Fedor's crazy Russian Management strikes again

[eyeh8u]

i thought diana white was banning all fighters that sign on to be part of the upcoming EA MMA game, the cover fighter for the game is gonna be Fedor

[dbreiden83080]

When he did say something noteworthy, his translator missed it. Asked why he should be considered any different than scores of world-class fighters who have agreed to fight in the UFC, Emelianenko said it was a matter of timing.

"When I first read the UFC contract that was offered two years ago, I clearly understood they were trying to [expletive] me," he said defiantly. "If we got an offer two years ago that we received yesterday, maybe we would agree. But not in today's situation, we could not accept that offer."

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2009/8/1/...e-ufc-tried-to

So 5 mil a fight might have worked 2 years ago but NOT now huh buddy, whatever..

[polandprzem]

I was thinking about Fedor and his face to face negotiations and a translator. I thought UFC will have their own ?/??/

[polandprzem]

http://www.cagepotato.com/m-1’s-jerr...ble-conclusion


http://insidefights.com/2009/07/31/jerry-millen-idiot/

[Evan]

As for Fedor...I suspect we have 6 months of insane back & forth rumors ahead of us.

^ a reminder

[dbreiden83080]

^ a reminder

On the UFC side i think it is done if you go bye Dana's word. They have a take it or leave it offer on the table for Fedor. So all the negotiating for them is done, they are never going to co-promote.. If they want the deal, they can call the UFC and accept it..

[Evan]

On the UFC side i think it is done if you go bye Dana's word. They have a take it or leave it offer on the table for Fedor. So all the negotiating for them is done, they are never going to co-promote.. If they want the deal, they can call the UFC and accept it..

I agree with this.

In my mind this entire issue rests with Showtime.

Scott Coker does not over pay fighters and he is sick of being used as a spring board to get better contracts in other orgs like o and Josh have recently done.

So it all rests on showtime's willingness to fork out money via PPV's. All they will do is look at the appalling PPV numbers that have been the Fedor fights and laugh.

so there we are back at the UFC eventually.

[dbreiden83080]

I agree with this.

In my mind this entire issue rests with Showtime.

Scott Coker does not over pay fighters and he is sick of being used as a spring board to get better contracts in other orgs like o and Josh have recently done.

So it all rests on showtime's willingness to fork out money via PPV's. All they will do is look at the appalling PPV numbers that have been the Fedor fights and laugh.

so there we are back at the UFC eventually.

In your mind Evan why does M1 hang on to this Co-Promote thing so hard? The UFC will give M1 lots of pub with T-Shirts and apparell? So if they Co-Promote with Strikeforce it still is not a deal like the UFC is offering. They can't put on a show that will draw over a mil PPV buys. Co-Promoting only makes sense if Fedor sells a lot of PPV's and he can only do that in the UFC..

[robbie380]

In your mind Evan why does M1 hang on to this Co-Promote thing so hard? The UFC will give M1 lots of pub with T-Shirts and apparell? So if they Co-Promote with Strikeforce it still is not a deal like the UFC is offering. They can't put on a show that will draw over a mil PPV buys. Co-Promoting only makes sense if Fedor sells a lot of PPV's and he can only do that in the UFC..

Does anyone know how copromotion worked under affliction? I heard fedors bags saying they want to share 50% in the profits and losses. Affliction clearly got run over financially so where did m1 experience any losses?

[djohn14]

Does anyone know how copromotion worked under affliction? I heard fedors bags saying they want to share 50% in the profits and losses. Affliction clearly got run over financially so where did m1 experience any losses?

I seeing you posting on here more and more. Good to have you, always good to get more openions and what not. However I cant answer your question as I have no knowledege of how the businesses are run.

[dbreiden83080]

Does anyone know how copromotion worked under affliction? I heard fedors bags saying they want to share 50% in the profits and losses. Affliction clearly got run over financially so where did m1 experience any losses?

