event quicker and more interesting for the fans. As you may recall, for the first event we had live music. While many people truly appreciated Megadeth as musicians, it probably was not the right venue for an MMA event. So, that was cut out. The second event we think went very, very well. We thought that the production was very good. Not to the level of excellent yet, but it was very, very good. Our focus is on the production and making the production excellent.

It also seems that they will be using the same arrangement as DOR, and will show the undercard on HDNet (YAY for those with HDNet, which is a must for MMA fans).

Will the undercard air on HDNet and the main card on pay-per-view just like "Affliction: Day of Reckoning"?
Yes.