Fedor and Strikeforce in Final Stages of Deal Submitted by:FIGHTWORLD
Posted on : 7/31/2009
While most are predicting Fedor's immenant signing with UFC, there seems to be news surfacing about a potential contract with Strikeforce.
The Lavar Arringston Show featured on 106.7 The Fan commented that there is potentially a deal on the table for Fedor with the San Jose based Strikeforce company.
Details of the deal were considered "hearsay" but now it seems the comments on the radio show by co-host Chad Dukes, there is an official offer.
Strikeforce has offered Fedor Emelianenko and M-1 would be for $1 million per fight: $500k from Strikeforce and $500k from CBS for 6 fights (not sure about what happens when he doesn't fight on CBS or perhaps these are all CBS fights?). Any fight would be co-promoted with M-1 and the contract would be non-exclusive.
Actual members from Fedor's camp have said that the offer from Strikeforce includes a non-exclusive contract for between $500,000 and $700,000 per fight, guaranteed exposure on CBS shows and a cut of any PPV event he was a part of.
While it sounds incredible, Strikeforce has no proven track record on PPV. Even with a CBS televised show promoting the event, first time PPV's from MMA companies have all been disastrous.
Acquiring Fedor would be an outstanding move for Strikeforce, it was moves like this that killed such companies like bodogFIGHT and even Affliction. Both of whom believed that Fedor could sell tickets and generate PPV buys....he did neither.
The obvious choice for everyone would be that Fedor signs with UFC and earns "performance bonuses". Again, stressing the "EARN" portion of the last statement.
The difference between Brock Lesnar and Fedor from a financial standpoint is that Lesnar has produced 1,200% more revenue for a MMA company than the "greatest fighter in MMA".
If we compared Fedor's HIGHLY publicized match with Matt Lindland for bodogFIGHT, the numbers are disastrous. 13,200 buys for the PPV....read that again.
The PRIDE PPV from Las Vegas, NV against Mark Coleman....38,000-45,000 buys depending on the source. These are financial facts.
We know Fedor...the rest of the world sees a pudgy Russian guy who looks like the local UPS driver.
Bottom line, Fedor now needs the UFC more than UFC needs Fedor....although both would be OK with me.