Oh man, one cool thing about this sport is there is ALWAYS something going on. It’s almost like a soap opera at times. Fedor Emelianenko’s management company, M-1 released a statement on Tuesday claiming the long-talked about fight between Randy Couture and Fedor Emelianenko has now “lost its luster” due to Randy losing to Brock Lesnar at UFC 91.
Most people would agree with that. In fact, PRO MMA even agrees with that since we already have an article up about that very subject.
In an effort to stifle any bright ideas the UFC might have about labeling Brock Lesnar as the best heavyweight in the world, M-1 is issuing a challenge to have Brock Lesnar fight Fedor in a “superfight.” M-1 proposes that the UFC will try to say Lesnar is the number one heavyweight in the world much like they have tried to use a “marketing campaign” claiming Anderson Silva is the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
More shots are taken at the UFC claiming they are using smoke and mirrors and not willing to pay Fedor what he’s worth. Maybe one day we will see a Brock Lesnar vs. Fedor Emelianenko fight. But it won’t happen as long as Fedor is under contract with M-1.
In the UFC’s eyes, they would have little to gain by matching Lesnar up against Fedor for one “super fight” and that’s not how their business model works. On top of that, most Americans (and WWE fans) have no idea who Fedor is so if Brock won it does little to help the UFC cause. And if Fedor won (which would more likely be the case at this point) then all they did was shoot themselves in the foot.
Of course, the hardcore MMA fans would love to see Fedor fight any UFC champion but let’s face it, it’s not going to happen. M-1 reminds us all who the “real heavyweight champion” is and trys to goad the UFC into some type of action hoping they retaliate by placing their new Heavyweight Champ up against the Russian. I wonder if M-1 knows Fedor just lost his Sambo match?
(Here’s our own little press release for M-1:
Attention M-1: while most may agree with you that Fedor is the number one heavyweight, it doesn’t take a marketing campaign to convince us Anderson Silva is the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world. All it takes is numerous consistent back-to-back wins over top competition which is something Fedor has not been doing.)
M-1 Official Statement:
M-1 would like to congratulate Brock Lesnar on his UFC heavyweight title victory as well as acknowledge Randy Couture’s return to active competition after a layoff that lasted over a year.
Couture and WAMMA heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko had publicly acknowledged a desire to fight each other multiple times over the course of the past year. While M-1 and Fedor remain interested in a match against Couture, we would also like to publicly state for the record that we would welcome a superfight between Fedor and Lesnar that would be held as a co-promoted event between the UFC, M-1, and Affliction Entertainment.
We’ve invited the media to speak with us today to not only make it clear we would welcome a Fedor vs. Lesnar matchup, but to act in a preemptive fashion to address the possibility that UFC officials will try and position Lesnar as the number one heavyweight in the world, much like they have tried to use a marketing ploy to brand Anderson Silfva as the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
In the past, UFC president Dana White and Zuffa, LLC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta have tried to claim that Fedor was “overrated” and that his “record was irrelevant.” They make these claims in spite of the fact that Fedor holds career victories over UFC champions past and present. While we have tremendous respect for the contributions Mr. Fertitta and Dana have made to this sport, we do not believe they are sincere in their statements.
It is the position of M-1 that the UFC has adopted an anti-Fedor policy because multiple attempts to sign him have not been fruitful. For a company that has tried to market itself as the number one promotion in the world, they are unable to accept the fact that the number one fighter in the world does not reside on its roster of contracted fighters.
We believe that the UFC has determined that it’s much more inexpensive for them to use their marketing resources to use smoke and mirrors to brand a fighter as the pound-for-pound best as opposed to actually paying the pound-for-pound best what he is truly worth on the open market.
While Brock Lesnar is an accomplished athlete and a talented fighter, we do not consider him to be the number one heavyweight in the world. Until someone beats him, we strongly believe that Fedor should continue to be recognized as the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. In a match between Fedor and Lesnar, we do not feel that at this stage Lesnar would be able to make it out of the first round.
For those who feel our statements in regards to Fedor are self-serving, we’d like to refer you to a video interview on the website RawVegas.tv in which at his UFC 91 after-party Couture himself acknowledges that “Fedor would probably tear Brock up at this point.”
– Jerry Millen, M-1 Vice President