ONE CEO: $5 mil for Fedor is ‘insane’ for us
Victor Cui on signing Fedor Emelianenko: “Getting some of the best fighters in the world is possible, but I heard he is paid for $5 million. That’s insane.”
Vadim Finkelchtein, the former long-time manager for Fedor Emelianenko, is often criticized for blowing a shot at getting in the UFC, which would have made the fighter millions. But Vadim made millions, both in direct payments to Fedor, and for his M-1 Global organization, which got co-promotion rights as part of the deal to secure Fedor on a show. They made millions; Bodog, Affliction, and Strikeforce were left in tatters.
ONE Championship founder and CEO Victor Cui recently spoke with Nissi Icasiano for the wildly-popular, Philippines-based social news network Rappler, and explained why he has not tried to sign Fedor, at least so far.
Getting some of the best fighters in the world is possible, but I heard he is paid for $5 million,” said Cui. “That’s insane.”
The challenge is that you want to have a fighter like Mark [Striegl] that you can build the future of your business on. Maybe if you are a brand new or a start-up organization that doesn’t have a fan base, you need something like that.”
We would look at it if it would make sense for us and the market we go into. Maybe if we can have our next event in Russia, something like that will make a lot of sense.”
So for the time being, Cui will invest in fighters like Mark Striegl, Timofey Nastyukhin, and Herbert Burns, and mold them into world-class fighters. That’s very sane.
Fedor Emelianenko fights TBA on New Year’s Eve at the new-PRIDE event, RIZIN, in Japan. If we are playing calculatus eliminatus, TBA is not Jaideep Singh. Probably.
One Championship: Pride of Lions takes place on Nov 13, 2015 at Singapore Indoor Stadium, Kallang, Singapore. Undefeated welterweight champion Ben Askren fights Luis ‘Sapo’ Santos in the main event. Pride of Lions is available via online PPV.
