You said it before I did.

It could have been substantial, but it can’t be that much if they need Affliction to pay around 2 million per fight.

If they were raking in dough from those deals, they wouldn’t need to partner with Affliction, they could have just paid Sylvia to fight in an M1 branded show.

I’m doing everything I can to find a way to apply the degree to MMA, but I’m very picky about what I’m willing to get involved with. There are a few potential opportunities I’m pursuing that I have to keep confidential for the time being, along with non-MMA opportunities. When I do decide what to do after school I’ll disclose it on the site.

Good luck. As a law school & LL.M. graduate I sympathize with a 2L’s pain. I absolutely detested law school but somehow managed to discover an area of law that I love (tax) in my final semester.

It’s hard to imagine Fedor taking an active part in M-1’s management. If he doesn’t, the profitability of his share of M-1 depends entirely on his co-owners. And there are a million ways for an unethical co-owner to siphon cash away from the business.

No… the difference is Randy, Brock, etc… get 100% of the money paid for their services and then they pay around 15% to their management and do whatever they like with the money left over.

The deals that are negotiated primarily for Fedor’s services… the majority of the purse goes somewhere else and the deals are structured in a way where the rest of his purse is subsidized by license fees M1 gets.

Strikeforce is paying around 1.2 million per fight plus half of the gate, and giving M-1 overseas rights to the shows.

400k goes to Fedor… the rest (800k plus half of the gate, and whatever overseas licensing goes to M1).

Yeah sure.. M1 has “the minimum guarantee” you’re talking about… Guys like Monte Cox and Attencio already know about it. So before it all comes out please dispute the fact that Fedor gets less than 50% of the value paid primarily for his services.

can still be done in a private company with any type of third party review.

Company Practices in Russia: The protection of minority shareholder rights
remains a key concern for many (international) investors considering investing
in Russian companies. Powerful owners/managers often pay little or no heed
to minority shareholders. On the other hand, shareholders themselves are
often passive, reflecting the lack of a shareholder culture among Russian investors.
This comes as no surprise since citizens (often former employees of plants
and factories) became shareholders practically overnight during the privatization
phase, typically without having invested (material) funds before or having been
educated about their rights.

From The International Finance Company, The Russian Corporate Governance Manual, Ch. 7—An Introduction to Shareholder Rights (2004).

I also read through a translation of Russia’s federal company law and didn’t see anything about remedies for oppression and it could be included in another law. I could have missed it since I skimmed. I’m better informed on Caribbean company law.

Does anyone know the form of business M-1 uses in Russia?

It came across to me as a generic ‘Mother Russia’ cold-war propaganda influenced comment initially, so apologies for jumping on you.

I would be interested in reading what our new resident Russian ‘Mikser’ has to say on this matter.

From my knowledge of dealing indirectly with Russian businesses, they generally are not too subtle about showing their strength and would not care at all if you thought they were exploiting and manipulating something. Hence it doesn’t make too much sense to me that they would be trying to hide the fact they are exploiting Fedor, if that is what they are doing.

I might not be credible, but he sure is and he’s the source for my comment.

You have some real sources – that’s very delightful! (no joke)

There is a huge problem with it, though. It’s called “a time-machine effect” (or “time freezing effect”). That is the effect, when the person leaves the country/city/place/people/company, he remains to keep the old version of the country/city/place/people/company as the real one, despite all the changes that happen all the time. The person is not able to understand the changes, because he is not witnessing them and is not able to understand their importance.

The people who changed the work place, moved to another city or even country or continent – will understand what I am talking about.

And the longer the time-span – the bigger the difference between perceived and reality. I worked in one company, then I left it, but still had good connection with people there. A short time after I left, everything we talked with my old collegues made total sense. But then everything started to change: new people came in, new projects were opened and closed, new organizational changes were made, etc… After a few years I had to finally realize, that the company was completely different from what it used to be and that I have to stop judging or viewing the actions through the outdated perception.

With things like countries, people and culture, everything is much more difficult because it’s so much complex and uncertain. Maybe situation X was just a fluke or maybe it tells about the real change in behaviour… This complexity problem is worsened by not having enough current information about what is going on. Meeting few relatives a year, reading newspapers, watching TV, and relying on the word-of-mouth can hardly be considered as a trustworthy source of reliable information…

The thing with Russia is that it underwent a HUGE transformation during the last decades. Even a few years difference can be crucial in understanding what is really going on.

If you are really interested in the subject, talk with the Russian/Soviet immigrants, who left at different times. You will be amazed at the difference! People from 70s will talk about the all-mighty KGB and will never believe that somebody would vote for Putin, let alone that there is so many people, that he would win the elections. People from 80s will talk about the lack of food/products and a strong feeling of something bad approaching. People from early/mid 90s will talk about a general despair and a lot of violence and crime. People from mid-90s to the 1998 will talk about a little spark of hope. People from 1998 to 1999/2000 will talk about confusion. People from 2000 to…. etc etc etc…

Listening to the people from the different eras is interesting in understanding what was going on on that moment, valuable in capturing the feeling of people (and this is much better idea, than to ask current Russians how did they feel 20 years ago). But do not make a mistake by judging the situation from one time-era by using the information from completely different era.

For people who still don’t believe that things change very fast, please read this very interesting research paper “Lazy Japanese and Thieving Germans – Are Some Cultures Incapable of Economic Development?”.

The mafia and crime problems were huge, especially in early 90s. If you want an excellent view at how the whole living felt like at that time, I would highly recomment the mini-serial Brigada ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0337898/ , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigada ). It is excellent at capturing the feeling of that era.

But make no mistake, the current situation is completely different – has been for 10 years now. Now the mafia is gone (from the lives of usual people) and corruption, government officials and lawyers are a much bigger problem.

Everything also depends on the people/companies one works with. Gazprom/Rosneft are very different from Lukoil. Small-businesses are extremely different from these huge oil and gas companies. Alcohol and (money) gambling industries are very different from (PC and console) game development. The type of management plays a huge role as well – that’s why I was pointing out, that Vadim is an European type of businessman.

A loss doesn’t necessarily stop someone from being a draw. Lesnar has already lost in the UFC. GSP has lost in the UFC. Randy has lost in the UFC. Chuck has lost in the UFC.
It is all about the spin, which would undoubtedly be first class coming from Zuffa.

Fedor in the UFC is money for EVERYONE no matter how you look at it.

I know. That makes my comment even funnier, doesn’t it? :))

Some sarcasms are hard to catch, but that one was pretty easy. :)

I don’t work for/with them. :) The only relation we have is that I once went to their M-1 Challenge event and spoke there shortly with Jerry Millen.

As for your statement, there is an excellent George Bernard Shaw quote I think fits your behaviour perfectly:

THEODOTUS: Caesar: you are a stranger here, and not conversant with our laws. The kings and queens of Egypt may not marry except with their own royal blood. Ptolemy and Cleopatra are born king and consort just as they are born brother and sister.
BRITANNUS (shocked): Caesar: this is not proper.
THEODOTUS (outraged): How!
CAESAR (recovering his self-possession): Pardon him. Theodotus: he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.

Please, stop pretending like everybody with a different opinion than yours are lunatics. I used “pretending”, because I don’t think that you really think so. Only stupid person would think that way! (I hope that the layers of my sarcasm are not totally unbearable) :)

But now, on a more serious note. So you really think that Affliction’s production would have been better without M-1? Care to argue?

They generate so much yet they cant even have Fedor fight on one of their cards.

Fedor has 2 more fights left with M1… what do you expect him to do even if he wanted to do something about it?

awesome, recd

Yeah, it would be nice, wouldn’t it…