I don't know exactly but it sounds like what M1 wants is for the cards Fedor is on, to also have other M1 fighters be on there as well. So if it is Brock and Fedor in the main event, it's not UFC such and such, it's something like M1/UFC present, and share in all the profits. That's obviously not ever happening. But the deal they would get elsewhere will be worse than what UFC has offered..

[robbie380]

I seeing you posting on here more and more. Good to have you, always good to get more openions and what not. However I cant answer your question as I have no knowledege of how the businesses are run.

Thanks for the welcome.

Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this and become internet mma heroes. All I can tell from the negotiations is that fedor and his team have become faaaaaar to greedy and used to organizations bending over backwards for him and his oppressive demands. As this has gone on I continue to doubt more and more the idea that fedor is not knowledgeable of what his mgmt is doing. Fedor is not a dumb guy and I can't believe he is just being used as a pawn for m1s greed.

In my mind I can't see fedor signing a strikeforce deal because I can't see them destroying their organization that has existed for over 20 years for 1 fighter. Btw is strikeforce profitable? Also I see no reason why strikeforce and ufc can't coexist so I don't see why they would have to throw a hail mary to sign fedor if they are profitable and already have a stable of very good (just below the ufc) fighters.

I can see m1 putting together some bs japan card with roided barnett v fedor but that would be dangerous for them since they might actually lose money if they can't find another org to copromote aka leach off of so they are protected from losses. I dunno in the end I see this back and forth persisting in the near future and fedor/m1 realizing that ufc has taken over and that the ufc did offer a great deal for fedor but not "m1".

[dbreiden83080]

I seeing you posting on here more and more. Good to have you, always good to get more openions and what not.

Yes, Robbie knows his stuff, good having him here..

[IX_Equilibrium]

[djohn14]

Nice haha

[Evan]

In your mind Evan why does M1 hang on to this Co-Promote thing so hard? .

for the life of me I can't figure it out. My guess is they think they can take Japan and Europe by storm with MMA given a jump start? I dunno.

[robbie380]

for the life of me I can't figure it out. My guess is they think they can take Japan and Europe by storm with MMA given a jump start? I dunno.

or they don't want to give up on a model that has worked very well for them. i think they may eventually see the writing on the wall that the ufc is now in control and won't bend over to sign fedor. also they do have 2 major orgs they can still try to take advantage of with dream and strikeforce. neither have the ability to beat a ufc deal but it's worth a shot for m-1. if it doesn't work out then they just come back to the ufc deal.

[Evan]

or they don't want to give up on a model that has worked very well for them. .

How has it worked?

[robbie380]

How has it worked?

granted they have not had stability with the organizations they have been associated with but somehow they have been able to avoid taking losses on these copromotions. the guy in the sherdog article that was posted on page 5 stated that m-1 has a "pithy cash position". an odd word to use for cash but i am guessing he meant they had an abundant amount of cash on the sideline which i am guessing has come from the parasitic copromotional events that use fedor as the headline. who knows if that is even true since i doubt anyone really knows what kind of cash position m-1 really has. i don't think anyone really knows what kind of cash position ufc has.

my point is they have had success sucking orgs dry with this model and coming out seemingly unscathed. i would be curious to see how they do this because i don't understand how they can state they want to go in 50/50 on the losses and profits with ufc yet they didn't take any losses on the affliction deal. anyhow, i don't see them stopping now since they do have other orgs like dream and strikeforce that they might be able to rape before they have to sign with the ufc since the ufc is the only major money maker left. if they can get some sort of obscene deal done with strikeforce then good for them...if the can't then they accept the deal that is just a deal that signs fedor and not the whole m-1 crew.


the bottom line is i am blindly speculating but making it sound like i have a clue

[2centsworth]

