Fedor Added to Rescheduled “Day of Reckoning” Card

Immediately following speculation of Affliction’s big announcement in a couple of weeks, reports surfaced that Fedor Emelianenko will be featured on Affliction’s rescheduled “Day of Reckoning” card at the Honda Center in Anaheim on January 17th.

NBCSports.com spoke exclusively with Michael D Cohen who revealed the breaking news of “The Last Emperor’s” return. Emelianenko was originally scheduled to face Andrei Arlovski at “Day of Reckoning” in October but was forced to withdrawal due to a lingering hand injury.

The return of the undisputed WAMMA heavyweight king should single-handedly turn around ticket sales which were reported by Tom Atencio to be abysmal thus far.

While the exact reason for the postponement remains unclear, it seems the fate of the shows success and Dana White of the UFC, played a large role. The company stated earlier in the week that the UFC had put roadblocks in it’s path which shouldn’t come as a surprise considering Affliction had originally planned to host their debut show at the Thomas & Mack center which is located directly behind the UFC’s corporate headquarters.

While all of the original fighters scheduled to compete on the October 11th card will still participate in the January event, changes to the card will be made. The new changes will likely demote Arlovski vs Barnett from the main event slot to allow room for the Fedor fight. According to Cohen, they are still searching for an opponent for Emelianenko.

“It is to be determined,” he said. “We are considering changing the combatants. We have not finalized that at this time. That is as a result of the issues to be revealed at the announcement.”

As we reported in a previous post, Affliction is planning a major announcement that will take place during the Casamayor vs Marquez boxing match on HBO (PPV) Saturday, Sept. 13. The announcement will reportedly “change the dynamics of mixed martials arts. Not just nationally, but globally.”

Rumors are already swirling that the announcement could involve co-promoting MMA with boxing and also a partnership with HBO, which would impact MMA on a global scale.

Stick around for more details regarding Affliction “Day of Reckoning” and Fedor’s new opponent.