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Thursday, July 30, 2009

Carmichael Dave On Details of Fedor's Deal -- UPDATE

Radio show host Carmichael Dave of Sports 1140 KHTK AM was just one of many to weigh in on today's news that Fedor Emelianenko was not UFC bound, but he relayed some interesting -- if unverified -- details about the UFC's deal with the Russian and his reps.

We know now that Fedor and his M-1 business partners, including manager Vadim Finkelchtein, had a teleconference with UFC officials yesterday, in which the UFC made an offer to secure Emelianenko's services.

According to Carmichael Dave -- who has had regular access to UFC president Dana White for some time -- this is the offer that M-1 ended up turning down. (But again, we must stress that this is unverified.)

- A 6-fight, $30 million contract

- An immediate title shot at UFC 103 against Brock Lesnar

- A cut of the UFC 103 pay-per-view on top of Fedor's purse

- The ability for Fedor to wear as many M-1 logoed items as he wished

- The ability for Fedor to compete in combat Sambo

At a press conference held in Anaheim on Wednesday, Finkelchtein stressed that without co-promotion between the UFC and M-1, Emelianenko would not grace the Octagon any time soon.

Whether the parties come together for a second round of negotiations remains unknown, but Finkelchtein said he and Emelianenko were currently fielding offers from multiple promotions.

---UPDATED 6:30 ET ON JULY 30---

Since initial reports of Carmichael Dave's comments on the UFC's contract offer to Fedor, there have been several other reports contradicting the terms mentioned.

One of the most substantial is Loretta Hunt's report on Sherdog.com. She spoke to Joost Raimond, CEO for M-1 Global, who "called the report 'completely ludicrous' and said negotiations never even reached the point where the number of fights contracted for Emelianenko was decided."

Raimond did, however, characterize negotiations with the UFC as "very professional, productive and respectful."

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posted by MMAInsiderBLOG @ 6:34 PM 





Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Sidelnikov Camp Claims Nose Spray Tainted with Steroids



M-1 Global released a statement on Wednesday regarding Kiril Sidelnikov's positive test for Stanozolol on the heels of his losing effort against Paul Buentello at Affliction's "Day of Reckoning."

Representatives from M-1 explained that Sidelnikov had trained outside the M-1 family (Russian Imperial Team) and got himself into trouble there.

"Kirill indicated that during that time away he began to experience complications from a broken nose that he had recently sustained," said the release. "Not wanting to miss any training time leading up to Day of Reckoning,' Kirill followed the advice of a coach not affiliated with M-1 who gave him a nose spray commonly used in Russia to help treat some of his symptoms. It is M-1's belief that the nose spray is what contained the Stanozol.

"For those that are skeptical of this explanation, we believe Kirill's account is true based in large part to his physique. If he had been using large amounts of Stanozol on a regular basis, we believe that the frame of his upper body would have contained leaner muscle that had more definition.

"While we do not believe the use of a nose spray provided Kirill with an unfair competitive advantage, we are obviously very disappointed in his lapse of judgment. Even though it was only a common nose spray that he used to treat an injury, an athlete must take full responsibility for what he puts into his system at all times. While we are not citing youth as an excuse, we feel we need to offer the public an explanation and we attribute the mistake in part to the fact that Kirill is just 20-years of age.

"In spite of our disappointment, Kirill remains a part of the M-1 family and as such, he can continue to count on our support through this turbulent period. While we do not endorse his actions, we stand by him.

"M-1 takes full responsibility for Kirill's actions and we respect the decision of the California State Athletic Commission. The organization would also like to make it clear that we do not condone the use of performance enhancing drugs of any kind and we'd like to hereby apologize to the MMA community for Kirill's indiscretion."

So, there you have it: the smoking nose.

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posted by MMAInsiderBLOG @ 1:12 PM 





Thursday, December 4, 2008

M-1 Global to Kick Off 2009 at The Playboy Mansion

According to a report on the M-1 Global web site, the second season of the promotion's M-1 Challenge will begin on Feb. 21, 2009 at The Playboy Mansion in Beverly Hills, Calif. M-1 Global president Vadim Finkelstein recently inked a contract with the world renowned venue.

Season two will also increase from 10 to 16 teams that will be divvied up into four divisions.

The teams making up season two are: the Imperial Team and the Legion Team from Russia, the World Star Team, the U.S., Spain, Japan, France, Korea, Finland, the Netherlands, Brazil, the U.K., Canada, China, Turkey, and Australia.

Season two will also feature three pairs of teams squaring off at each event. As of the time of publication, the Feb. 21 event at The Playboy Mansion is set to pit the Russian Imperial Team vs. Team Spain, Team Japan vs. Team U.K., and Team U.S.A. vs. Team Brazil.

The event will be broadcast live on HDNet in the United States.

M-1 Global follows in the footsteps of Strikeforce, the first mixed martial arts promotion to hold and event at The Playboy Mansion.

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posted by MMAInsiderBLOG @ 6:15 PM 





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