M-1 and Fedor Emelianenko have filed a suit against Affliction Clothing, Affliction Entertainment and 50 unnamed John Doe's in the Central District of California stemming from Affliction Entertainment's cancellation of the Affliction Trilogy event that had been scheduled for August 1st at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA. News of the suit, which was filed on October 28th, was first reported by Bloody Elbow.

The event was cancelled after a search for a replacement opponent for Fedor Emelianenko turned up empty. Emelianenko's original opponent, Josh Barnett, tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs during a pre-fight screening with the California State Athletic Commission and was pulled from the bout just a week before the event.

In the suit however, M-1 alleges that Affliction Entertainment, M-1 and Strikeforce had entered into an agreement the day before the cancellation that would have seen Brett Rogers step into the place of Barnett to fight Emelianenko at the Affliction Trilogy event, a fight that ultimately never took place.

The suit also charges that Affliction Entertainment was actively pursuing a deal that would see them shut down their promotional operations in return for being allowed back into the lucrative sponsorship field in the UFC and that if the UFC deal closed, the event would be cancelled. If the UFC deal failed to close, Affliction would choose to promote the Rogers/Emelianenko fight.

While they are not named as defendants in the suit, M-1 does a lot to suggest that the UFC had a large part to play in the cancellation of the event by negotiating the deal with Affliction while Affliction was attempting to negotiate a deal with Emelianenko, Strikeforce and Rogers for a last-minute main event.

The language of the complaint seems to lean towards M-1 believing that the UFC was involved in a conspiracy to convince Affliction to breach its contractual obligations regarding a third show though, as stated before, does not name the UFC as defendants in the case.

Where all of this will shake out remains to be seen, but suffice to say that it should be an interesting next few months in the courtrooms of California whether or not the UFC is brought into the case. Rogers and Emelianenko will finally meet on Saturday night just outside of Chicago, IL in the main event of Strikeforce's first CBS primetime broadcast.