Taurosevicius: Affliction "Can't Just Go Out Like That"

I just spoke to Deividas Taurosevicius, who was scheduled to fight Mark Hominick on the Affliction "Trilogy" undercard, about the event being cancelled. And I quote:

"I can’t say nothing now. I don’t know too much (about) what is going on right now. We got the call…right now the show is cancelled. What is next, I have no idea."

"All that work, and at the last second - boom. All because of the one fighter: Josh."

"Of course I’m mad, but what are you going to do. Everybody’s on the same page; all the fighters are waiting for their paychecks. We’ll see, we’ll see what they’ll offer, what it’s going to be. They can’t just go out like that."

I also spoke to Deividas' manager, Neil Wolfson, who, despite his best efforts, remains in the dark.

"The only thing that I know is, like everyone else, I’m scrambling. I was notified today that the Affliction show was called off, and the information I was because of a lot of the sponsorship falling out because of the situation with Barnett, and not being able to get a suitable replacement for Fedor."

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.)