Business as usual
This really shouldn't be that much of an surprise for anyone. Fedor has a long and complicated history of "he said-she said" bickering between his managment and MMA's most famous loud mouth -UFC boss, Dana White- regarding The Russian's ever escaping UFC debut. The negotiations, of course, went nowhere and history repeated itself in 2015. with Fedor signing with the yet unnamed new Japanese MMA organization of former PRIDE FC boss.
More money=more problems
Fedor didn't sign with the UFC not because he's a wacky Russian who wears tracksuit pants and wrestles bears (that's Khabib Nurmagedov's thing) nor is he affraid of the current UFC heavyweights. He didn't sign with the UFC because he costs too much. The rumored number for his recent signing was 2,5 million $ for a single fight. If we take a little trip down memory lane we get to Scott Coker's former promotion(Strikeforce) and a strong rumor that hints at Fedor Emelianeko being the reason for their Zuffa buyout. Such a reason would certainly explain why Coker dismissed the notion of signing Fedor with Bellator, despite having a previous buisness relationship with him. Then there's also the case of Affliction's demise which many believe was due to Fedor's lucrative contract. The more you look at this the more it makes sense that Fedor never made it to the UFC. Despite his loud mouth attitude, Dana White is a smart buisness man and as all smart buisness men, he wanted to get the best deal possible without risking bankrupcy. Which is probably just under what Fedor wanted to be payed and right there a stalemate occured and Fedor went with a better offer.
 |
| Despite this being a photoshopped picture, it never stops making me laugh source |
It's not all bad
Now this is a good thing for the global MMA scene. Former Pride boss can start from scratch with a fighter that has name and face recognition value in Japan and Scott Coker could possibly still get his hands on Fedor via shared events. With it, both American and Japanese MMA scene grows and UFC's comeptition just got a little bit fiercer. However this puts an end to the wet dream MMA fans have had for years, of Fedor fighting in the UFC and facing against such names as Junior Dos Santos, Alistair Overeem, Frank Mir. Or even getting a crack at avenging his losses to Fabricio Werdum and Antonio Silva. Despite Nobuyuki Sakakibara saying that Fedor's comeback fight will be "important for the future of MMA" there is very little hope that such thing actually happens. The thing is, most of the top stars are in the UFC and those that are not are in Bellator. Scott Coker letting his champion or any other potetnial rising star face a dangerous opponent in Fedor Emelianenko is highly unlikely. Whith names of Ricardo Arona and Bob Sapp popping up, it opens up a world of miss match possibilities. With that in mind it becomes clear that Fedor has broader roster of available fighters(but with lesser skill level) in Japan because he is just as likely to face a Japanese flyweight Judoka or a Superheavyweight professional wrestler.
EDIT: Well... I wasn't wrong. Jaideep is 1-0 in MMA and 40-10 in kickboxing.
New Japanese promotion targeting Emelianenko vs. Jaideep on NYE (plus Aoki vs. Sakuraba & more deets) -- http://t.co/luuGaqGGGn
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) October 6, 2015
That's it from me. If your interested in writing articles, news, posting neet MMA videos for an MMA webpage, hit me up on armbarsmmaworld@gmail.com or on twitter facebook or instagram. Untill we meet again, I say goodnight to thee.
