| One man to blame in UFC-Fedor breakdown
Posted: 8/2/2009 3:50:55 PM | 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 shellacking 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 Fertitta 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 Tito 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: Competition. “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 attitude. 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 competition 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. | |
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| One man to blame in UFC-Fedor breakdown
Posted: 8/2/2009 8:01:28 PM | | the thing about fedore entering the ufc is this. when is the last time you saw someone in the ufc get a purplepop not on their head from a punch? when is the last time you saw somebody drop to the fetal position from a beating they were takeing? if fedore were to go to the ufc he wouldnt do as well unless dana white didnt TELL him how he can fight in his matchups, i mean COME ON!!! NOBODY hardly ever gets hurt in the ufc anymore, ver rarley do you see a cut , and if you do i assure you it was anaccident. they can say this guys style is this, or this guys style is this, but they all fight the same way. its either huggin or a kickboxin match, nobody goes in there and free for alls it anymore. watch fedores fights and youll see what i mean, or watch anyother mma organizeations fights for that matter, people get hurt in those fights. ufc is the wwe of the mma world. | |
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| One man to blame in UFC-Fedor breakdown
Posted: 8/2/2009 9:26:35 PM |
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.
And to be completely honest, can anyone really blame Dana for not doing that? | |
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| One man to blame in UFC-Fedor breakdown
Posted: 8/2/2009 10:02:56 PM | | I first read this article about a week ago, and it just sounds like a Dana fan boy talking. Not sure how long this guy's been covering MMA, if he knows anything at all, but he's to MMA at this point what Fox News is to news. Just my opinion. 100 percent Fedor's fault pretty much says it all. | |
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| One man to blame in UFC-Fedor breakdown
Posted: 8/2/2009 10:07:41 PM | | That's crazy that White had to give up that much of his own company in a partnership deal to M-1 just to sign Fedor. Is that some sort of joke? Now I can see why White shot down the Fedor deal if that was indeed the case. No one is worth giving up half of your entire company in a partnership deal over. The only company that would have benefitted from at deal would have been M-1 and most def not the UFC. | |
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| One man to blame in UFC-Fedor breakdown
Posted: 8/2/2009 11:06:20 PM |
That's crazy that White had to give up that much of his own company in a partnership deal to M-1 just to sign Fedor. Is that some sort of joke? No way Finklestein came in and told Dana White and the Fertitas he wanted 50% ownership of Zuffa, a company estimated to be worth about 1 billion. If this were true, I'd be laughing my butt off along with Dana White. I'm guessing the writer felt justified to use "50% of UFC" because M-1 wanted a joint promotion. This article is an editorial, full of hyperbole, blanket statements, and opinion. Other sites are posting articles with more "facts," but at this point, both sides seem to be using the press and public opinion to gain leverage, so who knows what's going on. Most agree Fedor wanted to keep fighting Sambo, wanted some kind of multi-fight guarantee, more exposure for Russian fighters, and co-promotion status for M-1, for which he is part owner. It's real politik MMA style, and that's not a bad thing. | |
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| One man to blame in UFC-Fedor breakdown
Posted: 8/3/2009 12:47:57 AM |
I first read this article about a week ago, and it just sounds like a Dana fan boy talking. Not sure how long this guy's been covering MMA, if he knows anything at all, but he's to MMA at this point what Fox News is to news. Just my opinion. 100 percent Fedor's fault pretty much says it all.
Zach Arnold on Fightopinion.com had an interesting article on media activists recently.
http://www.fightopinion.com/2009/07/31/media-activists-backpedal-after-fedor-and-ufc-fail-to-reach-a-deal/
When I wrote an article a couple of days ago stating the intentions of what a lot of MMA writers and media types displayed in regards to getting Fedor into UFC, I pointed out statements that displayed what their admitted intentions were. Remember this quote?
I’m more than willing to be a pawn in this negotiations if it means we see Fedor vs. Brock in the UFC.
The intentions were made very clear here.
Now there’s an attempt to shift the focus using a sleight-of-hand, hoping you don’t catch the difference.
Facing heat both online and during a radio interview, Carmichael Dave of KHTK 1140 Hot Talk in Sacramento is on the defensive. It was Dave’s ‘report’ on what UFC allegedly offered Fedor that helped various activists claim that they would put pressure on Fedor to sign with the UFC and that if he didn’t sign that there would be ‘pure viciousness’ from online fans towards him.
Carmichael Dave went on Sherdog to answer questions from fans online since he basically took the bait from a UFC source to push the ‘contract rumors’ that the company had allegedly offered Fedor. A forum member asked:
“Lets stop beating around the bush here Mr. Dave. Was you source UFC ‘management’ or not? And do you believe you were used as a tool to carry out their propoganda? The fans deserve an answer.”
Here is how Dave responded:
“I will answer your second question, I cannot answer your first. Of course there was a bit of “using” and propoganda involved. The info put out there was not an accident. No one got high on drugs and fed me the info. They knew who I was, and it was very clear what I would do with the info when I got it. My concern isnt their agenda. My concern is their credibility and involvement in the procedures, and whether the info leaked merits reporting or not.”
