FanHouse Gilbert Yvel

PRIDE veterans Gilbert Yvel and Ricardo Arona, at least for now, have not reached agreements, respectively, with the UFC and Strikeforce.

UFC veteran David Bielkheden mentioned on his blog Wednesday after training in Brazil with Arona and the Brazilian Top Team that his good friend Arona has signed with Strikeforce. But that may be premature as Strikeforce director of communications, Mike Afromowitz, told FanHouse Wednesday that the promotion has not signed Arona to a contract.

There are still many questions that have been left unanswered in the wake of Josh Barnett's positive test for an anabolic steroid, which has forced Affliction to find a new opponent for Fedor Emelianenko on August 1. FanHouse spoke to the California State Athletic Commission's assistant executive officer, Bill Douglas, Wednesday evening to find out more about this situation and what it means for Barnett's MMA future in the United States.

The full interview with Douglas is below.

Ultimate Chaos: Bobby Lashley vs. Bob Sapp was quite possibly the worst MMA show I've ever seen. The production quality of the pay-per-view broadcast was lousy, the undercard fighters weren't ready for prime time, Sapp laid an egg in the main event and Lashley didn't do anything impressive. But I do want to say some nice things about one fighter on Saturday night's card: Gilbert Yvel.

Tim Sylvia's shocking nine-second knockout loss to Ray Mercer on Saturday has proven to be more costly than originally thought. Affliction Entertainment vice president, Tom Atencio, informed FanHouse on Monday that Sylvia has now been taken off the upcoming "Affliction: Trilogy" card. "It's his second knockout in a row, and I don't want to take a chance on anything," Atencio said. "The fight is less than 60 days away."

News and notes from around the world of mixed martial arts:

* A heavyweight bout between Tim Sylvia and Paul Buentello has been penciled in for "Affliction: Trilogy," a source close to Sylvia informed Fanhouse on Friday. A member of Buentello's camp told FanHouse that he already signed the bout agreement and Sylvia will be doing the same shortly. Sylvia was last seen losing in 36 seconds via rear naked choke to Fedor Emelianenko at the first Affliction event last July. Meanwhile, since losing the Strikeforce heavyweight title to Alistair Overeem in November 2007, Buentello has won his last two fights in a row.

Could we see an MMA heavyweight tournament this year featuring names like Fedor Emelianenko, Mirko Cro Cop Filipovic, Alistair Overeem, Sergei Kharitonov and Semmy Schilt? Probably not, but we can dream, can't we?

Our friends at Free Fight Videos have a couple posts up, based on reports from Sportal.hr, that suggest that Cro Cop has re-upped with Dream, and that Dream's relationship with Fedor, Overeem, Kharitonov, Schilt, Gilbert Yvel and a few other big guys could make for an amazing heavyweight tournament.

Welcome to the FanHouse live blog of tonight's Affliction: Day of Reckoning pay-per-view undercard, where we'll have live updates and round-by-round scoring of all the fights: Josh Barnett vs. Gilbert Yvel, Matt Lindland vs. Vitor Belfort, Renato Babalu Sobral vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, Kirill Sidelnikov vs. Paul Buentello, Jay Hieron vs. Jason High and Dan Lauzon vs. Bobby Green.

If you just want to know who won the fights and how, check out the Affliction results post. The pay-per-view show and the live blog have started below.

With just a couple of weeks to go before the Day of Reckoning show, Affliction is already planning to pair the winner of its co-main event (Josh Barnett vs. Gilbert Yvel) against the winner of its main event (Fedor Emelianenko vs. Andrei Arlovski).

That means, if the two favorites win, we'll finally get to see the Barnett vs. Fedor fight that fans have been hoping to see (and many have accused Barnett of ducking) for years.

It also means two friends could be fighting each other for the generally recognized heavyweight championship in MMA, and on a call today to promote Day of Reckoning, I asked Barnett about his personal relationship with Fedor.

"When we were in Japan we spent time together, we'd go out and have dinner and hang out together, we'd wish each other happy birthdays, and do the stuff that regular friends do," Barnett said. "We understand in this sport, of course, people will develop friendships. But at the same time, in our business, you'll fight, and we're OK with that. ... I just make sure I'm in good shape to fight whoever's in front of me. If I were to fight Fedor I think it'd be a great match and I don't think there'd be any problem."

There could be a problem, however, with Barnett's fight with Yvel. Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio acknowledged it's possible that a replacement may need to be found for Yvel, who still hasn't been cleared by the California State Athletic Commission.

"I have a couple people in mind if this doesn't work out," Atencio said. "Josh is preparing for (Yvel), but I also know that Josh will fight anybody out there."

The full Affliction: Day of Reckoning fight card has been released, and it features a great heavyweight fight between Fedor Emelianenko and Andrei Arlovski in the main event, as well as a not-so-great heavyweight fight between Josh Barnett and Gilbert Yvel in the co-main event.

The card is separated into two programs, with the first six fights being shown live on pay-per-view and the final five fights being shown live on pay-per-view. The event takes place on January 24, 2009 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. The full card is below.