Vadim and Fedor
After sitting through a rather excruciating call today where Fedor, or should I say, Fedor's manager, Vadim Finkelstein and Jerry Millen fielded questions about what Fedor Emelianenko is up to while in the United States. Bloody Elbow's updates seem to sum up exactly how much of a waste of time this was;
Update 6: Josh Gross asks why Fedor can't do the same deal GSP, Anderson Silva, and every other big fighter signs? Evasive answer. Why is co-promotion so important? Answer: M-1 is very big, we develop MMA all over the world. This is all talking points about M-1 at this point. It sounds like UFC came forward with a big offer, and now M-1 offered something back very different involving co-promotion. Amusingly, they say M-1's goal is to make MMA really popular all over the world.
Update 7: Beau Dure at USA Today asks what co-promotion really means? Evasive answer. Personal guess: it rhymes with scribe. Now they're going on at length about all the shows they are going to promote. They are just ignoring questions at this point and just talking about whatever they want. They say negotiations were productive, but they will only work on a co-promotion basis. Someone asks if he's leaning toward Strikeforce, and the answer is just that Strikeforce is one of their possible partners.
Update 8: Someone asks about Aleksander's quote about Vadim, they blow it off. Nothing is happening on this call, no announcement, it's just a PR stunt.
I think this can be summed up like such; Vadim and his Russian mafia cohorts are holding the greatest pound for pound fighter in the world hostage to further their own agenda. Never for a minute should anybody believe that M-1 is interested in the betterment of Mixed Martial Arts or what actually happens to Fedor. Fedor is simply the tool in which a bunch of insignificant men can make money and be famous.