Tom Atencio

Tom Atencio Interview

 

Affliction Vice-President, Tom Atencio took time out from his busy schedule late last week to talk EXCLUSIVELY to MMABay about the future of the promotion. He revealed his thoughts on Fedor vs Barnett, possibly signing Mirko Cro Cop, the possibility of a UK show down the road an much, much more.

Quotes from the interview:

On Fedor Emelianenko vs Josh Barnett, Atencio said:

“I think it’s going to be the fight of the century. I think Josh Barnett is ranked number two in the world and Fedor is ranked number one in the world. I think it’s going to be the fight that I know I as a fan I’ve been wanted to see and I know the Japanese market and Korean market have wanted to see for years. So I’m real happy that I’m able to put the fight on. It’s going to be a war.”

On possibly signing Alistair Overeem or Mirko Cro Cop to face Fedor next, Atencio said:

“Yeah of course I’d love to see those guys come on board but right now I think the only real viable people that look like they would be in contention would be Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir and they fight in the UFC. I don’t ever see Dana White letting that happen but you never know. I don’t have a crystal ball, anything can happen and as a fan I would definitely like to see it happen but yeah I would love to bring Mirko on board and I would love to have other people like even Mark Hunt and a lot of the other fighters that fight overseas, for sure.”

On Andre Arlovski’s contract situation with Affliction and his most recent fight with Brett Rogers, Atencio said:

“His loss to Brett Rogers was his third and final fight with us so his contract is up with us. Unfortunately for Andre I think people figured his game out and he’s been knocked out now five different times by four different people, so unfortunately for Andre he may have to go back and re-evaluate what he’s doing and maybe change his game up a little bit.”

On the possibility of a forth Affliction event before the end of the year, Atencio said:

“Before the end of the year I’m not really sure but I’ve always said from the beginning three fights (events) and I would take them one at a time until we got to that third one and that’s exactly what I’m doing, so once I’m finished with this third fight I’ll definitely announce when the next card will be and hopefully I can give scheduled events and move forward.”

About seeing an Affliction show in the UK down the road, Atencio revealed:

I would love to. I’ve been real fortunate that I’ve been able to travel a lot through my life and for me that would be another dream come true, to take it abroad. For sure Japan, for sure the UK. I’ve got a lot of offers right now, even Greece, I’ve got different areas throughout Europe and there’s a lot of opportunities out there so yeah, I ould love to do that.

To listen to the interview in full and hear what else was said, CLICK HERE!!!