In what will surely go down as one of the biggest news weeks in mixed martial arts history, Affliction Entertainment yesterday announced that they had agreed to cease operations as a fight promoter and have renegotiated to come back to the UFC as an official fighter sponsor.

The surprising news came on the heels of main event fighter Josh Barnet testing positive a few days ago for a banned substance and being forced out of his clash with reigning WAMMA Heavyweight Champion Fedor Emelianenko. While Barnett’s removal from the card certainly hit the promotion hard, several reports surfaced in the following hours that other fighters, most notably former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Vitor Belfort as well as Strikeforce heavyweight prospect Brett Rogers had thrown their names into the running to fight Emelianenko.

Not only did neither of these potential bouts materialize, but the entire August 1 Affliction: Trilogy card, which was full with 22 fighters, was cancelled in the wake of Barnett’s removal. Insider sources have suggested that Showtime, the Pay Per View broadcast provider for Affliction Entertainment, played a large role in the decision to cancel the event, which would have been the third card put together by the California-based promotion.

Perhaps more noteworthy than the collapse of Affliction’s fight promotion was their subsequent announcement that they had reached a new deal with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, a few days ago their chief rival, to allow their fighters to once again don Affliction clothing on their walks into the Octagon.

In a joint statement issued by the UFC and a representative from Affliction, both parties seemed to accept the agreement in civil-if subdued tones, with UFC President Dana White saying, “we are looking forward to working together to promote the sport.”

White later announced the UFC’s decision to hold a press conference on Friday, July 31 in order to address the fallout of this momentous occasion and what it will mean for the UFC and mixed martial arts as a whole.

Of course, the most prevalent question on the minds of every fight fan in the world centers on the man who was to be featured in Trilogy’s main event, Russian heavyweight phenomenon Fedor Emelianenko. While representatives from M-1 Global, the managing force behind Emelianenko stressed that they would work to get their fighter back into the ring as soon as possible, fans want to know if a long sought-after deal with the UFC will materialize in the coming weeks due to Affliction’s collapse.

While many of the top fighters who were set to appear on the card will have little difficulty finding contracts with the UFC or Strikeforce, several lesser-known names, such as Dan Lauzon, Chris Horodecki and others are unlikely to find a new fight home in such short order.

Stay tuned to Idealmma.com for details on the fallout of Affliction’s collapse and the fate of the fighter contracts owned by the former fight promoter.