Then, Carmichael Dave did an interview with ESPN 1100 Las Vegas (audio here).
”Are we pawns in this game? Of course. Even if the information is 100-percent right all the time it still doesn’t mean we’re not being used. It’s politics of sport. Of course you can be a pawn.”
Anyone who has ever worked in media understands that sources are trying to work over writers. It’s been a part of the business forever. Just ask any baseball, football, or basketball writer about what GMs and teams try to do to use writers when trading deadlines occur each season. No one is arguing that sources try to work over writers like ‘pawns.’
This line of argument is a sleight-of-hand. What the activists don’t want the focus to be on is the fact that they publicly admitted that they purposely wanted to be a pawn in order to advance a personal agenda and that personal agenda was to see one of their favorite fighters fight in the UFC. Whatever it was going to take to get it done was their motto.
Now that it’s clear that a deal between Fedor’s camp and UFC will not go through, watch for some of these activists to start backpedalling in the media. Watch for them to try to blur the lines and confuse readers. “Well, we’re all pawns, that’s how it works in the media.” Watch for an attempt to put the focus somewhere else and distract away from the true focus on what their motives were for their attempted activism and why it was being done.
Several people this week took big credibility hits and they’re trying to figure out a way to recover from it and repair their image. Who knows if they will be successful at undoing their own self-inflicted damage. | |
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| One man to blame in UFC-Fedor breakdown
Posted: 8/3/2009 4:37:26 AM | ^ Thanks for that post. It doesn't surprise me at all. In the USA, the UFC is really the only game in town, and MMA is a fast growing sport with almost unlimited growth potential -- I'm sure a lot of writers are jockeying for position as prominent voices in this sport of the future, and kissing up to Dana White would certainly help.
I don't blame Dana for sticking with his plan, which has made MMA the viable sport it is today. And I would love love love to see Fedor fight Brock. Can't think of a fight I'd rather see at the moment.
Maybe the M-1 thing is unreasonable. In theory, Fedor could say to himself, "I will destroy the UFC HW division, then walk off, come back to M-1 events and bring along hundreds of thousands of new fans." But the UFC wants it so that Fedor's contract extends indefinitely so long as he keeps winning. In the past, Dana would say he didn't want to use the UFC machine to create a superstar, only for them to leave and give instant credibility to a rival organization, but with Fedor, this reasoning doesn't quite stick. In the rest of the world, Fedor is the most popular fighter bar none. He might be the wealthiest MMA fighter in the world. It's almost like the LA Galaxy telling Beckham they want him, but he can only play in America, that they don't want to turn him into a star only to have him go back to Europe.
Maybe a win win situation would be they drop the whole M-1 thing. Forget it, but get the UFC to give Fedor a 3 or 5 fight contract with guarantees, and even if he's undefeated in all of his fights, he can leave when the fights are over. He can re-sign, or he can leave. It seems M-1 is how Fedor plans to spend the rest of his life once his fight career is over, so I can't blame the guy for wanting to use his star power to help it grow. | |
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| One man to blame in UFC-Fedor breakdown
Posted: 8/3/2009 6:25:34 AM | Kevin Iole is a Zuffa mouthpeice. Always has been, always will be.
Fedor owns about 20% of M-1.
He is gonna do what benefits him the most.
He doesn't think this benefits him most likely.
I personally think that c0-promotion like it has been talked about is stupid and the UFC should never do it. But.......I do not think we are getting the whole truth about this thing. And we probably never will.
That and I don't think Dana or anything has actually said that Fedor was suppose to get the money that is claimed. | |
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| One man to blame in UFC-Fedor breakdown
Posted: 8/3/2009 9:46:10 PM | None of this really matters now as Fedor just signed with Strikeforce. I think Dana is kind of funny how he talks shit about Fedor when he turned the ufc down the first time.. THEN offers him the biggest mma contract in history a few days ago.. Gets turned down again and talks more shit!! Grow up Dana. Even you know deep down that Fedor is the best.
Last I heard Fedor has 3 fights left on his M-1 contract so he may still sign with the ufc to finish his career in 2-3 years time.. If people want Brock vs Fedor so bad.. Lets see Brock go undefeated over that time and clean out the ufc HW div. As of right now he is still mainly hype imo. | |
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| One man to blame in UFC-Fedor breakdown
Posted: 8/4/2009 7:25:21 AM | Lets see Brock go undefeated over that time and clean out the ufc HW div. As of right now he is still mainly hype imo.
Exactly.
I don't think he can get past Carwin. And I personally don't think Fedor would have much of a problem with Carwin.
Brock needs to do a tad more before people really think he should even be in there with Fedor.
That and if Fedor fought him now, haters would already have a built in excuse that Brock wasn't ready to fight him and that Fedor wanted it quickly as possibly so that Brock didn't get too good. 
