It is no secret that Fedor Emelianenkoās manager/M-1 Global President Vadim Finkelchstein runs a hard bargain; being called the ācrazy Russianā by many of his critics. Recently Finkelchstein had this to say on the matter of Emelianenko not being in the ring since last November, 2009.
āThere are certain clauses in that agreement which havenāt been lived up to. In one of these clauses was co-promotion, and given that M-1 spent a significantly larger amount of money on the first show than did Strikeforce, we would like to see something along the lines of a number of M-1 fighters fighting on the M-1 Strikeforce show, the main show, the undercard, etc. From our point of view, weāre waiting for the decision of, primarily, Scott (Coker) and Strikeforce, but also that of Showtime, and basically delivering in the relationship, going forward, that which was promised to us in the first place. This (decision) doesnāt depend on us at all. The ball is in their court. Fedor is in good shape. Heās constantly training to keep his form up. He needs around a month and a half warning before a potential fight and heāll be able to fight. So the 26th of June is not a problem. Fedor is frustrated. Heās upset that he hasnāt been given the ability to fight. Again, the (delay) to make the fight happen, hasnāt been on us. Itās been on the other side. Because of their refusal to agree on giving us what was promised in the (contract) signed, the fight hasnāt happened. Weāre not asking for anything other than what we were promised initially. ā¦ What we want is simply a 50-50 (relationship). We donāt want a repeat of the November 7 show, which for all intents and purposes looked like a Strikeforce show. We want to be 50-50 partners. We want this to be a proper fully fledged co-promotion.ā
