Fedor’s return to professional competition has been a emotional saga with an anticlimactic conclusion, one that even disappointed his ex-manager, Vadim Finkelchtein.
The M-1 Global founder revealed in an interview on the promotion’s website that he had nothing to do with Fedor’s signing with former Pride FC boss Sakakibara’s new Japanese promotion Rizin Fighting Federation.
“Fedor makes all the decisions by himself now,” Vadim explained. “In our past, all troubles and accusations used to befall on me. They said that I was the reason that Fedor didn’t fight in UFC. But now I say officially: I don’t have any relations to this one. Nothing.”
He also added that Fedor’s opponent was ‘definitely’ not the 1-0 Jaideep Singh.
“No, it definitely isn’t [Jaideep Singh]. I think he is no match to Fedor Emelianenko. Too weak an opponent for him.”
When asked who he would have theoretically matched Fedor against had he signed with M-1, Vadim said that he would have offered him the heavyweight or light-heavyweight champion.
“We have a lot of proper fighters of a high level. I’d put Marcin Tybura or Stephan Puetz against the Fedor. But you see, we in Russia are limited with our resources. We can’t compete with UFC or these new Japans, who emerged recently.”
Rizin recently held a press conference where they announced partnerships with the likes of Bellator and KSW. Vadim revealed that he was offered a partnership but opted to err on the side of caution.
“About 1 year ago, Sakakibara called me, but I didn’t take it seriously. I don’t believe in such projects. Look, I have a company and many contracts with television. How we will share this? Who will own all of this? Should I keep it, or Japanese will take it from me, or will we cut it somehow? And what if I have already obligations to some Japanese TV-channel? I don’t even understand the concept. Who will pay for all of this? Who will have rights and copyright? I think this is a utopia from the very beginning.”
“My professional opinion: all they do now is some kind of shady enterprise. But I don’t have enough info – so let’s see where will they come in the
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