news from M-1 Global:
While M-1 Challenge team matchups between Spain vs. France, USA West vs. South Korea, and England vs. host country Japan will be streamed live to non-U.S. audiences at
www.Mixfight.ru, Fedor vs. Aoki will not be broadcast live.
Live streaming of Wednesday's event will not be available to viewers in the U.S. due to rights issues pertaining to M-1 Global's television deal with HDNet, which retains the U.S. broadcast rights of the M-1 Challenge.
Instead of making Aoki vs. Fedor available to everyone but U.S. fight fans, M-1 Global executives have decided to black Fedor vs. Aoki out from Wednesday's stream so that everyone will be able to view it at the same time.
Fans will be able to access Fedor vs. Aoki on a video-on-demand basis start Monday, May 4 at M-1's English-language website at
www.M-1Global.com and its Russian-language website at
www.Mixfight.ru.
When will these promotions and networks realize that MMA fans want their fights live, or at least available to view the next morning when they wake up? (See: IFL's Battleground, WEC's WrekCage, and the M-1 Challenge shows on HDNet which none but the most hardcore of fans seem to watch.) I can't fault M-1 or HDNet for trying to protect their content, but I wish they would have let us all know sooner.
