Former top-ranked heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko won’t fight again for Strikeforce until January at the earliest as his M-1 Global management works to finalize an extension to their current deal, which is set to expire with his next fight, Sherdog reports.
Fedor had been targeted for a Dec. 4 showdown with fellow contender Antonio Silva, who will now face Strikeforce newcomer Valentijn Overeem, the older brother of heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem, at “Strikeforce: Henderson vs. Babalu“.
Fabricio Werdum, who handed Fedor his first loss in nearly 10 years when they squared off in June, has his sights set on a March return from elbow surgery and is expected to rematch Fedor or challenge Overeem for the title.
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Pictured: Fedor Emelianenko
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What a suprise!!!!!!
Its all been posted before, so why bother?
When the guy feels like fighting he’ll fight, and thats the way he rolls nowadays…
“doesnt fight until we have the contract extended ” = we got no place to go .
He will fight when he wants to fight. M-1 is who they are. I told you not to hold your breath until something is announced.
Just fight when they want you to fight, barring injuries of course. He has a fight under contract, if he wins his next fight won’t that give him more leverage in nogotiations? Maybe that’s what Coker is thinking.
I think what the M-1 posse is doing is hedging against the idea (how unthinkable it may sound) that Fedor might lose his next fight. If he doesn’t resign now and loses his next fight, he will have lost two in a row and no longer be under contract, while this whole “fedor is king” aura will certainly have disintegrated. this wouldn’t bode well for his next contract, wherever that one would be.
Now, the M-1 clowns can at least negotiate that Fedor is still in fact king, his last loss was a fluke, and thus his contract extension should reflect his greatness. Then, if he loses his next fight (as unthinkable as it may sound), he at least would still be under a nice fat contract that he inked before running up the first losing streak in his career.
We’ve all followed Fedor for along freaking time… But I’m pretty sure he has little to nothing left to offer the MMA community (the fan base I to be exact)
Lost one fight, and he has nothing to offer? He may very well continue to destroy guys for years to come. At the very least he brings dignity and honor to the sport, something totally lost on you.
You have nothing to offer to this discussion.
I think they want to avenge the loss and move to UFC
Here is next years headlines in March. FEDOR ONLY WANTS TO FIGHT FOR TITLE, SO WILL WAIT UNTIL HE GETS HIS SHOT. SO HE WON’T BE FIGHTING UNTIL WE WORK OUT ANOTHER CONTRACT.
Welcome, boys, the “This is why exclusive contracts are a good thing”…part 3 (or more).
Fedor is as Fedor does.
Its really as simple as that…
I wish M-1 Global would dissipate into obscurity somehow.
They are single handedly altering Fedor’s legacy in the sport, not that he isn’t going to be remembered as one of the best ever, but his post-Pride contests have been against less than stellar opponents for the most part…which is truly unfortunate.
“I wish M-1 Global would dissipate into obscurity somehow”
You and me both, brother.
And you’re spot-on with the rest of your post as well…
i find it amazing how many people point fingers at fedor for the delays and bs…. people do realize that he has allmost no controll in M1 dont they?
Heres the problem with your “amazement”, amigo.
If Fedor indeed has “almost no control” over M-1 Global, then he should seek other representation, or if this is one of these deals wherein you think Fedor is being held against his will and somehow is “forced to fight MMA” by poorly-dressed a$$clowns who have seen the flick Eastern Promises one time too often, then all he has to do is ask for political asylum.
Or flag down a cop.
With his relative level of fame it would be easier that you think.
However its 2010, not 1970, the Cold War is over and the Berlin Wall is down, thanks primarily to my dad and his friends if you ask them after a couple bottles of Maker’s Mark and some Cohibas, and Russia these days is way too busy trying to monopolize the remaining fossil fuel markets while simultaneously trying to extricate its organized crime organizations from every level of its vast bureaucracy to have the time and resources to detail moral defectives like Vadim Finkelstein to be Fedor’s “overseer”.
Or, back here on planet Earth most of us realize that Fedor actually owns a piece of M-1 Global, and isn’t the helpless babe in the woods that a small percentage of his fanbase make him out to be in a vain attempt to excuse or otherwise rationalize the nonsensical behavior of his 30+ man traveling circus he rolls with.
Fedor wants to get paid, and he doesn’t care about how the odious suits around him get that done.
If Fedor did, he wouldn’t stand by while M-1 Global tarnishes the sterling MMA rep the man earned in 34 fights in the last 11 years.
Fedor has gone on record as saying that SAMBO is his priority, not MMA.
