Things are getting interesting in the battle over mixed martial arts supremacy.

Or should I say egos?

This past weekend, UFC vs. Affliction Round 1 took place. While both shows were very successful, I'd have to say that Affliction was an early victor. It had a pretty strong gate ($2.1 million), it had 100,000 PPV buys (according to its VP) and had the better card overall. And in the main event, its pound-for-pound champion Fedor Emelianenko made a better impression than the UFC's Anderson Silva -- but only slightly.

It was the UFC that decided to put together a last-minute event Saturday to go head-to-head with Affliction's debut, as a shot against the MMA clothing company that entered the promotions game. Now Affliction is giving the UFC a taste of its own medicine. Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports is reporting that while the UFC has two events booked for October -- in England on Oct. 18 and in Chicago on Oct. 25 -- Affliction will hold its next event on Oct. 11. And it will be in its rival's backyard: at the Thomas & Mack Center on the campus of UNLV.

That is the same venue that recently held an modestly-attended ESPN-promoted joint boxing and MMA event, one that included Canadian John Alessio. But more importantly, it is not coincidentally smack dab in the middle of the UFC's home base in Las Vegas -- while its organizers will be on their way overseas.

Emelianenko will be back to make his first title defence of his new WAMMA (World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts) belt against Andrei Arlovski, who was also an impressive winner.

Affliction has done a couple of interesting things as it tries to establish itself as true contender to the UFC, who has had held an MMA stronghold for some time now. It has aligned itself with WAMMA - an international sanctioning body looking to bring unity across organizations. Doing this is as much a symbolic move to allow them to call Emelianenko the first "true" world champion. It's also another jab at the UFC, which has said it isn't interested in being involved with such an "umbrella federation."

But one of the things Affliction is doing may turn out to jeopardize its long-term viability. If you look at the paydays from its first show, you can see they are sparing no expense in terms of salaries (there's still something to be desired on the production quality.)

Emelianenko: $300,000 (which you figure is only a portion of his true earnings, before sponsor or under-the-table bonuses),

Tim Sylvia: $800,000 (for a loss!)

Arlovski: $750,000 (including $250,000 win bonus)

Bem Rothwell $250,000 (also a loss)

Barnett and Lindland: $300,000 each (no win bonuses)

I know they have the wealth of Donald Trump to back them, but it's a totally different approach than that of the UFC, who has been in the business long enough that it knows how to sustain it. It will be interesting to see if they are able to keep up throwing so much money at its top fighters.

This back-and-forth battle between heavyweights is really taking the spotlight off of the other organization that recently made the most noise here in North America, EliteXC, which, oh by the way, is holding the second of its live primetime shows on CBS this Saturday. Don't forget, its first one was the highest rated MMA event ever (over 6 million people watched it, compared to the roughly 4 million that watch Saturday's free UFC Fight Night).

Unfortunately, the focus is elsewhere right now, and this second EliteXC card doesn't have the star-studded draw of the first one. There's no Kimbo, no Gina Carano and no Phil Baroni. Of course, that may turn out to be a good thing: No gimmicks, just good fights.

We also can't forget about Mark Cuban, who when he first joined the MMA world looked like he might be a player who would throw tons of money into it. But the HDNet Fights brand has since decided to stick to programming rather than promotion. Cuban will be in Edmonton on Friday for the third of three MFC events to air on HDNet, and the potential for the MFC promotion to grow, both in Canada and in North America is quite strong.

Add another promotion which is working with HDNet and is picking up some steam -- the Japanese-based promotion Dream, run in part by the former owners of Pride, and you've got another circuit to keep your eyes on. Monday it held its Dream 5 Lightweight Grand Prix, which veteran and fan favourite Joachim Hansen came in as an alternate and won over top-ranked 155-pound fighter Shinya Aoki.

If there was ever a time that the UFC needed to start taking some of the other promotions out there seriously, it's now.