It's as simple as fedor is on roids and he will get stomped, so no we won't sign

[dbreiden83080]

granted they have not had stability with the organizations they have been associated with but somehow they have been able to avoid taking losses on these copromotions. the guy in the sherdog article that was posted on page 5 stated that m-1 has a "pithy cash position". an odd word to use for cash but i am guessing he meant they had an abundant amount of cash on the sideline which i am guessing has come from the parasitic copromotional events that use fedor as the headline. who knows if that is even true since i doubt anyone really knows what kind of cash position m-1 really has. i don't think anyone really knows what kind of cash position ufc has.

my point is they have had success sucking orgs dry with this model and coming out seemingly unscathed. i would be curious to see how they do this because i don't understand how they can state they want to go in 50/50 on the losses and profits with ufc yet they didn't take any losses on the affliction deal. anyhow, i don't see them stopping now since they do have other orgs like dream and strikeforce that they might be able to rape before they have to sign with the ufc since the ufc is the only major money maker left. if they can get some sort of obscene deal done with strikeforce then good for them...if the can't then they accept the deal that is just a deal that signs fedor and not the whole m-1 crew.


the bottom line is i am blindly speculating but making it sound like i have a clue

All good points but Fedor's management has to know the model is already out there on this guy not making companies a lot of money. He needs the UFC marketing machine behind him to make him a star in the US. GSP/Penn doesn't sell what it did at UFC 94 if they did it at Affliction. Strikeforce is led by a very smart man, he knows paying Fedor a truckload of money is pointless long term.. So Fedor's team can arrogantly play this game a little longer, or concede to the UFC juggernut and make a deal. The UFC is MMA, and that's not going to change. In 10 years it will be twice as big as it is now..

[dbreiden83080]

for the life of me I can't figure it out. My guess is they think they can take Japan and Europe by storm with MMA given a jump start? I dunno.

If that's their line of thinking

"Delusional Much"..

[Evan]

robbie380 kicks ass...where have you been dude???!?!?! Why haven't you posted more?

dude you bring a unique take on things...

[robbie380]

It's as simple as fedor is on roids and he will get stomped, so no we won't sign

dude...fwiw i have actually wondered about this. i dunno when i hear fighters talk about fedor's legendary strength it made me think. when one of his boys "baby fedor" got busted for roids it really made me wonder. but when barnett got busted for roids who is supposedly one of his great friends in mma then that really set off some doubt in my mind. he may be 100% clean but i won't be surprised if he gets busted.

[Blackjack]

One man to blame in UFC-Fedor breakdown

By Kevin Iole, Yahoo! Sports


It’s easy to paint Vadim Finkelchtein as the villain in this mess between heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko and the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Emelianenko is the free agent heavyweight with the gaudy 30-1 record and small but passionate fan base. The UFC is the world’s finest mixed martial arts promotional company and has roughly 90 percent of the top 100 fighters in the world under contract.

Emelianenko was looking for a place to fight and the UFC wanted to put on what it believed could have become a massive pay-per-view show with a big push by pitting Emelianenko against Brock Lesnar, its silo-sized heavyweight champion.

But no deal was reached despite a lucrative offer from the UFC. Though UFC president Dana White wouldn’t rule it out, chances of it happening in the future are remote.


Finkelchtein is the Russian heavyweight’s manager and, more significantly, the president and co-owner of what purports to be a major MMA promotional company, M-1 Global. Finkelchtein clearly used Emelianenko as a pawn in an attempt to force the UFC to accept M-1 as a partner. All M-1 Global brought to the table was one fighter, even if he is a very good one, which would have made White a moron had he acquiesced to that demand.

If the UFC was in the business of giving 50 percent of its company away every time it tried to sign an elite fighter, it would have been in worse shape a lot sooner than Chrysler.

The reason the deal didn’t get done is simple: Fedor Emelianenko.

