PRO MMA (promma.info) has been notified that in the wake of Affliction’s number one heavyweight contender, Josh Barnett, testing positive for a banned substance, Affliction Entertainment has cancelled their August 1st “Trilogy” PPV card.

Although numerous fighters stepped up, including Vitor Belfort, Brett Rogers, and Jeff Monson, vying to replace Barnett on short notice, Affliction’s upper management did not feel as if they had enough time to find and properly promote any replacement for such a huge fight on such short notice.

“Finding an opponent for the number one ranked MMA heavyweight champion in such a short period of time was a huge endeavor and I’m thrilled at the amount of fighters willing to take on this challenge,” Affliction’s VP Tom Atencio said in a press release. “But in the end, we just didn’t have enough time to promote a new fight to our standards.”

Attencio reportedly began making calls this morning to alert the rest of the fighters scheduled to appear on the “Trilogy” card of the cancellation. Currently no date has been set to reschedule the event.  Here is the official press release we received today:

Seal Beach, California (July 24, 2009) – The highly anticipated fight between Fedor Emelianenko and Josh Barnett at the Affliction Trilogy MMA show has been cancelled. The mega fight was scheduled to take place at the Honda Center in Anaheim on August 1st. The unforeseen license denial of Josh Barnett gave Affliction limited time to find a replacement and adequately promote the new main event.

“Finding an opponent for the number one ranked MMA heavy weight champion in such a short period of time was a huge endeavor and I’m thrilled at the amount of fighters willing to take on this challenge,” said Tom Atencio, vice president of Affliction Entertainment. “But in the end, we just didn’t have enough time to promote a new fight to our standards.”

Affliction is deeply disappointed that the under card is also cancelled through no fault of its own. Affliction stands behind the company’s brands and delivers premium products to the most passionate and loyal customers. Affliction’s first priority is to ensure that all future events live up to the company’s high standards.

Ticket holders for the canceled event should contact Ticketmaster or ticketmaster.com for a refund.

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