Fedor UFC

(Prof. Fedor's freshman seminar on Chaucer, brought to you by St. Petersburg University in co-promotion with M-1 Global.  Next week, "The Parson's Tale"!)

As Mike Goldberg would say, “It is aaallllll over!”  The Great Fedor Sweepstakes of 2009 has finally come to an end, and it’s Strikeforce who netted the Russian heavyweight with, according to today's Strikeforce press release, “a historic, multi-fight agreement that will see him headline mega-events co-promoted by world championship promotions STRIKEFORCE and M-1 Global.”

That’s right, Strikeforce caved to the co-promotion demands that proved to be the immovable object separating Fedor and the UFC.  Get ready for lots of awkward speeches from Vadim Finkelchtein and plenty of M-1 Global logos plastered all over the arena when Strikeforce comes to your town.  But the big question is, now that they’ve got him what will they do with him?

('It's quite simple, gentleman. All we require is a suitcase full of money, a crate of automatic rifles, twelve underaged prostitutes, and a helicopter to take us to the airport. Oh, and the helicopter must be painted with the M-1 Global logo. Do we have a deal?')

Now that Affliction has gone back to being merely the maker of terrible t-shirts and Fedor Emelianenko has lost another home to fight in, this should mean that the way is clear for him to sign with the UFC, right?  Enter Vadim Finkelchtein, also known around the Zuffa offices as Crazy Russian #1.  Yesterday he spoke to the official M-1 Global site about his new plans to profit off Fedor’s success now that Affliction is gone.  Fedor and his people are all in the U.S. and they plan to talk with several different organizations over the next few days, but Finkelchtein isn’t about to make this thing easy on anyone:

“This is the moment of truth that the UFC has talked about. Fedor and I are here in the States. If they want to come out and fly here, we are ready to conduct negotiations. Of course it still doesn’t imply we are ready to accept any conditions they’ll throw at us. We want to talk to the UFC about having Fedor compete against some of their fighters, but only within the framework of co-promotional efforts with M-1 Global.”

Last week we posted a video interview with Fedor Emelianenko where he said he didn't see himself signing with the UFC as long as the contract, and the way in which that contract is offered, remains unacceptable to him.  Now here's Dana White on Steve Cofield's radio show to remind us exactly what Fedor was talking about. 

According to DW, Fedor isn't any good, hasn't beaten anyone worth a damn in years, and is a fraud because he refuses to sign with the UFC.  There, that should solve that perceived lack of respect issue, though it kind of makes you wonder why Dana would have ever offered a guy like that a bunch of money to come fight for him.

In a new interview with Bas Rutten on “Inside MMA” Fedor Emelianenko talks about his toughest fights, his friendship with Josh Barnett, and whether he’ll eventually end up in the UFC, as Dana White has predicted.  Fedor seems like he’s in no hurry to sign on the dotted line, at least at the moment.  He calls the contract terms he’s been offered “unacceptable” and admits that he’d like to fight a big, “serious” guy like Brock Lesnar, though perhaps not enough to make himself an indentured servant to the UFC:

“At the present time, I don’t think so, I don’t think you’ll see me in the UFC, just because the terms, and the manner in which those terms are offered, are not acceptable today.”

Looks like the ball’s in your court, DW.  Do you make the man a better offer, or at least be a little nicer to him?  Or do you just wait him out and figure sooner or later he’ll have to sign unless he wants to drift off into irrelevance, which he may very well be willing to do?

After the jump, Josh Barnett answers some viewer emails and tells us the one thing he knows he can beat Fedor at: drinking contest.  Christ, how can you not love Barnett?