M-1 Global Swings And Misses…Again
Fedor Emelianenko
M-1 Global issued a statement in light of the results of Lesnar vs. Couture:
“It is the position of M-1 that the UFC has adopted an anti-Fedor policy because multiple attempts to sign him have not been fruitful,” read the prepared release. “For a company that has tried to market itself as the number one promotion in the world, they are unable to accept the fact that the number one fighter in the world does not reside on its roster of contracted fighters.
“We believe that the UFC has determined that it’s much more inexpensive for them to use their marketing resources to use smoke and mirrors to brand a fighter as the pound-for-pound best as opposed to actually paying the pound-for-pound best what he is truly worth on the open market.”
Arrgh, why don’t these guys just shut up? Who cares what you believe or what your position is in regards to how you feel about the UFC? The fact of the matter is they haven’t determined a damn thing except they use some pretty dumb business practices. What’s all this talk about paying Fedor what he’s worth? Here the deal:
- The UFC did attempt to sign Fedor quite a few times, and his manager confirmed that the UFC offered the most money among all the promotions that were pursuing him
Why M-1 Global and all these other promotions think the UFC needs Fedor to solidify themselves as the world’s best MMA promotion is beyond me. The fact of the matter is when Fedor is done with this sport, the odds are that the UFC will still be here doing what they have been doing. The guys behind M-1 global have absolutely no business sense whatsoever. This isn’t the first time they have tried to wiggle their way into a co-promotion with the UFC using Fedor as the pawn. The simple fact that they don’t understand that Zuffa isn’t dumb enough to take the bait is laughable.
Now I do believe that Fedor is the #1 HW in the world, there’s no way to discredit his two dominate wins over Nogueira and other top HW’s at the time. His win over Tim Sylvia was impressive, but one can point to Shogun Rua and Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou to prove it’s a different game between PRIDE and the UFC. There’s a huge difference in assuming said fighter will go here or there and dominate until one actually does so. I would buy their argument had the UFC not pursued Fedor and tried to sign him multiple times while also offering him the most money. The fact of the matter is they gave Fedor the option, yet he turned them away each time. This statement(you can read it in it’s entirety with the link) is just another failed attempt at promoting their brand at the UFC’s expense.
It pisses me off because even though Fedor choose not to sign with the UFC I don’t think I’ve ever read where he gave concrete reasons for not doing so. Everything that was said came via his manager, and it seems most of things he says have to be taken with a grain of salt.
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The UFC has spent years and risked losing lots of money to build their brand. I wouldn’t do a “co-promotion” with M1. It wouldn’t even be a co-promotion, it would be a UFC show with Fedor in it. M1 brings absolutely NOTHING to the table except for Fedor. Even Tito Ortiz wasn’t dumb enough to try to force the UFC to allow Punishment to co-promote a UFC event. He got sponsorships and what-not, but M1 isn’t a promotion, it is Fedor.
A proper co-promotion between the UFC and M1 would most likely have fights consisting of a member of each organization. Nobody wants to see anybody fight from M1 besides Fedor. They are trying to force the UFC to sign all of the other Red Devil Sports Club fighters to the UFC as a package deal. I’m glad Fedor is looking out for his friends but I don’t think that the Finkelstein guy has Fedor’s best interests in his mind, he has his own.