Emelianenko’s supporters are going to point the finger at White as the reason a deal did not get done. White, though, agreed to essentially every demand Emelianenko made. He offered to pay him more than he’s ever made. He agreed to allow Emelianenko to fight in combat sambo. He agreed to allow Emelianenko to advertise M-1 on his fight shorts, on the apparel he wore and on banners his cornermen brought with them to the cage.

What White wouldn’t do, though, is give half of his company to Finkelchtein in return for the, ahem, privilege, of promoting Emelianenko’s next few fights.

The demand was kind of like an owner in the Continental Basketball Association demanding 50 percent ownership in an NBA team before allowing his player to sign.

Emelianenko can fight wherever he wants, of course. His legacy, though, took a serious s acking when he refused to order Finkelchtein to get a deal done.

That would have allowed Emelianenko, who was ranked No. 2 in the most recent Yahoo! Sports pound-for-pound Top 10 poll, to end any doubts whether he is as great as his most ardent supporters say or whether he is overrated, as White insists. Rather, Emelianenko acts as if he’s under some sort of spell cast by Finkelchtein. He’s never met White and when Finkelchtein, White and UFC CEO Lorenzo Fer ta negotiated via conference call, Emelianenko was on the line but said nothing.

All Emelianenko needed to do to know what he should have done was to look to o Ortiz, the UFC’s former light heavyweight champion. Ortiz and White have long engaged in a nasty public feud and they split, seemingly for good, after Ortiz’ contract ran out after he lost to Lyoto Machida at UFC 84 in May 2008.

There Ortiz was, however, on a conference call on Friday all chummy chummy with White. White revealed he had flown to Huntington Beach, Calif., recently and met personally with Ortiz, where they finalized resolved their differences.

Ortiz had dalliances with Elite XC and Affliction and said he was close to a deal to fight for Strikeforce. He referred to Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker as “an awesome guy.”

Ortiz said the reason he opted to fight in the UFC is simple: Compe ion. “Who was I going to fight there?” Ortiz said. “I want to fight the best.”

It’s too bad Emelianenko doesn’t have the same at ude. Had he been outraged by Finkelchtein’s negotiating tactics and insisted Finkelchtein work out the best possible deal, White would have been announcing an Emelianenko-Lesnar bout at his ballyhooed news conference on Friday rather than again railing at Finkelchtein’s bizarre stance.

Finkelchtein released a statement on Friday before the UFC news conference in which he said, in part, “All we are asking is that there is give-and-take in the negotiations and that they are not one-sided.”

But the UFC gave on the money. The UFC gave on the Fedor’s desire to compete in the Russian combat sport of sambo. The UFC gave on allowing Fedor to wear M-1’s logos. Finkelchtein wouldn’t budge on his ridiculous demand that the UFC make him a full promotional partner.

So now, Emelianenko will be a free agent, traveling the world in search of a fight. He could fight Josh Barnett, whom he was supposed to fight on Saturday on an Affliction card until Barnett tested positive for an anabolic steroid and was denied a license by the California State Athletic Commission.

Emelianenko remains highly popular in Japan, where they don’t test for steroids and don’t honor U.S. suspensions. Barnett, who has been caught cheating more than once, could be licensed there and conceivably could fight Emelianenko.

But there are precious few quality opponents for him outside of the UFC. And none of the fights would captivate the world’s interest the way UFC 100 did on July 11.

Emelianenko is largely unknown in the U.S. despite his 30-1 record and long winning streak. The three pay-per-view shows he headlined in this country – PRIDE 32 in 2006, Affliction 1 in 2008 and Affliction 2 in January – sold a combined total of fewer than 300,000 units.

UFC 100 alone sold well over 1.5 million.

Finkelchtein clearly botched the negotiations, but he’s not to blame.

If Emelianenko really wanted to be in the UFC and fight the best compe ion in the world, he would have made certain Finkelchtein got it done.

If you want to blame someone in this fiasco, blame Emelianenko.

It’s 100 percent his fault.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news?slu...yhoo&type=lgns