Finished.  Finito.  Kaput. 

The Affliction organization was already rumored to be in serious jeopardy as they stepped up to the plate and tried to compete shoulder to shoulder with the industry big boys of the UFC, who always enjoy homefield advantage in the United States.  With skyrocketed fighter salary figures and measly pay per view buys, Tom Atencio and company were running an uphill battle going into their third show, Afflliction: Trilogy. Despite featuring an awesome card topped off with the sport's best fighter finally competing against his #2 heavyweight ranked shadow and friend Josh Barnett, a positive test for anabolic steroids prevented Barnett from attaining his license, and the promotion was left scrambling to replace one-half of what was formerly known as one of MMA's most anticipated match-ups.

Despite rumors running rampant of a handful of fighters eager to step up against Fedor Emelianenko on short notice, including Vitor Belfort, Brett Rogers, and Jeff Monson, the promotion officially announced that they would extinguish their pivotal event from the calendar completely. 

This result is nothing short of disastrous for Affliction, the 22 fighters on the card, and the fans. The issues now on the agenda revolve around the expected compensation for the fighters; who have been engaged in intense preparation with their respected training camps, away from their families, all the while accumulating the costs to do so. 

In a rather intriguing turn of events, Yahoo Sports has stated that Affliction will begrudgingly raise and wave the white flag from their fight promotion headquarters and cease their operations of holding MMA events, and will focus on their original core competency of sponsoring fighters through their well-established brand of clothing.  Even more jawdropping is the verbiage in the same report that they will resume their previous relationship with the UFC by sponsoring their fighters, and logical speculation would indicate that this is an lucrative financial avenue to pursue considering the mob of fighters who are now curious about their paychecks.