Mike Rome at BloodyElbow has a very deep view into the news that Fedor Emelianenko and M-1 Global have filed a law suit against Affliction as well as “john does”:
Breaking: Fedor Emelianenko and M-1 Global Sue Affliction (and UFC?)
On October 28, 2009, M-1 and Fedor Emelianenko filed a lawsuit against Affliction Clothing, Affliction Entertainment, and 50 unnamed John Does in the Central District of California. The complaint states claims for breach of contract, breach of the violation of good faith and fair dealing, and declaratory relief. If they are able to join other parties, the complaint might be amended to include claims for tortuous interference with contract and related claims.
There are likely many targets among the unnamed John Does, but the UFC has to be considered the central target based on language of the complaint. After reading the complaint, it seems possible that M-1 believes the UFC was somehow involved in the cancellation of Affliction’s third show.
The concluding line really sums everything up:
The big story to look at going forward is whether the UFC is eventually added as one of the Doe defendants in the complaint. The language of the complaint suggests that M-1 believes the UFC was involved in a conspiracy to convince Affliction to breach its contractual obligation to put on a third show.
It'll be interesting to see what comes out of this. Obviously a law suit by Fedor and M-1 against the UFC would be a very major event across the sport and likely would represent a conclusive statement that Fedor will never be in business with the UFC.
I'm not sure how much merit the lawsuit actually has but will be monitoring the situation for further developments.
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