Everytime I’ve been in the presence of Finkelstein, it’s always been cautiously and at a distance. Generally, he’s surrounded by a crew of Russians, some of which look like skilled magicians and the rest look like the entire cast of Bionic Commando. In an interview with Lowkick.com, Vadim says that M-1 Global is willing to work with UFC without the previous co-promotion stipulation but they want guaranteed payments, otherwise ZUFFA may ‘cheat’ them.
“We will not let ourselves to get owned. Fedor became so popular not inside the Octagon. So, long story short: 1. We would like to receive guaranteed payments. I know that if we agree for percents, they will cheat us. 2. Maybe not a co-promotion (like we offered before), but at least co-branding. 3. They also will have to permit Fedor participating in Sambo competitions, and during our last negotiations UFC were ready for that term. Now we have a co-promotion with We go 50-50 with them on our co-promoted events, but there’s still some problematic issues. We want our fighters to fight on these events, but they tell us “the crowd wants to see Americans.”
With M-1 Global’s alleged collapse and only one fight remanding on his contract, the chances of Fedor fighting in the UFC is just about as equal as around this time last year when Affliction collapsed and Fedor no longer had a banner to fight under. We’re not sure what’s going to happen, but if one this is certain in this vast, infinite universe, Fedor is still the GOAT. [Source]
