Is Vadim Finkelchtein Putting M-1 Global or Fedor Emelianenko First?

Mike Chiappetta raises some important questions about Fedor's management team:

Perhaps central to the problem the UFC is facing is that Finkelchtein acts as both Emelianenko's manager and promoter. That Finkelchtein has a financial interest in Emelianenko is no secret, but the fact that his roles essentially amount to a conflict of interest is something that is scarcely mentioned.

Finkelchtein is one of the owners of M-1 Global, an MMA organization that has done shows in multiple countries but is not well known in the United States. ...

So as Emelianenko's manager, every offer that Finkelchtein receives must be weighed against the future health of M-1. Simply put, that is a conflict of interest; an unbiased manager would be thinking only in terms of his client. Legally speaking, he is doing nothing wrong, as MMA does not have the same rules in place as boxing, which saw the Muhammad Ali Act do away with manager/promoters years ago. Finkelchtein is simply operating within the framework of a flawed system.

...Finkelchtein's continued insistence on co-promotion as an essential element of a deal has to make one wonder just how much of the deal is about Fedor and how much is about the business interests of M-1.

This is an important point Chiappetta is raising, and he's flirting with a more important point in raising the Muhammad Ali act. A while back, Mark Cuban was running around invoking the Ali act, but now that he's an investor in the UFC and not first in line to promote Randy Couture vs Fedor Emelianenko, he's pretty quiet on the topic. All the same, the Ali Act is potentially going to be big trouble for the MMA business status quo down the road.

Vadim isn't unique in MMA, as Chiappetta points out. He's in popular company with Monte Cox, the man who made Tim Sylvia what he is today, and Ken Pavia and many others. Nevertheless, a conflict is a conflict and whether Fedor owns 20% of M-1 or not, the deal still presents many negatives for the fighter who has a promoter as his manager.

Loretta Hunt has more from the M-1 side responding to the rumored UFC offer:

Joost Raimond, CEO for M-1 Global, called the report "completely ludicrous" and said negotiations never even reached the point where the number of fights contracted for Emelianenko was decided.

"I can say that the guaranteed -- and the word ‘guaranteed' is of great importance here -- the guaranteed offer made by the UFC is less than what Fedor made before," Raimond said. "The five-million (per fight) is way, way, way out of range. Half of that is even way out of range of what they offered."

...

Raimond confirmed that M-1 Global had been presented with the possibility to receive a cut of pay-per-view profits in addition to Emelianenko's guaranteed pay, but he said no other profit-sharing incentives were presented.

...

Raimond said a title shot against heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar -- in Emelianenko's first fight or otherwise -- was not specified during the talks.

But don't give up hope o ye of little faith, the meetings apparently went better than previous UFC meetings with the M-1 crew:

Raimond emphasized that negotiations with the UFC had been fruitful, even though the fundamental disagreement over co-promotion between the two organizations remains.

"We had a very professional, productive and respectful meeting with the UFC," Raimond said. "I think both parties walked away (knowing) even though a deal wasn't made, that a very decent meeting was had."

I'm just going to curl up in the corner and play fanboy and fantasize about Fedor sweeping through a beefed up Strikeforce heavyweight roster (with a NYE stop in Japan to paste Josh Barnett) and then we'll reprise this delightful Dana vs Vadim battle again in early 2011.