Barnett Talk Dominates Affliction "Trilogy" Conference Call

I called in today to the Affliction Media Conference Call to hear from Jay Hieron, Mark Hominick, Vitor Belfort, and Chris Horodecki. I even had some questions of my own. Nope.

Instead, the call was "abbreviated," explained Kelly Swanson, and turned out to be 20 minutes of Affliction VP Tom Atencio - who did his best not to sound pissed off about losing out on Barnett vs. Fedor - dangling a rib-eye steak before a pack of detail-hungry MMA journalists/bloggers.

Here are some of the highlights from the call:

"...it’s our understanding that Josh has taken further measures to validate the results of the test. And if the results stand, then we’re deeply disappointed." (A second sample - taken at the time of the first - is being tested now.)

"We are in the negotiation period with a few fighters..." (He offered no names.)

"This card on itself is one of the biggest cards in MMA history..."

"The bottom line is, I need to get past this bump in the road."

"If it comes back positive, you know, then that’s on him. That’s something he has to continue to move forward with. It doesn’t affect me in any way, shape, or form."

"Until I have a contract finalized and it’s done, I’m just not going to say anything. It doesn’t make sense for me to get anyone’s hopes up….To be honest, I’m not even worried about it."

For full coverage, check out Full Contact Fighter.

(photo from Josh Barnett's MySpace page.)