There have been a couple of recent developments on the Affliction: Day of Reckoning card. First up, Matt Lindland's fight with Renato "Babalu" Sobral has been cancelled due to Babalu winning the Strikeforce title. Sobral has been replaced by The Phenom himself, Vitor Belfort, and this fight is as good a matchup (or better) than the original. This is a fight that has been talked about for years on MMA forums and it's great that we finally get to see these guys go at it.
The second development is that Josh Barnett now has an opponent. Barnett was originally scheduled to face TBA, but as usual TBA dropped out of the fight. He's been replaced by none other than Gilbert Yvel, the guy who KO'd a referee and then kicked him while he was down. Yvel is also famous (or infamous) for his dirty fighting tactics in the ring and this fight with Barnett is a great way for fate to mete out some justice on MMA's bad boy. Look for Josh to waste this guy.
I am not thrilled with Yvel fighting Barnett. I think there are plenty of other heavyweights that Josh could have fought. Tim Sylvia comes to mind as an obvious choice. Still, the card itself is stacked and it's always a pleasure to see Barnett fight, even if it's against a guy who won't offer up much of a challenge. And of course, the main event is huge. Fedor vs. Arlovski. Damn, what a great fight.
I expect Fedor to beat Andre, and then hopefully we'll see Fedor vs. Barnett. That's the fight I've been waiting for ever since Josh beat up Fedor's little brother.
Here's a video of Affliction's Tom Atencio talking about the card.
