The Ultimate Fighting Championship's conference call with journalists this week was supposed to be about Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar, but the focus continually returned to the Russian who casts a shadow over the entire heavyweight landscape in mixed martial arts.
Lesnar couldn't take it after awhile.
"I'm hearing all this talk about Fedor Emelianenko ... I don't give a damn about Fedor," Lesnar said, erupting after what seemed to be the umpteenth reporter question about Emelianenko. "You want that fight? I don't give a damn. But I'm sick and tired of sitting on the phone listening about Fedor."
The rant from Lesnar overlooks a central dynamic of his weight class: it's Emelianenko's world and every other fighter just lives in it.
Russia's most acclaimed MMA fighter dominated Pride Fighting Championships when it had the deepest heavyweight roster in the world. He hammered UFC's current interim heavyweight champion twice. Despite giving up eight inches and at least 35 pounds, he needed barely a half-minute to force a two-time UFC champion to give up.
His standing in the industry was enough to convince Couture to bail on UFC last year. Even now, an Emelianenko matchup remains the fight most sought by Couture, who is only fighting Lesnar at UFC 91 on Nov. 15 to appease UFC.
"I would rather be fighting Fedor in November," Couture said during the conference call. "With any luck, we'll get there."
UFC has tried getting there before and failed in previous negotiations with Emelianenko's management team at M-1 Global, but UFC President Dana White is sticking to his oft-stated position that Emelianenko eventually will have no choice but to sign a UFC deal if he truly wants to face the best fighters. After the announcement of Couture's return, I talked to the man who M-1's director of operations, Joost Raimond, about the likelihood of joining Emelianenko and UFC. Excerpts from our conversation:
Q: From what UFC says, it's still trying to work things out with you guys. How much of a possibility is that at this point?
Raimond: Who knows? What that will do for a possible bout between Fedor and Randy, that's very difficult to say at this point in time. The only thing I can say from our side is that we are open and willing to work with any organization to make that fight happen, and we've also expressed that to the UFC. Irrespective of who the organizaton is, we're willing to work with anybody to do that.
The contracts that Fedor has at this point in time would allow for such a fight to take place, and specifically the Randy fight, so we're free to make that happen if the opportunity presents itself.
UFC has said it wants to make this happen as well, but one of the things that Dana White kept saying on Thursday was "I don't want to mess with anyone else's contracts." But it sounds like you're saying that isn't an issue because his contracts would let him fight in UFC.
No, and the UFC knows that. That's not a secret and we've always been very open that the Randy-Fedor fight is something special. It's not your ordinary contract fight, as far as any fight can be ordinary.
But we've made provisions in any and all contracts that refer to Fedor to allow that fight to take place, with any organization in conjunction or in coooperation with whoever. Contractually there's not an issue. ... so I don't know Dana would be calling that out, because the UFC is well aware that we have that contractual possibility.
UFC likes to sign fighters to exclusive contracts. Is that something Fedor would entertain at some point?
That could be entertained at some point, but at this point in time, that would not be a very feasible option.
How come?
Because we have a contract with Affliction. We also — M-1, as an organization, we have a partnership with Affliction to co-promote events. We value that relationship very much, so signing a contract for a longer period of time, for a multiple-fight deal for Fedor with the UFC, is just not in the picture right now.
But once his contract with Affliction runs out and once he fulfills his M-1 commitments, would he then be willing to do an exclusive deal with UFC?
At that point in time, just like everybody else, I'm not able to look into a crystal ball, but if there are no further contractual obligations, and our partnership with Affliction would allow it, and Fedor would still be fighting — I'm already calling out a lot of ifs — yeah, we'll entertain anything, including a deal with the UFC.
And who knows, By that time, there might be other organizations who are very interesting to talk to.
But to answer your question, if all those ifs are not an issue, then at that point in time, we will entertain that discussion with the UFC, certainly. ... (But) let me make it clear that at this point and also for the coming period, that's just not in the game plan.
