Sylvia-Fedor more than just a title fight

Tim Sylvia talks about Saturday night as a night history will be made. When he faces Fedor Emelianenko, it will be for the first heavyweight championship belt that isn't really a company title.

But there's history much larger than a heavyweight title fight on Saturday. It's the battle between the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the company that has been the dominant brand in North America for 15 years, against Affliction, a promotion that has never run a show, but has spent major league money trying to make a splash immediately.

The sport's first full-blown battle of two major live events airing nationally at the same time, Super Saturday sees Sylvia, a two-time UFC heavyweight champion, facing Emelianenko, essentially the linear world heavyweight champion, who hasn't lost in his last 25 outings.

The bigger battle is one company trying to maintain dominance in a business that, at least in North America, it created, and another, featuring four former heavyweight champions (Emelianenko, Sylvia and former UFC champs Josh Barnett and Andrei Arlovski), trying to not just get a foot in the door, but kick down its hinges.

The eternal truth of the MMA business is that to survive on a national basis and actually make money, you can't do it without the ability to draw viewers to pay-per-view. You can't do pay-per-view without a television vehicle, and with the exception of UFC, even with a television vehicle, nobody has been successful in doing pay-per-view.

If there is a lesson of the weekend, it is that for anyone else to be successful on PPV, it won't come without a fight from UFC.

The fight pits UFC and Spike TV teaming up for 11 straight hours of UFC programming, with taped fights, and ending hours later, then "Affliction: Banned," which runs one hour on Fox Sports Net at 8 p.m. Eastern time, followed by a scheduled four-hour pay-per-view that is headlined by Emelianenko vs. Sylvia for the created-for-this-match World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts heavyweight title, as well as a live performance by the band Megadeth.

The WAMMA title is from the first independent sanctioning organization in the sport. All MMA championships up to this point have always been recognized only by the company promoting the fights.

"This is for the best heavyweight in the world," said Sylvia. "We're making history. Eventually everyone is going to have to jump on board or their belts won't have any respect in the sport."

UFC has publicly tried to downplay its motives. It's just coincidental, supposedly, that UFC president Dana White added a free three-hour show starting at 9 p.m. – the same time the Affliction pay-per-view starts – just weeks ahead of time for a promotion that usually plans its dates months in advance. That card is based around seeing UFC middleweight champion, Anderson Silva, the Yahoo! Sports No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the sport, move up to the marquee light heavyweight division to face James Irvin.

Unlike all the UFC live events on Spike in the past, this will air live nationally. Normally UFC goes live in most of the country, but airs on a three-hour delay on the West Coast, so the show airs in a more favorable time slot and draws the most viewers, particularly since UFC's popularity is strongest in the Pacific time zone. The entire Spike network staggers its feed, but for this night, UFC goes live out West at 6 p.m., so they are sacrificing all-important ratings points, in the markets they are strongest, so their show can go head-to-head, coast-to-coast with the Affliction show.

Affliction's success rides mainly on whether enough people are interested in seeing Emelianenko, the greatest heavyweight in MMA history, face his, at least on-paper, toughest test in years. With what is believed to be the largest payroll for a show in North American MMA history, a lot is riding on the show, and most were pessimistic about their chances on pay-per-view even before UFC ran opposition. But if anything, UFC running opposition also increased the awareness of this show.

Promoters claim they have a $2 million advance for the live show at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. If true, they would be in line to have the largest non-UFC gate ever in North America. But there have been credibility issues, as Affliction has claimed in several media appearances that the event is sold out. As of late Wednesday, you could still purchase third row ringside tickets, as well as tickets in every price range.

Sylvia, 24-4, came within what he calls a mental lapse away from being UFC heavyweight champion for a third time. In his Feb. 2 match with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, he used his boxing skills to win the first two rounds, but Nogueira got it to the ground in round three and finished Sylvia off with a guillotine.

After that fight, Sylvia parted ways with UFC. Both sides were far apart on contract terms. He had one fight left on his deal, which paid him $100,000 per match plus a $100,000 win bonus, numbers far below what he's making with Affliction. Both sides agreed to a release since Sylvia was offered more than UFC was interested in paying him, and it served no purpose to book another fight for him if he was leaving anyway. While Sylvia has nothing negative to say about UFC, unlike many name fighters who have left the organization, he claims he will never sign an exclusive contract with one organization again.

Sylvia has been concentrating his recent training at the Pat Miletich gym in Bettendorf, Iowa, on defending against judo and Brazilian jiu jitsu.

He's brought in a BJJ coach from Brazil whom he doesn't want to name, working the ground both from an offensive and defensive standpoint, and has trained heavily with judo guys, since Emelianenko's background is in judo and his takedowns are usually upper body throws derived from that sport.

"I don't have one guy exactly like Fedor," said Sylvia. "Obviously, nobody is like him. I've been working the jiu-jitsu guys, judo guys, strikers who throw those same loopy kind of punches. I'm trying to put it all together come fight time."

Sylvia is the underdog, as would be any fighter that faces the 27-1 (1 no-contest) former PRIDE champion from Stary Oskol, Russia. Sylvia will go in with close to an eight-inch height edge and a significant weight edge. His strategy is simple.

"I don't think my game plan has ever been much of a secret," he said. Stand-up and brawl. Avoid the takedown as much as possible and try to knock him out. I don't see any weaknesses in his game. I think my size and reach is going to play a factor."

Sylvia raised a lot of eyebrows when he talked about potentially doing pro boxing as well.

"Absolutely, if the money was there, I believe I could beat any heavyweight boxer out there at his own game," he said. "I'm that confident in my stand-up. I'd love for some boxing promotion to approach me with one of the top heavyweights because I'd probably beat them."

But Sylvia is not the biggest opponent Fedor has vanquished, with high-profile wins over 7-foot Semmy Schilt and 7-2 ½ Choi Hong-man.

"I have the style to beat Fedor," he said. "I think my strong takedown defense is beneficial in this fight. I think my striking power and reach he hasn't seen yet. He's fought Choi and Schilt, but they don't have the striking ability I have and they don't have the takedown defense I have.

I'm not lost when it goes to the ground."

There are also some rules he hopes will be in his favor. Unlike in Japan, where Emelianenko has fought most of his career, moves like stomps, knees to the head on the ground and soccer kicks to the face are banned.

Elbows, illegal where Emelianenko has fought, are legal here. However, the match will be in a ring, where Emelianenko has fought, and not a cage, where all of Sylvia's matches the past several years have been contested. The fight is scheduled for five, five-minute rounds, a time frame Sylvia has fought many times, and Emelianenko has never fought.

Sylvia feels the time limit favors him. He doesn't feel the cage is a detriment because he believes his style is more conducive to the ring.

"I fought 80 percent of my first 15 fights in a ring," he noted about his pre-UFC career. "I fought better in a ring. I perform real well in a ring. I like fighting in a ring a little better. Plus it's easier to cut somebody off in a ring."