FanHouse Affliction

Jay Glazer loves covering the NFL for FOX Sports and has quickly developed into one of the best in the business at doing so.

However, while his colleagues catch up on some rest during the offseason, Glazer continues to mix it up with some of the best mixed martial arts fighters in the world at Arizona Combat Sports. And Glazer isn't just some celebrity who likes to hang out with fighters. He has a 1-1 professional MMA record, as well (his last fight was in 2003). Today, whether he's doing play-by-play for Affliction, or walking out to the Octagon with UFC light heavyweight Ryan Bader, Glazer has certainly become an MMA personality in his own right.

FanHouse caught up with Glazer on Thursday at the NCAA Football 10 party in New York to talk about his love for all things MMA and his thoughts on whether his friend Chuck Liddell has fought for the last time. The video interview is after the jump.

Affliction Entertainment VP Tom Atencio is stepping back into a mixed martial arts cage. However, surprisingly, he will not be competing on an Affliction pay-per-view telecast.

Atencio has agreed to compete on the upcoming June 27 MMA pay-per-view show at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, Miss. Yesterday, FanHouse reported that Bobby Lashley vs. Bob Sapp would headline that event.

"They don't think it's right for me to fight for my own event," Atencio said when reached in Russia and asked why he wasn't competing on an Affliction card. "I love this industry and I just want to fight.

A week ago I wrote that I thought American fans were likely to ignore the first Affliction mixed martial arts show. As Affliction tries to make sure that doesn't happen, they've released the first promotional video:

That video is a good sign: The production values are solid, they've spared no expense (the voice of Michael Buffer ain't cheap), and, most importantly, they're keeping the focus on the simple fact that they've got a great lineup of fighters.

Still, you have to wonder: Will it all add up to enough pay-per-view buys to make this show a success? Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia is a very good heavyweight fight, and Matt Lindland, Josh Barnett and Renato "Babalu" Sobral are all appealing names on the card. But it's not UFC. And so far, no MMA promotion other than UFC has succeeded in the United States.