Dana White basically said he can sit back and wait for these organizations to go out of business, and then Fedor won't have any choice but to work with UFC if he wants to fight top competition. How seriously do you take that particular point of view?
Well, Dana White is entitled and free to say anything he wants, which he usually does. So yeah, absolutely no comment.
I think other organizations, and specifically our organization, M-1, together with Affliction — I think we're doing pretty well. And if Dana wants to sit around and watch us go out of business, he might have to sit in his chair for awhile. That's fine.
Let's say that at some point — and granted, this is another if — but let's say Dana White is right and the other organizations aren't able to survive. Does Fedor need to continue fighting? Would he say, "Well, UFC is my only option?" or would he move on and do other things?
Both would be possible. There's nobody that would force him to fight, of course. That's his own decision. He can retire from the sport at any time he so pleases. He has a university degree in athletics and sports management, so he could pursue other job opportunities or other career opportunities in his life, most certainly.
And again, like I said before, if the UFC is still out there once all these other organizations have disappeared as Dana might be projecting, that's certainly something that could be entertained.
The thing I don't like is — why talk about sitting around, waiting for other organizations to fall over?
In my eyes, if you look at how marketing principle in any other industry or any other business, is that healthy competition — and I seriously mean healthy competition — is good for any market and it's good for the sport. It's good for the sport if there's more than one organization out there which is seriously promoting the sport.
Having said that, I think the UFC has done a great job, an absolutely fantastic job in marketing the sport and bringing it to where it is today. And in my opinion, it would be nice if Dana White would also be of the opinion that having some other professional organizations around is actually good for marketing and good for the sport.
If it gets to the point where Fedor and UFC are seriously negotiating, how difficult are the...
There would be a negotiation with M-1 and Fedor is part of that company. So any negotiation would be with M-1, with, of course, Fedor being a part of that. But go on.
What's the likelihood of the two sides overcoming their differences this time around, given that they couldn't do it the last time they tried?
I was very much involved in the last time you're referring to, and at that point in time, there were aspects in the UFC contract which just did not coincide with the way we see things and how we wanted to proceed.
If that exact same contract would come back on the table, I would still not see us get back together. If a possible contract would change on a number of very specific points, that could very much be entertained.
Our standpoint in this business is we will entertain a discussion or a negotation with anybody who is seriously participating in the business, and UFC is certainly a company that's seriously participating in this business. so if a business opportunity comes along, we will certainly seriously look at any opportunity that comes and take it into consideration.
Are there any non-negotiable points, that you have to have in order to do a deal?
No. Not specifically. I could go into all sorts of details on money and number of fights and blahdiblah, but — no.
Again, we would be open to any kind of negotation. We look for fair contracts, and the contract has to make sense for the fighter, being Fedor or anybody else within our organization. It has to be fair to the fighter, it has to be fair to the organization. It has to fit into your strategic plan as an organization, and if those conditions are met, you're at the table.
Fedor is a good athlete and we would all very much like to see the fight with Randy. Both fighters are absolutely looking forward to that fight. They know each other quite well, they have a lot of respect for each other, and both of them would like to see that fight happen.
And I think ... that they really don't care which organization or which organizations are working to make that happen, they would just like to have that fight take place because all of the fans and the whole MMA industry would very much be looking for that fight.
Randy has a three-fight deal with UFC. If he loses over the course of that period, does that diminish the appeal of a fight with Randy?
No, I don't think so. I don't think so. I think it might slightly be a misconception that a loss — there's only two guys in that ring or in that Octagon. At the end of the day, one of them has to lose. If a fighter, even a top fighter like Randy or a top fighter like Fedor, loses a fight for whatever reason, I don't think that diminishes the quality of the fighter. He lost the fight. Okay. So what? At that point in time, that night, the other fighter was the better guy. Does that mean that somebody like Randy or somebody like Fedor has become a worse fighter or not such a good athlete? I don't think so.
