I agree mostly with the possible post surgery complications that you point out. The only way I see him getting signed is if Trump has in fact told Atencio that he’ll put in the money for Tito, being that Trump and Tito are friends now.

Yea, but why would Trump offer to pay Tito’s wages? Affliction would be better off if Trump loaned the promotion the money…lol

Trump won’t put any of his own money into Affliction unless he’s positive he’ll get a return on his investment.

A lot of good points there Kelvin. I’d caution you a bit on assuming his recovery would take anywhere near what Quarry’s did. It truly depends on exactly how much work the surgeons had to do in there and at what level the fusion took place. Recovery can be as little as 6-9 months for an impact athlete. I’ve had D1 wrestlers back on the mat in 7 months. More importantly though in support of your argument, spinal fusions are far from cures. They tend to relieve much of the leg pain due to disk herniations and neural deficits, but a lot of the actual back pain will remain long after.
 
“Why would a company sign a fighter, when they have no idea if he’ll be able to fight again”

This is the company that just signed Gilbert Yvel after all. The chances of him getting licensed to fight by the CSAC after his license denial by the NSAC is highly unlikely. Its also the company that promoted the heck out of Aleks Emelianenko fighting at the first Affliction show without ever making sure that he could get licensed with that prior felony conviction. They are not exactly the swiftest when thinking about who they will or will not sign!

Bill, I know right! Thanks for stopping by! Also, thanks for the heads up on that other Affliction piece…I knew that couldn’t be that crazy!

As many fans know, Tito Ortiz has been in a few Affliction Clothing ads as of late, along with Arlovski and Barnett. So, its not that far fetched. The far fetched part would be that Affliction is around after January’s event….

Jeff, Tito isn’t signing with Affliction basically for the first reason I mentioned according to Tom Atencio.

You’re right on all accounts.

People don’t care about Tito like they used to. He doesn’t spark the excitement he used to in the past. If he signs with the UFC again, an event involving him and couple of other good fights will draw decent numbers. On the other hand, an Affliction event featuring Tito won’t do half as well.

Its simple. Fedor vs Couture would do a million buys under the UFC banner but would struggle to get even half as many viewers if it was an Affliction product.