Affliction “Banned” Press Conference: Trump Discusses Partnership, Arlovski and Ortiz

In an attempt to bring more visibility to Affliction’s already burgeoning debut event "Banned" on July 19th, the successful clothing company turned MMA promotion announced a new partnership with Real Estate king, Donald Trump, today during a press conference held at the Trump Tower.

According to Trump, the partnership between the two had been discussed for six months.

In a room packed with reporters and journalists on the 25th floor of Trump Tower, Trump summed up his role as partner with the new MMA organization. According to Trump’s counsel, he will own a significant percentage of the Affliction promotion.

"It’s financial, but it’s not a very big deal for me," he said. "When you build a billion-dollar building like I’m doing in Dubai and lots of other places, that’s a much bigger financial commitment."

Trump also stated that Affliction has the best fighters in MMA. He attempted to back up that statement with a phone call from former UFC heavyweight champion, Andrei Arlovski, who confirmed his fight with former IFL star, Ben Rothwell. The billionaire then proceeded to talk about the success of his hit reality show, "The Apprentice", and made a statement regarding the possible acquisition of Tito Ortiz.

"We’ll probably be asking Tito to come along also," Trump said. "We have many, many great fighters, but we’ll be asking Tito to come along."

While Affliction would love to get it’s hands on "The Huntington Beach Bad Boy", it is unlikely that Ortiz would sign with another organization. He recently stated that he would be starting his own promotion during an appearance on the Howard Stern Show.

Affliction "Banned" is rumored to have a total payroll of between five and six million dollars with Emelianenko getting 1.5 million and Tim Sylvia getting $800,000. To put things into perspective, Emelianenko would be getting over $400,000 more than the total payroll for UFC 84.

There is also a rumor that the clothing company, Tapout, which is closely associated with the UFC, will be banned from the Affliction event. It wouldn’t be surprising considering Affliction named their event "Banned" based on the fact that the UFC banned it’s fighters from wearing Affliction clothing.

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