Tom Atencio: 1-0 in MMAAffliction's Tom Atencio to Fight MMA 06-28-09

The quintessential t-shirt tycoon of our year, Affliction front-man Tom Atencio (1-0), recently revealed in an interview, about a week or so back, that he intended to fight (not promote) on an MMA card.

Details have finally been made available, and Atencio’s opponent has been named.

Atencio will jump into the cage at “Ultimate Chaos”, a pay-per-view event that will take place at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, Mississippi, the night of June 27th.

His opponent will be like-record athlete Randy Hedderick.

Atencio recently fielded questions regarding this recent advancement, and took the opportunity to light up Dana White yet again, getting his dollar’s worth of a chance to speak at a press conference, and the increased profile of what he’d have to say.

"I've been seen in front of the cameras before as far as the business side, but it's time to fight," Atencio boasted to those in the press conference crowd. "I'm doing something Dana White won't do and that's fight.”

Dana has actually tried to fight before, just not MMA. At one time, Dana challenged former UFC Light-Heavyweight Champion Tito Ortiz to a boxing match, with the proceeds intended to be donated to charity. Ortiz reportedly no-showed at the weigh-ins.

“(Dana) talks like a fighter, so why doesn't he fight? I'm stepping up to the plate and win, lose or draw I attempted it,” Atencio declared.

“I don't ever think he would fight."

Atencio indulges himself in more nitpicking. Adding even more fuel to what’s become an inferno that burns between Affliction LLC and the Zuffa’s Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Taking into consideration that Atencio’s recent anticipations regarding Affliction’s future in MMA have verged more on hope than on promise in his latest interviews, the keen eye can’t help but wander skeptically in lieu of this news.

Is Atencio looking to increase his profile in similar fashion to how Dana White’s profile increased alongside the UFC’s? He might need a reality TV show with a leading cable network in a non-competitive time-slot for that. Good luck.

Is Atencio’s most recent act merely some kind of publicity stunt to keep the profile of his company fresh on the minds of fans during what could be a significant lull between events for their organization?

Though Atencio has gone on record as stating that he’d like to see world-class heavyweights Fedor Emelianenko (31-0) and Josh Barnett (25-5) go at it sometime this August, it was announced that Barnett and Fedor would be fighting in August by M-1 Global, who just this past week, hosted an event where an exhibition grappling match between Shinya Aoki and Emelianenko took place.

Though Affliction was named in vague detail, it’s unclear at this time whether or not this event will take place in Japan or in the United States, whether it will be a co-promoted Affliction / M-1 effort, or which of the two will actually be hosting the event. The announcement seems to coincide with the organization’s intentions to see Barnett and Fedor matched up in the eighth month of this year.

Affliction’s first event, “Banned”, was a co-promoted event, and was billed as “In Association with M-1.”

Fedor’s manager and longtime friend, Vadim Finklechtein, is the owner of M-1 Global.