M-1’s Kogan: Dana White just makes me laugh
I don’t really know why he says a lot of the stuff he says, M-1 Global’s Director of Operations Evgeni…
I don’t really know why he says a lot of the stuff he says, M-1 Global’s Director of Operations Evgeni Kogan told FCFabout UFC President Dana White, who in a recent interview with Sports Illustrated drew some comparisons between the hype that surrounded former TUF competitor Kimbo Slice and that of Fedor. I don’t really want to offer my opinion on that other than to say that the general point of this is the promotion, it makes for drama, it makes people say ‘ooh’; that’s interesting. I’ll buy the next pay-per-view’ or whatever…that’s par for the course in promoting.
In a recent, post UFC 133 interview with MMA Fighting, White once again blasted M-1 Global and the promotion’s president Vadim Finkelstein, for turning down Zuffa’s highly publicized offer to Emelianenko in 2009.
There is so much stuff that’s go on behind the scenes, that people don’t know about, that we won’t talk about, which for us, I look at his interviews and it just makes me laugh, it’s just funny, said Kogan about White, who has been quoted referring to Finkelstein as ‘Vadummy’. It’s laughable that those things are said….all the stuff that happens behind the scenes, it changes the picture very significantly.
Kogan also reiterated M-1 Global’s position that Emelianenko did not sign with the UFC, due to restrictions that were in the contract and the amount of control Zuffa would have apparently retained over the fighter’s career. All this latest debate comes after Zuffa and M-1 Global worked together to promote the recent Fedor vs. Henderson event on July 30th, which is something that seemed rather improbable just two years ago.
Working with Zuffa was actually really good. Zuffa’s middle management is really great to work with. They’re corporate, professional, straight forward, easy; we were all pleasantly surprised…if they’re listening to this, it was a pleasure working with them.