As you probably have read by now...Affliction and EliteXC have struck a one fight deal. This deal will allow Andrei Arlovski to fight Roy Nelson on EliteXC's October 4th card that will be their third installment on CBS. Many people are excited by it for some odd reason or another, but let's keep it real...this deal doesn't really mean anything in my opinion. I mean let's look at this thing beginning with the fight itself...
The show is less than 10 days away and they are just now announcing this addition to the card?
Arlovski/Nelson is a decent HW fight, but it's nothing to get all up in arms excited about. The casual fan knows absolutely nothing about Roy Nelson, and with his physical appearance fans will automatically classify him as an out of shape bum. Regardless of his impressive grappling background or IFL fights, and the casual fans may remember Arlovski as a guy that used to be the UFC HW champ. This fight will do nothing in terms of helping EliteXC achieve a respectable rating on CBS. After all, that's what everything is riding on with this show. If they do a poor rating...it's over....not over...but OVER for them. In fact, even if they do a respectable rating they are in trouble because the inability to attract potential investors.
Arlovski should beat Nelson relatively easily, and the best thing that comes out of this would be him getting exposure on national tv. Which wouldn't really benefit EliteXC because well...he's signed to Affliction(albeit a non-exclusive contract). However, I don't think Afflicton will continue loaning Arlovski out to EliteXC because Affliction is paying his salary for him to fight on Elite's show. That is unless they are working on some type of merger which I haven't heard anything about...nothing concrete anyway. However, even if they did merge...all you would have is two companies with nearly 100 million dollars in debt and no brand recognition...and a roster of fighters that the casual fan will consider second rate.
To make matters worse, the UFC has already scheduled a whole months worth of counter programming in which UFC 86, 87, and 89 will be shown in the month of October on Spike TV for FREE.
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