Thirteen years ago today, one of the best heavyweight fight cards in MMA went down in the U.S., but it wasn’t part of the UFC.
Back on July 19, 2008, Affliction hosted its inaugural event – Affliction: Banned, which took place at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. This card featured a high-profile, heavyweight matchup in the main event with the legendary Fedor Emelianenko taking on former UFC champion Tim Sylvia. Additionally,Andrei Arlovski fought Ben Rothwell andJosh Barnett took on Pedro Rizzo.
The star-studded event even featured Vitor Belfort, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, and Gary Goodridge the preliminary card. That’s how stacked Affliction: Banned was.
And to counter-program the card, the UFC put its middleweight champion, Anderson Silva, to fight on a UFC Fight Night event after headlining five consecutive pay-per-view cards. Silva moved up a weight class to take on tough veteran James Irvin at UFC Fight Night 14, which aired on Spike TV. That would be Silva’s only Fight Night performance in a decade, as he would fight again on a non-UFC pay-per-view in 2016 against Michael Bisping at UFC Fight Night 84.
Take a look back at the stacked Affliction: Banned in the video above.
Today in MMA history: Affliction hosts star-studded ‘Banned’ event