In the last few days, news leaked out of a potential January 17th UFC show in Dublin.
Rumors have already started flying about fights for the show, and while fighters have been approached about participating on the card, the show is not confirmed. It is yet to be confirmed because the whole purpose of the show is to counter program Affliction in January. At the same time, Affliction is still yet to finalize a date because they do not want to be counter-programmed by the UFC.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. They could leak a fake date and then reschedule for later, but then the UFC could do the same thing. The longer they wait, the less time there is to promote the show. Frankly, I think the competition lead to a lot more press coverage for the show in July, and I’m still not convinced one way or the other whether it hurt or helped Affliction in the end.
Affliction should just pick a date and start promoting it. Waiting longer does them no favors. I think it is a mistake for the UFC to counter them at this point, the story of UFC vs. Golden Boy will get a lot of press, and probably bring more attention to the Affliction show than it would otherwise get.