Filed under: Affliction, UFC
Fedor Emelianenko said on Wednesday that he does not intend to sign a contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship unless the UFC agrees to promote fights jointly with Emelianenko’s promoter, M-1 Global. Since then, several Web sites have reported that Emelianenko had turned down a six-fight contract with the UFC worth $30 million.
FanHouse has learned from a source close to the negotiations, who wished to remain anonymous, that the UFC offered Emelianenko a three-fight contract with a guarantee of less than $2 million per fight.
The source did confirm that Emelianenko was offered an immediate title shot against current UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar.
As Jonathan Snowden, the author of ‘Total MMA: Inside Ultimate Fighting,’ who also spoke to someone with knowledge of the negotiations, pointed out, it is possible that Emelianenko could make up to or even more than $30 million during his UFC run, but that amount wasn’t guaranteed up front.
If the pay-per-views in which Emelianenko main events do as well as, say, UFC 100, which reportedly generated approximately 1.5 million PPV buys, he could conceivably make that much, if not more once the PPV escalators kick in.
Vadim Finkelstein, Emelianenko’s manager and M-1 Global’s CEO, replied “no” when Sherdog asked if a deal could be struck with the UFC without M-1 co-promoting the event.
Fedor Emelianenko Turns Down Three-Fight UFC Contract originally appeared on MMA FanHouse on Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:01:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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