The Affliction: Day of Reckoning post-fight press conference took place immediately following the Pay-Per-View portion of the card. Oscar De La Hoya, Tom Atencio, Fedor Emelianenko, Andrei Arlovski and other main card fighters all addressed the media.
Questions about Golden Boy’s partnership with Affliction were answered, the official attendance was announced as well as how many shows M-1 and Affliction hope to put on in 2009.
Oscar De La Hoya was the first man to address the press. The “Golden Boy” stated that Golden Boy’s partnership with Affliction is not a brief flirtation and also stated that they will be working on putting together the next fight card soon. “We feel excited. We will be working with Trump, M-1 and Affliction to put together the next card on Monday. This is not a short term relationship. This is a long term relationship. I feel that we have caught somebody’s attention out there. We will continue to put out the best fights in the world.”
Affliction V.P. Tom Atencio informed the media that the official attendance for the night’s event was 13,228. Atencio also reiterated that in order for the sport to continue to grow, it needs a healthy mix of promotions to take it to the next level. “There has to be competition out there. There can not be one entity.”
Gilbert Yvel commented on his initial strategy with Josh Barnett as well as graciously thanking the CSAC one more time. “I tried to stand up with Josh but he didn’t want to. Thank you, again, to the California State Athletic Commission for letting me get my ass beat (laughs).”
“The Baby Face Assassin” Josh Barnett talked about his fight and a future bout with Fedor. “I did everything that I could to show up and be exciting. We are both out there trying to be the best fighters we can be. I can’t pin my career on waiting to fight (Fedor). I have to fight and win. I don’t give a sh*t about belts or rankings…I just want to go out there and beat people’s asses.”
Paul Buentello compared Kiril Sidellnikov’s chin to that of a well known UFC and PRIDE FC veteran. “My plan was to work the jab, stay away from him and stay busy. Hardest chin I have hit since Gary Goodridge.”
While he came up short in the HDNet main event, Vladimir Matyushenko talked about how he will rebound from his loss to Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. “I am going to take this loss as a lesson for myself for my future training. I had a little groin injury a month ago so that’s why I didn’t take him down.”
Andrei Arlovski put on a great performance and arguably had been winning the bout until the last remaining moments. However, Andrei looked visibly disappointed after the bout. “I felt that every right and jab was on target but I didn’t finish. I have to come back and train harder. Someone will beat him but tonight it wasn’t me. I don’t know what to say. I tried to do something flashy and I paid for it. I don’t know why I changed my tactic and threw the flying knee. One little mistake and I paid for it.”
Vadim Finkelchtein proclaimed that M-1 and Affliction hope to put on several more shows in 2009. “Over the rest of the year we will try to put on three to four more shows.”
Fedor Emelianenko made some of the final comments of the press conference. He spoke on several topics that included Andrei’s boxing skills and the UFC interim heavyweight champion that was in attendance. “I felt after a while I was able to counter his attack and be comfortable. I didn’t feel like I was in danger. I don’t think either one of us was in any danger at any point in time. I have a lot of appreciation for (Frank Mir) and I would like to meet him and hang out with him.”
Be sure to check out PRO MMA’s exclusive post fight press conference photos as well as the photos from the HDNet portion of the broadcast by visiting the PRO MMA (http://promma.info) photo gallery here.