Post-Affliction Speculation Round-up: Where Will Affliction Fighters Go?

MMA's craziest news day has come and gone. Since all the speculation as to what's going on is running rampant everywhere, here's a rundown of the current rumors surfacing regarding what may possibly happen in the coming month.

As first reported by MMAWeekly, the prospect of some of the undercard match-ups and possibly main card battles on the Affliction: Trilogy card may actually be moved to M-1 Global's Breakthrough event that is taking place on August 28th in Los Angeles. MMASpot reported that they had been in contact with some fighters who may actually end up on the M-1 Breakthrough card:

MMA Spot has learned that M-1 officials notified several fighters about participating on the M-1 Breakthrough event on August 28.

Of the fighters being mentioned in the notice were, Mikhail Zayats, Rob Broughton, Lucio Linhares and Jessie Gibbs. Other reports have also surfaced that Gegard Mousasi has been contacted to also appear on the card; however those reports are unconfirmed at this time.

Kevin Iole reported a potential merger between Strikeforce and Affliction during the day, but Scott Coker's absence on his Italian vacation may have actually caused the deal to fall apart since Coker was unable to sign paperwork. Iole then reported that the UFC and Affliction were now back on good terms with Affliction sponsoring the UFC via their clothing line and Affliction vowing to never promote MMA fights again. 

Where are we now? The rampant speculation flying around everywhere is fairly interesting. Some of the things I've heard:

• Affliction and the UFC actually worked out a deal in which the UFC would get first crack at the contracts of Affliction fighters. The major problem here is that most Affliction fighters have contracts overseas as well, but this would give the UFC the ability to sign a guy like Paul Daley or Vitor Belfort instantly.
• Affliction will simply find events for their roster of fighters from Trilogy to battle on such as M-1 Global's Breakthrough and Strikeforce's Aug. 15th event. After those match-ups, the fighters will likely become free agents.
• Affliction will throw contracts out and all fighters will be in the free agency market, although I doubt this will happen as M-1 was their partner to begin with.
• Iole actually asked White during the ESPN radio broadcast when Affliction fighters would be in the UFC. Dana stated he would be out of the country, back on Thursday, and major announcements would be made on Friday... further adding to speculation that the UFC is either dealing with Affliction fighters already or they have first dibs on the contracts.
• Per the Iole question above, many fans believe Dana is going to fly to Russia and try to work a deal with Fedor.. hence the comment about an event "bigger than UFC 100". I am skeptical here considering Fedor was actually landing in L.A. yesterday according to Michael Davis Smith's Twitter. Why not just make the trek to L.A. to talk to Fedor? I doubt this has any merit.
• Sherdog has an article stating that Affliction may be trying to compensate fighters by actually giving them t-shirt deals instead of actual paychecks...
• There are also some outlandish arguments stating that Affliction has sold the video library to the UFC, giving Dana the Fedor vs. Sylvia and Fedor vs. Arlovski footage to either promote Fedor in the future or simply hold onto it so no one else can touch it. In any case, I still think Zuffa's contracts will ultimately be a huge roadblock for a Fedor signing.

The major problem that most fans are dismissing in regards to a possible deal between the UFC and Affliction for fighter contracts is the fact that MANY of those fighters have contracts overseas. Gegard Mousasi, Fedor, Jorge Santiago, the list goes on... it'll be impossible for the UFC to swing deals with any of those athletes, but they could grab up Vitor, who has expressed blatant interest to fight in the UFC.

The other interesting news on the table is that of Dana's Twitter message regarding Tito Ortiz coming back to the UFC:

I am going on espn 1100 in vegas at 6pm. I will be talking anything mma. Call in number is 702 364 1100! Oh yea and welcome back tito

The radio interview revealed that Dana White wouldn't actually confirm that Tito Ortiz was signed, but stating that there would be a press conference on July 31st with "a lot of crazy things" to be announced. Most likely, Ortiz will be stepping back into the Octagon. The most speculated match-up right now is a UFC 103 showdown with Rich Franklin. White stated in the ESPN Radio interview that his job is to put on the fights that fans want to see, and that we should stay tuned. This comment was in regards to the UFC 103 main event, which hints that the main event will change. I'm fully expecting a Rich Franklin vs. Tito Ortiz showdown.

In any case, it sounds like the UFC has a huge handle on everything that went down yesterday. I imagine that they have worked something out with Affliction in regards to some of the contracts, but even if they did... most of the elite talent is tied up with Japanese contracts and non-exclusivity. White and Co. will need to re-negotiate with those fighters, but it does ultimately set up the UFC for some unbelievable bouts. Remember all those writers saying UFC 100 was the climax of MMA? Get ready for some unbelievable events.