White on Fedor: ‘We tried everything’

[CQI13]

Wait, so Fedor is the bad guy for looking out for his own business interests rather than Dana White's?

 

Some "expert" on the local station here was saying how Fedor's manager was letting business get in the way of his personal decisions...well considering it's a business, and Fedor is part owner of M1, aren't they connected?

[Lucien Sanchez]

Well yes and no. I'm not sure of the inner workings of his connection to M-1, but at the same time, how often do you read about M-1 and Vadim Finkelstein calling Fedor the best heavyweight? The issue I think a lot of people have is not necessarily the business side but the fighting side. The UFC offered him what 99% of people consider a more than reasonable contract and they've turned it down. Fighting the best fighters clearly is not their priority.

[ACCBiggz]

Some "expert" on the local station here was saying how Fedor's manager was letting business get in the way of his personal decisions...well considering it's a business, and Fedor is part owner of M1, aren't they connected?

There is a lot of gray area with this whole matter. No one knows everything. A lot of the sentiment is that Fedor "owning" a portion of M-1 is simply his manager, who is majority owner and operator of M-1, kind of giving him more perks or giving him part ownership for other reasons. Regardless, no one knows that but Vidam and Fedor really.

 

If it is/was simply Vidam bargaining on behalf of M-1, then there becomes a conflict of interest on his part. If it was Fedor then it's a personal decision.

 

However, in my opinion, it's just an all-around stupid decision. You get less money (for Fedor) and less exposure. Sure they wouldn't get UFC and M-1 Present, but having Fedor wear M-1 shirts, shorts, and a M-1 banner will get you more exposure 100-fold than Affliction and M-1 Present or Strikeforce and M-1 present... regardless of having him on CBS in the future. Sure you can make that argument, but we saw the exposure of EliteXC and that did not enhance their brand any.

 

The part that is overlooked is the fact that if they "co-promote" with the UFC on the Fedor fights, then they get a portion of the profits. Say Brock vs. Fedor does 1.5million PPV buys at 45 dollars, 50% to PPV carriers, $5 million gate, 5 million to both Brock and Fedor:

33,750,000 in PPV + $5mill Gate - $11mill payroll (Doesn't include bonuses; only includes the expected PPV help for Brock and Fedor at around 5 million per) = 27.75 million in profit. That would mean at 50% $13.88mill in profit goes to the M-1 company, at 25% $6.94mill in profit, and at 10% 2.78mill in profit. Now, I'm not sure the percentage that M-1 wanted to do with co-promotion that's why I listed all three. Even at 10% M-1 would recieve over two and a half million dollars in profit for their company which is a UFC rival. Why would the UFC give money, exposure, and a sign a legitamacy just so they can sign one fighter who gives them up to six fights in this contract? Even at that giving M-1 droves of money gives them more capital to sign away some of your own fighters in the future potentially. As stated previously the UFC doesn't need Fedor, they want him, but they don't need him. MMA as a sport doesn't need Fedor. If he retired tomorrow his legacy will remain, but people will just glance over him. Fedor, himself, had more to gain by signing the deal.

 

I have used wrestling analogies in the past, and it would be like the WWE having ROH co-promote a PPV just so they could use Austin Aries. The hardcore fans would love it, and the casual fans would watch (to a lessar extent for the WWE, but you understand my point), but all it does in the long run is help a rival promotion with no gain for yourself. A lot of fans will make the UFC to out to be the bad guy as well, but what they did is what any business in their position with a lick of sense would do.

[jesterx7769]

To me it seems like they were not thinking long term either, what if Fedor did a 3/5 fight deal and wins them all over the next two years then goes back to Russia/Japan? All of a sudden people would be like what's this M-1 promotion and maybe we should look into it since THEIR fighter just beat UFC guys. I think M-1 looked at it as losing Fedor to UFC when most people, even the casual fan, would learn of his accomplishments outside of the UFC which is the exact opposite of Brock (from an MMA stand point)

[CQI13]

In truth, do they really need each other? I mean, UFC will continue to be huge. And Fedor will continue to be Fedor. He's probably got more money than he'll ever need (yes, he would make MORE in UFC, but still). Not saying that UFC is the villain in this, but I don't think Fedor and his camp are either.

[ubernoob]

This is why I cannot call Fedor the best in the world. I don't care who you are, if you don't challenge yourself to fight against the other "bests"... You don't deserve that title, regardless of skill.

[ACCBiggz]

This is why I cannot call Fedor the best in the world. I don't care who you are, if you don't challenge yourself to fight against the other "bests"... You don't deserve that title, regardless of skill.

 

Except Fedor's past two bouts were against top ten ranked heavyweights and had Barnett not tested positive it would have been the #1 and #2 ranked heavyweights squaring off.

 

Anyway, wonder why I keep saying M-1 is shady?

"I just touched base with Joe Silva and he explained this is basically what happened regarding Mousasi:"

 

"Mousasi called him Saturday because he suspected he had been lied to by his manager, Appy Echteld, regarding an offer of $40,000/$40,000 from the UFC and then encouraged to accept an offer from Strikeforce. According to what Mousasi shared, that amount was less than half of the purse agreement he had with Affliction but he trusted his manager and signed with Strikeforce. The UFC would have honored the Affliction deal of $125,000 purse plus win bonus had Mousasi signed with them."

 

"Contrary to the claim made today by M-1 that Mousasi was on the phone during negotiations with Joe Silva for his services, Joe adamantly denies that is true. Had that been the case, there would have been no reason for Mousasi to call Joe to question Echteld’s claim of a $40,000/$40,000 offer from the UFC."

Nice management there Mousasi, lied to you outright. Violation of duty. There was a rumor that Zuffa sent cease and desist letter to M-1 about the fact that he had been misinformed on an offer the UFC had supposedly made, but that is not known and Mousasi said he'll honor his Strikeforce deal.