Tito Ortiz will appear at tomorrow's press conference to promote Affliction: Day of Reckoning, and I guess I can sort of see why some people think that's a big deal: Ortiz is one of the most popular fighters in MMA, it was just a few years ago that he was the most popular fighter in the UFC, and if he fights for Affliction, he'll bring a lot of attention to the promotion. But the truth is, the Affliction MMA promotion might not even be in business by the time Ortiz is ready to fight. Ortiz says he'll be recovered from back surgery in time to fight in July, nine months after his surgery. How confident can we be that Affliction is going to be promoting fights in July? And how confident can we be in Ortiz's self-diagnosis of a nine-month recovery period? He had the same surgery that Nate Quarry had, and Quarry was out of action for 15 months after his back surgery.
Times are tough right now for every MMA promotion other than the UFC, and all indications are the economy is going to get worse in 2009. Affliction has an uphill climb just to stay around long enough to get Ortiz into its oversized ring.
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