Yesterday we relayed Dana White’s seemingly renewed interest in getting Fedor Emelianenko and Gegard Mousasi into the UFC. His words and other rumors led to widespread talk that the UFC and M-1 Global were in talks to bring the fighters into the UFC fold. Of course, this talk did seem to ignore the fact that it would be considered tampering for the UFC to go after fighters who have exclusive U.S. contracts; but facts never get in the way of internet rumors.
Despite Rumors, UFC and Fedor Emelianenko Not In Talks
Today the M-1 Global website has an official statement up from co-owner and president Vadim Finkelchtein:
Today I heard the rumors of me allegedly stating on my twitter account that we are negotiating with the UFC. I want to state that there are no talks with the UFC whatsoever. Our partner in the USA is STRIKEFORCE, we are happy to cooperate with STRIKEFORCE. Fedor (Emelianenko) and Gegard (Mousasi) fight there and they are quite happy with the conditions and how they are treated with respect there. Finally, I don’t have any account on Twitter. The account that ignited the rumors is false. Our attorneys are already aware of the situation and shortly this fake account will be deleted.
So there it is, there are no current talks between M-1 and the UFC. Fedor has two fights left on his Strikeforce deal and until he enters a negotiation period I seriously doubt the UFC could even begin setting up any sort of future plans with M-1.
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