Fedor talks to Dave Meltzer:
"From my viewpoint, the UFC does not have the proper attitude toward fighters," Emelianenko said. "They do not consider fighters to be normal people, human beings. My feeling is the attitude of UFC toward fighters is not the correct one. And I don’t like their policy, which appears to be a really bold one. They offered one thing, and then on the Internet, the number published was something different. The offer we got from them was really miserable."
And Showtime senior vice president and general manager of sports and event programming, Ken Hershman talks to Fanhouse:
"We're actually beginning our planning now," Hershman said. "We're going to be starting with just some teases that we can market on Showtime and across the Internet to begin introducing Fedor. For us, Fedor is a sold commodity among the hardcore fans; they all know him, obviously. Everyone recognizes him as the best fighter in the world. So, what we have to do is reach out beyond the hardcore fan base and reach the casual fans and the regular general sports fans, and begin to generate excitement. I mean, this is the most exciting fighter out there, and even if you're not a hardcore mixed martial arts fan, you're still going to get a lot of excitement watching him do his thing in the cage. So, it's a big task, but we're up to it, and we have some great support from our partners, and look for some great stuff to come."
We'll see if Showtime can pull it off.