Posted on Sunday, July 26, 2009
Mixfight.ru, the official Russian-language site of
M-1Global.com, was able to reach
M-1 Global President and Co-Owner
Vadim FinkelchteinTrilogy.” by phone soon after the cancellation of “
Finkelchtein issued his first official comments regarding the matter to
Mixfight.ru in Russian. A translated version of Finkelchtein comments to
Mixfight.ru is now available.
During the brief conversation with Mixfight.ru, Finkelchtein explained
Affliction’s logic behind canceling the entire event.
“Affliction is asserting that all the steps that have transpired had to take place because of the disruption caused in the presentation of their PPV,” he began to explain. “The fact is that according to American laws, if you advertise the showing of an event on a paid television channel, you are obligated to deliver what has been advertised.
“In other countries, the marketing was centered around
Fedor. However, in the U.S. the marketing of the fight was clearly built around both Fedor and
Josh Barnett. Since Barnett was unable to compete as advertised, Affliction was concerned about legal issues.”
In a bit of a surprise, Affliction announced a reconciliation with the
UFC on Friday and confirmed that its involvement in MMA will now be limited to that as a sponsor. Finkelchtein was asked if M-1 will continue to work with Affliction.
“This question remains open,” he answered. “Negotiations are currently taking place as we speak. With this cancellation they not only let us down but all the fighters and the MMA fans all over the world as well.”
One of the most pressing questions coming from the cancellation is what will be the fate of former
PRIDE heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko. In an official statement over the weekend, M-1 Global promised fight fans that Emelianenko will return to active competition as soon as possible.
“We are now with Fedor in the U.S. and we hope to make a decision about his next fight within the next few days,” Finkelchtein stated. “There are many business meetings and negotiations planned with all the major promotions. We will explore the possibility of Fedor fighting Barnett and will even look into whether the fight can take place as soon as August (since Barnett has not been suspended).”
Finkelchtein also believes that the cancellation of “Trilogy” could be used as an opportunity to jump start stagnant negotiations to bring Fedor to the UFC.
“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.”
He ended the conversation by pledging to keep the MMA public up-to-date in regards to Fedor and M-1’s next move via
Mixfight.ru and
M-1Global.com.
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