Therefore, why should Fedor care if M-1 Global embarrasses themselves, and by extension himself, by carrying on the way they do in endless and ultimately pointless contract re-negotiations with their promoter?
Forget the way they sh!t the bed in Dana White’s office, now M-1 Global is dissing Scott Coker, the man who stepped up and offered Fedor a contract when it was pretty clear that Dana White wanted Fedor blackballed from North American MMA.
That might have been a move showing more ba11s than brains, but its worked out so far, thannks primarily to CBS and Showtime.
If anything, M-1 Global and Fedor should be grateful to Strikeforce and show Coker a little respect, and not panhandling for more coin on the back of Fedor’s last craptacular fight.
Or Fedor can go fight in DREAM against MWs and LHWs and Josh Barnett and whoever else the Japanese promoters can scrape up for him to scrap with.
I’ve been told that there are vast socio-cultural differences in how Americans and Russians do business.
Not only do I not 100% buy that, but I’m pretty sure that rampant douchebaggery is one of those universal languages like a passionate kiss from a chica, or a kick in the ba11s…
Nice write up, thought provoking stuff. I’m working all kinds of M1 “conspiracy theories” in my mind, feels shady.
I don’t get the relationship between M-1 and Fedor, does he have a stake in the company, is he a partner or is there something else holding him attached to their representation.
he has a stake in the company and Vadim manages the club he belongs to now(Red Devil Sport Club) after leaving RTT when the manager of RTT tried use all sorts of bad deals to lock Fedor to RTT. Vadim and Co. had the Emelianenko’s move to St. Petersburg and then later financed a training center for them in the Emelianenko’s home town. Needless to say, Fedor has been helped personally by Vadim and company over the years.
@chrisl – or, if you’re an MMA conspiracy theorist, you believe that M-1 Global is nothing more than the public name of Aleksandr Emilianenko’s Bratva crew, and that they earn for their higher-ups by making AE’s little brother Fedor fight in MMA…
;)
Wow, M1-global is just great. Why don’t they wait untill fedor is 40 years old and then have him fight again. If it goes on like this he only fought once this is year, and he lost. If they are so concerned about his reputation as “the undisputed king of mma” then why the hell won’t they let him fight, fight, fight to prove he is still on top of his game.
I don’t understand the whole thing with rematches! I mean it’d be cool if exceptionally fights are rematched but there’s a lot of them taking place! We’ve seen Fedor vs. Werdum…now let’s see Werdum vs. Overeem and Fedor vs. Whomever!
Eventually they will fight again! I just think that Werdum has beat Fedor in the only way that he could beat Fedor, not undermining but stylistically and skill-wise that was the only way Fedor can be beat…if there’s a next time, Fedor’s going to be much more aware in guard and will probably keep things in stand up, slowly picking at Werdum, till he KOs him…I agree that it’s hard to ever say what’s going to happen in an MMA bout cause shit goes crazy once that door closes and lots of factors come into play…BUT, enough rematches, period. (James Toney style ending to a sentence)
I havde to say that Fedor and his management are doing a fine job of pi$$ing off fans and are self-indulgently hurting themselves. It is unfortunate that they are the way they are. Look, Fedor is a great story and his skill as a fighter is well-known but they have been picking and choosing and negotiating and re-negotiating so long that it all amounts to a whole lot of time wasting…and why?…to protect their investment?…to protect Fedor’s image?…to protect Fedor’s record?…to make more money?….none ogf that has been accomplished by M-1. The lengths they have gone to avoid dangerous opponents or delay fighst until they get the deal they want should be a lesson in how not to manage a top level fighter. Fighters fight other fighters…that is what fans want to see. If your fighter isn’t fighting…your carefully crafted promotional image won’t last. Sooner or later….fans, other fighters, mma orgs, are going to see that you are playing games and are untrustworthy, selfish, and can’t be counted on to show up when needed. Cultural differences aside….M-1 Global is universally stupid and have already made decisons that have hurt their prized fighter’s legacy and their own ability to make much money. It didn’t have to be that way. You know, if M-1 doesn’t like the way it is portrayed by the likes of Dana White….they should stop proving his point…namely that they are a bunch of disorganized, amatuerish, strong-men that make crazy demands and don’t honour existing agreements and are very difficult to work with.
I used to be a huge fan of Fedor and thought that his competitive style would eventually land him in the UFC. He is considered the best of all time but might go down in the books as otherwise unless he starts fighting the best competition and I hate to say it but it’s in the UFC. I’m no more a fan of Dana White than Fedor but in the end he now has something to prove after his first loss. In the end the sport should come first and your personal bullshit disputes later. GO TO THE FREAKEN UFC and take on BROCK!!!