TOM ATENCIO DETAILS AFFLICTION'S FINAL HOURS

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TOM ATENCIO DETAILS AFFLICTION'S FINAL HOURS
Tuesday, August 18, 2009 - by Damon Martin - MMAWeekly.com

The final hours of Affliction as a promotion will go down infamously as the one time powerful mixed martial arts sponsor turned fight organization canceled its show dubbed "Trilogy" just days before the event was set to take place in California.

A positive steroid test from main event participant Josh Barnett led to the decision to scrap the whole show. Affliction vice president Tom Atencio told MMAWeekly Radio in an exclusive interview what the deciding factor was to call a halt to the show entirely.

"We were scrambling looking for a fighter, quite a few guys stepped up to the plate who were wanting the fight. Guys were doing it for a reasonable amount of money, too, which was cool, but just after talking to Showtime, after talking to everybody involved, it just, we couldn't have done it," Atencio commented. "It was a bummer, probably one of the worst things that's ever happened to me."

While much of the MMA world immediately pointed the finger at Barnett for the positive test, Atencio says at the end of the day, it's just business and he holds no ill will towards the former UFC heavyweight champion.

"Could things have been handled differently? Yeah, for sure, but it wasn't and it is what it is. I just move on. I don't look at the past. I only look at the future," Atencio said about the Barnett situation. "Now it's time to turn this around and start sponsoring fighters and get back to what I was doing. I think it's good. We sponsor a lot of great fighters, and a lot of fighters were bummed out when we left the arena and now we're back."

The head of the Affliction fight promotion also says that he has spoken with Barnett about the situation since the event was canceled, and all in all he chalks it up to bad timing for everything.

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