Fedor Emelianenko and M-1 Global held a press conference this afternoon in California. I listened in on the conference, but the audio was so bad, I could only make out a couple things.
First off, Jerry Millen announced that Fedor will be “headlining” the new EA Sports MMA video game next year. Gegard Mousasi and Babalu Sobral have also signed to be in the game. I didn’t hear this, but The Savage Science says Fedor isn’t worried about the UFC EA ban affecting their negotiations with the UFC. Also, someone asked if they will be taking any legal action against Affliction since Fedor had one fight remaining on his contract. An M-1 attorney said they are “weighing all their options” and if they feel there was any wrongdoing, they will do everything to protect their rights in the US.
Of course everyone wants to know what’s going on with Fedor and the UFC. Here’s a few tweets from MMA Weekly and MDS of MMA Fanhouse on the subject.
@MichaelDavSmith: I just asked Fedor Emelianenko if he will meet Dana White while he’s in the U.S. He was noncommittal in his answer.
@MichaelDavSmith: M-1 stresses that to do a deal with UFC, they want co-promotion. They think it’s important for MMA to have competition, not UFC dominance.
@MichaelDavSmith: Fedor Emelianenko is asked if he has talked to Strikeforce. M-1 says they’ve had negotiations with lots of companies and Strikeforce is one.
@MichaelDavSmith: M-1 stresses it has promoted MMA all over the world. Fedor, as the face of M-1, should fight in UFC under the M-1 banner
@MMAWeeklycom: Vadim says UFC offered fedor “a very good” offer, to which m1 made a counter offer: co-promotion. UFC reps made counter offer “very quietly”
@MMAWeeklycom: “The offer made by the UFC is not interesting for us” says Fedor
@MichaelDavSmith: The real news from this call: Fedor is far from being close to finalizing a deal with UFC. M-1 and UFC are far apart.
To sum it up, Fedor has not signed with the UFC, is not close to finalizing a deal with the UFC, and M-1 is not backing off on their demand for co-promotion. So unless M-1 is merely using the co-promotion demand as way to get a better deal, or not and Zuffa gives in (doubtful) or they come up with some kind of creative solution like a pseudo-sponsorship or something, we probably won’t be seeing him in the UFC anytime soon.
Basically, it’s not looking nearly as good as it did 24 hours ago.
Update: Here’s a little more clarification from Sherdog.
Finkelstein said the UFC made a new offer to Emelianenko, and M-1 Global made a counteroffer. However, Finkelstein said Emeliananko would not proceed without a co-promotional effort between M-1 and the UFC where they shared expenses and profits.
M-1 Global also pressured the UFC by saying they are in talks with other shows, including Strikeforce.
“We’re not going to wait,” Finkelstein said. “We have to move forward. It might be that very soon we will be able to announce a deal with another promotion. I’m going to tell you that we’re only going to work under co-promotion conditions.”
If M-1 is truly serious about sharing expenses and profits, then this deal will never happen in a million years.
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I for one give up on Fedor. I really liked him alot and he has done great things for the sport. But oblviously getting a promotion(which can’t stand on its own)somehow recognized is more important. I mean seriously, even if the ufc did co-promote, would that really put M-1 on the map? His management are jokes and quite frankly so is fedor if they think that is so. All it is is wanting a slice of the pie, even fedors own brother states that fedor is only being used as a means to get their promotion running. I aint buying it, and if fedor doesn’t care to compete with the best, then i don’t either. He did what he has done and soon father time will catch up with him and he will truly be irrelevant, as we all know we cant fight forever. Hoo-ray Fedor……
I agree with just about all of that. If Fedor blows the UFC off here. He will lose all current relevance. I won’t take away from what he has already done. I think M-1 will give in. Hell, Maybe the UFC will just buy M-1.
M-1 is about to lose everything; The UFC has nothing to lose and a lot to gain.
The UFC definitely has the majority of the bargaining power. This co-promotion bs is getting more frustrating by the minute.
for real. someone should just kidnap both Brock and Fedor, take them to the middle of the ocean and let them duke it out on a boat. Let see them get sued on international waters!!
LOL, I like that idea
see what i mean? they need money to help run M-Dumb. pathetic. hey if someone wants to race me in my car they need to help me fix a few things with it first, anyone interested?
@MichaelDavSmith: Fedor Emelianenko is asked if he has talked to Strikeforce. M-1 says they’ve had negotiations with lots of companies and Strikeforce is one.
ARE YOU MAD? THERE IS NO OTHER SOLID MMA COMPANY’S OUT THERE! GET IT TROUGH YOU HEAD, UFC IS AND WILL ALWAYS BE THE MAIN MMA COMPANY. IF YOU AINT IN THE UFC, YOU AINT SHIT.
Fucking sad… That M-1 has to try and threaten the UFC to feel like the have leverage in bargining over Fedor… Aleks should just try to join UFC when he is clear to fight in the US just to show Fedor how dumb he is to believe in such a greedy manager.
Man…FU*K M-1 Global!!! All they want to do is leech off the UFC success!!! Hoping they can become a UFC clone…LISTEN PEOPLE!!! “WE DON’T NEED FEDOR…FEDOR NEEDS THE UFC”.