I am personally more than just a fan of the UFC. I am an MMA fan. | |
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| One man to blame in UFC-Fedor breakdown
Posted: 8/4/2009 9:58:28 AM | If Fedor had signed with the UFC and fought Brock it would be a loose lose situation for him.
If he lost to Brock, it would tarnish his reputation as the best by him losing to a guy who is 4-1, and is still new to the sport.
If he beat Brock, everyone would say. O Brock is new they should have given him a few more years, so he could develop his skills, etc. | |
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| One man to blame in UFC-Fedor breakdown
Posted: 8/4/2009 1:12:49 PM | | yeah but fedores violence is way more than anyone in ufc has. watch how he whooped silvia, they wouldnt let him fight like that in the ufc, somebody might get hurt, then one of the stars mite not be able to fight next ppv. whens the last time you saw somebody get a purple popnot on the head or a face caved in? | |
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| One man to blame in UFC-Fedor breakdown
Posted: 8/4/2009 7:04:09 PM | Ummmm what did Fedor do to big dimmy that was so bad? ...Other then completely utterly DESTROY him in 36 seconds!
In all seriousness tho' Fedor did nothing wrong.. Its called finishing your opp. Fedor is a class act all the way and does not cheat nor does he need too.
You cant blame the man for making it very obvious he doesnt get paid by the hour!!!!
That reminds me... Fedor should be fighting again in the fall, I need a new stopwatch. | |
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| One man to blame in UFC-Fedor breakdown
Posted: 8/4/2009 8:51:43 PM | It may not be a bad decision by Fedor, perhaps a brilliant one. He has only signed a 3 fight deal with Strikeforce. This will allow him to fight against some subpar competition in the Octagon, something he is not used to fighting in. Thus avoiding the mistake that Cro-Cop made when coming to the UFC. He was not used to the Octagon and is showed against Gonzaga.
Consider these 3 fights a warm up before he decides to come to the UFC and be ready for the Octagon. If Lesnar is still champ at that point, then the fight is on. You will have Lesnar with a few more fights under his belt and Fedor with some Octagon ring experience.
I am hoping that's the way it is going to unfold. Having Fedor not come to the UFC and fight Lesnar in my mind is like Barry Sanders walking away from every concievable rushing in football just because...
It would be a true shame. | |
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| One man to blame in UFC-Fedor breakdown
Posted: 8/4/2009 9:14:14 PM | | no you miss understand me, i love the way fedore fights!! thats what i used to love about the ufc!! when the guys actually fought!! i loved the way he broke tim down, thats what im talkin about, the diffrence in a REAL fight and a ufc fight nowadays!! | |
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| One man to blame in UFC-Fedor breakdown
Posted: 8/4/2009 10:29:46 PM | It may not be a bad decision by Fedor, perhaps a brilliant one. He has only signed a 3 fight deal with Strikeforce. He'll probably fight both Ovareem and Brett Rogers, who are both top 10 or close. Far I'm concerned, they might both be able to beat Brock. No slouches. And Barnett isn't out of the question either. | |
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| One man to blame in UFC-Fedor breakdown
Posted: 8/5/2009 4:55:35 AM | | blame? There's no one to blame. It was simply two businessmen who could not come to an agreement. Quite frankly, Fedor signing with Strikeforce is good for the sport as a whole. Anything that curbs a monopoly is good for the consumer. | |
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| One man to blame in UFC-Fedor breakdown
Posted: 8/5/2009 11:51:27 AM | So Chad.. Why would Fedor sign with the UFC? To prove he is the best?? LMFAO. *Newsflash* He allready is the best!
As stated before it would be a lose-lose situation for him. If he beats Brock then ppl would say he beat a rookie in the sport, however if Brock were to win then all the Fedor haters would see he was allways overated.
This is mma and anything can happen, im not saying Fedor cant be beaten.. Although imo it has yet to be seen.
His signing with strikeforce is great. He will likely start his 3 fight contract sometime in the fall spanning a year or so. There are 3 good fights for him there, Overeem-Rogers-Werdum.
Like I said before lets see Brock and Fedor win their next 3 fights straight and set this mega fight up the right way.
I know Fedor can do it.. Can Brock?? | |
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| One man to blame in UFC-Fedor breakdown
Posted: 8/5/2009 1:28:50 PM | | Um...... no!!! Fedor can't be the best until he proves that in the UFC and fights brock, cain, carwin, and couture. How in the hell is he the best now when he's dodging everyone??? Who in the hell is there to fight in strikeforce?? Brett Rodgers?? LOL Fedor is a jackass and a total b!tch for what he did, plain and simple. He's not going to make jack compared to money the ufc offered AND he's going to go down as one of the biggest b!tches in the sport's history. He can't be the best when he doesn't fight all the competition out there. I used to be his biggest fan but after this stunt, i can't stand him. There would not be a lose lose situation if he joined the UFC. He would have given the fans what they are all dying to see and here's his chance to prove how good he is. Now, he's a joke. | |
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