Fedor’s manager Vadim Finkelstein responds to the UFC’s Dana White

When the Japanese MMA promotion PRIDE folded, Fedor Emelianenko became the most sought after free agent on the market from their roster of fighters.  With good reason, since Fedor is universally recognized as the best heavyweight on the planet—if not in the history of MMA.  That is, he’s recognized by everybody as the best *except* for UFC President Dana White who made an offer to the Russian fighting god that manager Vadim Finkelstein described as “insulting”.  White responded by suggesting that Fedor’s management team were “crazy Russians”.  Since then, he’s been on a media propaganda campaign to downplay Fedor’s significance as a fighter and to suggest that the UFC’s sparse heavyweight division is just fine without him.

On Monday, Finkelstein responded via a press release from his Russian MMA promotional company M-1 Global.  The release announced a three part video interview conducted by former PRIDE US head Jerry Millan via a translator in which Finkelstein covered a wide range of topics with specific focus on the UFC and its controversial and pugnacious boss.  The goal, according to the release, was to “present the other side of the story” to the US media in hopes that they would “form their own opinion”.   That’s no small challenge, since US media outlets that don’t parrot the UFC party line—or even really know what they’re talking about—are few and far between.

Finkelstein was asked by Millan what he thought when he heard the “crazy Russian” blast from White along with his subsequent attacks in the media.  He responded:

“Dana White has a tendency towards arrogance and everything not Dana White is either crazy or stupid. All this stuff about us not wanting to work with UFC is just utterly and completely untrue. We’ve always been completely open to basically working with anybody, including the UFC, because our goal has always been to put the greatest fighters against each other. And if the greatest fighter is a part of the UFC, fine, let’s put him up against our best guy and see how they do.”

The UFC has tried a strategy of triangulation with the media, suggesting that their fighters are the best in the world while simultaneously refusing to work with other promotions or to sign competitors to anything other than “exclusive” contracts.  This is in contrast to a prevailing trend in the sport--both in the US and Japan—to sign fighters to “non-exclusive” deals that allows them to fight in other promotions to their benefit and the benefit of the sport as a whole.

White has also tried to minimize Fedor’s influence by suggesting that “he’s never met him”, implying that that anyone he *hasn’t* met isn’t worth talking about.  Finklestein also offered to rectify that situation:

“The invitation is right there. If Dana wants to sit down at the table, he can come to St. Petersburg — he is very welcomed here. He can meet up with (me), he can meet up with Fedor. It’s not a problem at all.”

Finkelstein indicated during the interview that he has traveled to Las Vegas in the past to meet with White. And if White does not have time to travel to Russia, Finkelstein extended him an open invitation to meet the WAMMA heavyweight champion in Anaheim, California before he competes against Andrei Arlovski on Jan. 24 just prior to Affliction and M-1’s “Day of Reckoning” event.

He concluded by suggesting that the UFC’s competitive paranoia is unjustified:

“We’re not going to eat the UFC pie, but we want to share. The invitation stands. They are welcome at any point in time, and definitely at the Jan. 24 event. We’ll talk about it (and) discuss it. We’re open to any kind of deal.”