Vadim Finkelstein is an interesting character.
He’s best known as the manager of Fedor Emelianenko. This used to mean something, but these days it’s far less prestigious than it used to be.
Not according to Finkelstein, however. This guy is still living in 2007. It’s as though Emelianenko’s losses never happened.
UFC President Dana White recently said that he has zero interest in signing Fedor…
VF: You need to know Dana. If he says he has no interest in signing Fedor, then in fact, he really wants to. He says one thing, and doing another. How can you not want a fighter who can bring millions? Any fight with Fedor could break all the rating records in the UFC.
The only time Emelianenko would’ve brought “millions” to the UFC would have been potential fights with Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar. But that was back before he lost three fights in a row, and his true value has significantly declined since those days.
Maybe you should make the first step?
VF: We are open for dialogue. It’s just that Dana White thinks that we will come to him, kneel down and say: “We are ready for any conditions to sign a contract.” Of course, this will never happen. Fedor deserves nothing but respect. But like I said, there’s still a high demand for Fedor. We are ready to have Fedor fighting in the UFC, it’s just that we need a normal offer. And the fact that White is always saying that offered us everything “on a silver platter” is a lie.
We’ll never know exactly what the UFC offered Fedor’s camp during those long-ago negotiations. It’ll be a game of he-said, she-said until the end of time.
What we do know, however, is that Finkelstein is still holding on to the notion that he can get some type of special contract from the UFC, even with Emelianenko suffering three losses. He’s no longer the fighter he once was. He’s no longer the minimal pay per view draw he once was.
Finkelstein says they need “a normal offer.” No, you don’t need a normal offer. If all they needed was a normal offer, we would’ve seen Emelianenko vs. Brock Lesnar at Cowboys Stadium several years ago, like the UFC wanted.
A “normal offer” is what every fighter in the UFC gets, and that’s not what Finkelstein is after. He’s still looking for co-promotion and other special treatment, and that’s never going to fly.
We’re never going to see Fedor Emelianenko in the UFC, and Vadim Finkelstein is to blame.
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