The ball in Strikeforce’s court for return of Fedor Emelianenko
M-1 Global President Vadim Finkelchstein told Sherdog.com on Tuesday that it was Strikeforce who was delaying a renegotiation process between…
M-1 Global President Vadim Finkelchstein told Sherdog.com on Tuesday that it was Strikeforce who was delaying a renegotiation process between the two promotions that would greenlight the return of the world’s No. 1 heavyweight, Fedor Emelianenko, to the Strikeforce cage.
Sherdog.com had reported March 9 that both promotions were nearing the closure of a revised co-promotional agreement to hold additional events together in the U.S., following their inaugural Nov. 7 venture Strikeforce M-1 Global Fedor vs. Rogers, which aired live on CBS to four million viewers.
M-1 Global, a promotional and management company based out of Holland and Russia, approached Strikeforce in late December or early January to revise the three-event contract they’d signed with the American promotion last August. Part of that deal included the participation of the nearly unblemished Emelianenko, who has been coveted and courted by every major fight promotion, including the UFC.
However, as of late April, the two parties have appeared to have come to an impasse. M-1’s reps insisted Tuesday that any burden in the stalled deal didn’t lie with them.
In the renegotiations, we’re not asking for anything new at all that wasn’t already there in our original agreement, said Finkelchstein through the translation of Evgeni Kogan, M-1 Global’s director of operations. We’re not looking for anything additional to that.
There are certain clauses in that agreement which haven’t been lived up to, continued Finkelchstein. In one of these clauses was co-promotion, and given that M-1 spent a significantly larger amount of money on the first show than did Strikeforce, we would like to see something along the lines of a number of M-1 fighters fighting on the M-1 Strikeforce show, the main show, the undercard, etc.
Finkelchstein said M-1 fighter participation was one of the terms in the original agreement that wasn’t fulfilled. Finkelchstein also shot down Internet rumors that M-1’s newest demands were monetary in nature.
It’s been written on the Internet that M-1 is trying to re-negotiate for more money, said Finkelchstein. This is not the case. … We’re asking for changes to language in the contract in a way, which makes it necessary to adhere to the original agreement.
In March, M-1 Global laid blame for their dissatisfaction with the Nov. 7 event mostly with the media, and not their U.S. partners. When asked Tuesday if M-1 Global now believed Strikeforce to be in breach of the co-promotional contract, Finkelchstein again pointed to the lengthy renegotiation period.
Again, it is not us who is stretching this process out. It’s the other side…, said Finkelchstein. No, we don’t, at this point, consider Strikeforce to be in breach of the terms. … Certain things were not done that could have been done. A lot of excuses were made as to why they weren’t done.
Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker declined to comment specifically on M-1’s remarks, and said that negotiations are ongoing. Coker said that it is Strikeforce’s policy to not negotiate in the media.
We look forward to the fight on June 26 with Fedor along with our joint-venture partners, M-1, pursuant to our agreement with them, Coker told Sherdog.com through a representative.
