UFC President Dana White was extremely positive that a deal between Fedor Emelianenko and the UFC would finally be reached by today. According to White, a sweet deal was being offered. He was also given permission to attend as many Sambo tournaments as he wanted, which was an issue he had in past meetings with the UFC.
Fedor’s manager had one aim which was to be able to co-promote his M-1 Global company with the UFC. However, White just couldn’t allow that to happen. White feels that he and the Fertitta brothers have worked hard enough to strengthen the UFC brand and the sport so co-promoting with M-1 Global wouldn’t help them in any way.
Snip from UFC President Dana White:
“I was f—ing miserable, miserable … because we couldn’t make this deal…I was so confident we were going to get this done because we were willing to do it. We were willing to make a deal at almost any cost…We built this business, this entire freaking industry…How are they going to come in and help us co-promote? It’s basically them coming and saying, ‘We’ve got this guy and some people say he might be the best heavyweight in the world. So for that, we want half your business.’ Yeah, OK. That sh-t probably works in Russia. Not here…People from other countries just don’t walk in and jump in business with the Fertitta brothers…There has to be full background checks and all kinds of crazy sh-t. It doesn’t work that way. It’s impossible; it will never happen..He got offered a f—ing assload of money…A ton of money, everything he wanted. He can go fight in sambo every f—ing Thursday night if he wants to. He can do everything he wanted to. We showed them nothing but respect…It’s insanity to turn down a deal like this…To turn down a deal like this, you don’t care about proving you’re the best in the world. You don’t want to fight the best in the world. You don’t care about money. How do you deal with something like that?”
