Outside of T-Shirt sales, it turns out that Affliction's Todd Beard has been quite the businessman.

As a result of some recent legal action taken on behalf of Randy and Kim Couture to achieve a legal restraining order against Mr. Beard, some details of his extra-curricular activity outside of the t-shirt market have come to light in a most unanticipated turn of events for the newly-developed MMA promotion.

Denise Zullo, who has a child with Mr. Beard, has testified nuder oath in the past that she was threatened and intimidated by him in the past, as well as struck by him while pregnant in 1997. In December of that year during a request for a restraining order against him, she testified that she had sprayed him with Pepper Spray in an attempt to deflect “another of his violent, drunken outbursts.”

As recently as this year, in October, a man by the name of Karlos Shaverdian alleged that Beard had made threats to kill him before Bellflower, California judge. On Oct. 28th, Beard withdrew what would've been a not guilty plea, and instead pleaded no contest to charges of criminal threats. Judge Charles Q. Clay III found Beard guilty, subsequently scheduling sentencing for January 28th of 2009.

Past legal endeavors of Mr. Beard's also include include a 30-month stay in a federal prison, from 1993 to 1995. His sentence came via three guilty pleas to felony counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, and mail fraud.

Donald Trump, Affliction's multi-zillion dollar partner and a key figurehead in their ongoing MMA promotional operations, holds a gaming license in New Jersey. By laws both federal and state, gaming licensees are not permitted to do business with convicted felons under any circumstances.

The position this leaves Donald Trump in, as a businessman, is one we've seen him act sternly and without emotion towards, as qualified underlings are ushered out of his boardroom in season after season of his hit television show, The Apprentice. Affliction faces the possibility of losing the investment capital of their flagship investor at this point, given this new information that was most likely either withheld or conveniently not brought up during their talks to form a union and tackle Zuffa's monolithic MMA industry entity.

As a founding partner of the Affliction clothing line, Todd Beard is evidently unlikely to relinquesh profitable and comfortable positioning within the company for anything other than that which would appease his own means. Likewise, the chances of co-founding partner Tom Atencio asking Beard to step down is as likely as Batman throwing Robin under the bus, despite his storied past and the unfortunate situation their organization now surveys as a result. The inevitability of this news leaves Affliction's chances of continuing to pursue opportunities within the Mixed Martial Arts market entirely up in the air.