Arlovski vs Barnett Winner Will Fight Fedor

The winner of the Oct. 11 Affliction: Day of Reckoning main event between Andrei Arlovski and Josh Barnett will, in fact, earn a title shot with WAMMA heavyweight title-holder Fedor Emelianenko later this year.

Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio hinted at the possibility ever since Barnett replaced Emelianenko at the upcoming event, and the World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts today issued a press release confirming that the Arlovski vs Barnett bout will be a "WAMMA Elimination fight."

Arlovski is currently WAMMA's No. 3-ranked heavyweight. Barnett is ranked No. 4.

Affliction: Day of Reckoning takes place at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. Three preliminary fights air on HDNet before the broadcast heads to pay per view for a seven-fight main card.

"We couldn't be more excited to see Andrei Arlovski and Josh Barnett face off for the right to take on Fedor for the WAMMA world heavyweight championship," WAMMA CEO Dave Szady stated in today's press release. "In the spirit of crowning undisputed champions, we couldn't be happier than to have two of the fighters who arguably deserve a shot at Fedor fighting it out for the chance to take on the champ."

The press releases stated, "The winner will earn the right to face ... Emelianenko in his first title defense later this year."

That fight would presumably take place under the Affliction banner, though the organization has yet to announce any details for a third show.

Affliction held its debut show on July 19. Emelianenko quickly disposed of Tim Sylvia, Arlovski earned a third-round TKO over a resilient Ben Rothwell, and Josh Barnett scored an early second-round knockout of Pedro Rizzo.

Emelianenko had been paired with Arlovski for the Oct. 11 event, but the famed Russian fighter and longtime PRIDE heavyweight champion had to pull out of the event with a rumored hand injury. Affliction then replaced Emelianenko with Barnett.

WAMMA formed in November of last year as MMA's first (self-proclaimed) sanctioning body with goals that include creating greater visibility for the sport and recognizing world champions in each weight class. The organization's first order of business was assembling a group of journalists and broadcasters to rank the best of the best in MMA.

Many fight promotions have joined forces with WAMMA - except the most important one. The UFC (and it sister promotion, the WEC) have shown virtually no interest in working with the organization.

Without cooperation from the UFC and WEC - organizations that have a stronghold on the majority of the world’s top fighters - WAMMA will obvious problems issuing belts to additional weight classes. So far, WAMMA's efforts have been directed only to the heavyweight divsion, one in which Affliction has half of the world's top-10 fighters.

Source: mmajunkie.com