According to a recent interview by Sherdog.com editor Loretta Hunt, who spoke with M-1 Global President Vadim Finkelchstein on Tuesday about the stalled contract negotiations between his company and the Strikeforce promotion, the ball is now in Strikeforce’s court.
Finkelchstein and M-1 Global are seeking a revised co-promotional agreement to hold additional future events in the US, which would then preclude the return of the M-1 “poster boy” Fedor Emelianenko, who is fast becoming a depreciating product.
Emelianenko has only fought five times since 2006—and, if I might add, against extremely poor competition.
No longer relevant names, such as exiled UFC champions Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski and Japanese freak show giant Hong Man Choi, adorn the pathetically “padded” (32-1) fight record of Emelianenko.
Last time out, on Nov. 7, 2009, Emelianenko emerged victorious, but he took far too much damage from an undefeated but unheralded fighter named Brett “Grim” Rogers.
Rogers landed heavy jabs early in the first round, and Emelianenko failed twice to secure a submission after two takedowns.
Nonetheless, this “best of the subpar leagues” fighter remains the consensus top heavyweight in the world—according to most experts, that is…except this one.
The parent company of Russia’s “most dangerous hit man,” Emelianenko—who, by the way, has only once fought inside a cage—is M-1 Global, and if future Strikeforce negotiations don’t materialize soon, Emelianenko may find himself without work.
Although Finkelchstein refrained from coming right out and saying it, if you read carefully between the lines, it seems M-1 Global has decided to play some “hard ball” with its US counterpart.
According to the article by Hunt, the two aforementioned parties involved, as of late April, have reached a stalemate—or, to use her term, an “impasse”—with only one way out.
Not surprisingly, the “out” would be for Strikeforce to agree with M-1’s proposal.
The proposal, in a nutshell, is to allow them to have more of their fighters center stage during an event, and also to have their logo, the M-1 Global banner, appearing in full view on national TV, emblazoned for the world to see, which is a main concern of theirs.
“In the renegotiations, we’re not asking for anything new at all that wasn’t already there in our original agreement,” Finkelchstein said.
“There are certain clauses in that agreement which haven’t been lived up to. 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.
“It’s been written on the Internet that M-1 is trying to renegotiate for more money, but this is not the case. … We’re asking for changes to certain language in the contract in a way, which would make it necessary for Strikeforce to adhere to the original agreement.”
When asked whether he thought Strikeforce had breached the contract, Finkelchstein reiterated:
“Again, it is not us who is stretching this process out. It’s the other side. … 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.
“We are continuing negotiations in good faith with Strikeforce,” Finkelchstein added. “We’re not asking for anything other than what we were promised initially. … What we want is simply a 50-50 (relationship).
“We don’t want a repeat of the Nov. 7 show, which for all intents and purposes looked like a Strikeforce show. We want to be 50-50 partners. We want this to be a proper, fully fledged co-promotion.”
by Cage Stoker
Tags: Andrei, Arlovski, Brett, Choi, Emelianenko, Fedor, Finkelchstein, Hong, M-1 Global, Man, Rogers, Strikeforce, Sylvia, Tim, ufc, Vadim