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Jun 15, 2009 - 2:29:37 PM By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief Tim Sylvia's bout with Ray Mercer has ended up costing him a whole lot more than he bargained for. The set up was already derided by many fans heading into Saturday's Adrenaline III event in Alabama, and the way in which it ended put an irreparable dent into Sylvia's image.
It's now cost him not only more of his image and standing in the MMA world, but now a likely large payday that would have come on Affliction's third event, "Trilogy," on August 1st. Sylvia was scheduled to face Paul Buentello, but a report from Ariel Helwani at MMA FanHouse states Sylvia's off that card.
Quoting Affliction Entertainment VP Tom Atencio, Helwani reports that Sylvia was taken out for health concerns after the knockout loss. "It's his second knockout in a row, and I don't want to take a chance on anything...The fight is less than 60 days away," Atencio said in the article.
Buentello will remain on the card per the report, likely facing the winner of Pedro Rizzo vs. Gilbert Yvel from their June 27th bout, assuming the winner is healthy enough to compete on August 1st.
Penick's Analysis: Tim Sylvia made the biggest mistake of his life in taking this fight with Mercer. He embarrassed himself and in some ways the sport of mixed martial arts by showing up far over his normal fight weight and getting dropped like a tree in the woods, and not only that but he now cost himself a likely mid six-figures for a fight on Affliction's third card. Considering he made $800,000 for thirty seconds of work against Fedor you'd have to assume he wasn't taking a precipitous drop in pay for his next appearance. Now he's got zero name to sell to the MMA fans that will actually purchase Affliction's cards. Like I said yesterday, this fight with Mercer was just a disaster for Sylvia, and it's just getting worse.
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