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[willieshatner]

Originally Posted by Clint

If those guys want to not be bound then they should only sign 1 fight contracts but you can bet that very few places are going to agree to let you fight for their title since it makes very little business sense for them to do so.

which brings us back to my original post. the sport has grown to the point that its time for a paradigm shift.

if the UFC belt is as prestigious as I think it is, UFC should have no problem retaining quality fighters WITHOUT firmly exclusive contracts

[Clint]

Originally Posted by Severn

He's not calling out Randy. This is all about Dana. Fedor/Randy have said they want to fight each other. They both respect each other and hold the other in very high regard. That's not new.

This isn't a fighter ducking another. This isn't Tito and Chuck. This isn't that simple.

It's about Dana. Dana's the one who called him a "farce", Dana is the one who said he "wasn't a top five fighter". He said all that because the bald bitch didn't sign him. The more Dana opens his mouth the more and more his decision to sign with M-1 looks like a good one.

Well then he's calling out Dana for not doing something that is bad business. Right now nobody knows who M1 or Fedor are. Fedor draws nothing in the PPV market, so it would make little sense to promote him in an event against your current top HW (in the publics eyes atleast) and create a large gain in his popularity. Right now Fedor & M1 are no threat at all to the UFC.

Have you seen some of the demands Fedor's management had (and even admit to having, let alone the rumored ones). There was no way they were going to agree to those things.

[willieshatner]

Originally Posted by Clint

Well then he's calling out Dana for not doing something that is bad business. Right now nobody knows who M1 or Fedor are. Fedor draws nothing in the PPV market, so it would make little sense to promote him in an event against your current top HW (in the publics eyes atleast) and create a large gain in his popularity. Right now Fedor & M1 are no threat at all to the UFC.

for what its worth, I honestly believe Fedor vs Randy would be a massively huge PPV draw

[Bullock]

Originally Posted by Severn

The more Dana opens his mouth the more and more his decision to sign with M-1 looks like a good one.

Fedor's rumored opponents:

Hong Man Choi

Pedro Rizzo



Good for his wallet, yes. Good for his fans and his legacy, no.

It is pretty much a safe bet that if M-1 doesn't get on TV here in the states that the majority of mainstream fans will have no idea who Fedor is/was.

Originally Posted by willieshatner

You're acting like there is nothing Dana and Zuffa can do to make this happen

Nobody is acting like that. Common sense dictates that there would be no reason for Zuffa to put this fight together.

Why give your rival company's ONLY bankable star the spotlight in a one-off deal, lol.

It makes no sense, especially considering Fedor's worth in terms of PPV buy rates is laughable at best.

Originally Posted by willieshatner

if the UFC belt is as prestigious as I think it is, UFC should have no problem retaining quality fighters WITHOUT firmly exclusive contracts

LOL whatever man, your head is up your ass.


Like Clint said, the model of non-exclusive contracts is already being proven flawed by HDNEt.

Why would the UFC pay millions to promote a fighter who can leave and do whatever he wants.

There is a reason that basketball stars can't play street ball, or play in other games besides there own. Every other sport is the exact same way.

But you want the UFC to be different?

Originally Posted by willieshatner

for what its worth, I honestly believe Fedor vs Randy would be a massively huge PPV draw

I bet you thought Pride Second Coming was going to be too.

[Clint]

Originally Posted by willieshatner

which brings us back to my original post. the sport has grown to the point that its time for a paradigm shift.

if the UFC belt is as prestigious as I think it is, UFC should have no problem retaining quality fighters WITHOUT firmly exclusive contracts

But why should they? It will only hurt their business severely because you will have guys fighting a month before your scheduled fight and screwing up your events (see HD Net Fights). At a minimum you have to have your Champ be exclusive, in which case Randy still wouldn't be able to fight.

Anyways UFC's contracts aren't 100% exclusive. You can fight for another org if the UFC gives you permission to do so. Like Liddell fighting in the K1 GP and them loaning the recent WEC FW fighter to K1. However they are never going to let a competing organization borrow a fighter where it helps them gain a stance against the UFC. That just makes no sense.

Originally Posted by willieshatner

for what its worth, I honestly believe Fedor vs Randy would be a massively huge PPV draw

But if it was, it would be because of Randy. Fedor-Lindland drew 15,000 PPV buys and seond coming did something around 25K.

So it promotes Fedor to the Randy fans, which benefits the UFC in no way.

[Severn]

Originally Posted by Clint

Well then he's calling out Dana for not doing something that is bad business. Right now nobody knows who M1 or Fedor are. Fedor draws nothing in the PPV market, so it would make little sense to promote him in an event against your current top HW (in the publics eyes atleast) and create a large gain in his popularity. Right now Fedor & M1 are no threat at all to the UFC.

Have you seen some of the demands Fedor's management had (and even admit to having, let alone the rumored ones). There was no way they were going to agree to those things.

Time will tell whether M-1 will be successful or not. They haven't even had their first card yet. People want other MMA orgs to succeed. I’m an MMA fan not a fan exclusive to the UFC. If M-1 proves successful then what?

As for Fedor's demands oh yeah he was never going to get things like a co-promoting events in Russia. UFC doesn't play or share with others, I'm sure even he knew that. The money seemed right but the one thing that gets constantly hammered is the lack of respect Fedor received from Dana. Class has never been Dana's forte'. In fact I've heard so many different stories about Dana met with Fedor/Dana never met with Fedor that it's hard to know what's true and what isn't.

But what is true, what is proven is the lack of respect he got and continues to gets from Dana.

[Bullock]

Originally Posted by Severn

Time will tell whether M-1 will be successful or not. They haven't even had their first card yet. People want other MMA orgs to succeed. I’m an MMA fan not a fan exclusive to the UFC. If M-1 proves successful then what?

As for Fedor's demands oh yeah he was never going to get things like a co-promoting events in Russia. UFC doesn't play or share with others, I'm sure even he knew that. The money seemed right but the one thing that gets constantly hammered is the lack of respect Fedor received from Dana. Class has never been Dana's forte'.

Dana praised Fedor up until he signed with M-1. There is no evidence that Dana was rude to Fedor (if you can present some articles that say otherwise, please do). Anybody who has looked at the facts as we know them right now can see that Fedor's management making ridiculous demands is why Fedor is not in the UFC. Don't blame it on Dana being disrespectful, b/c he wasn't until after Fedor was w/ M-1.

How is calling him the #1 HW in the world and offering him an immediate title shot even though nobody knows who he is disrespectful?

If that's disrespectful, Dana can disrespect me any day.

[Supe]

Its sad that this situation has come to this. Fedor may fight 1-2 fights a year for M-1 against joke HW or decent name guys from other weight classes and then really lose markey value. If whats important to him is helping his training partners at Red Devil get exposure and having a decent say in what fights he has to take, then fine. M-1 is the perfect place for him at this time. But to think hes going to get the UFC to agree to terms such as this is moronic. He chose to have these special perks over fighting top caliber opponents, thats his choice and theres nothing that can be done. But if one of the reasons negociations fell through is because of J-Lo like demands then shut your fuckin mouth and just fight the cans that are bein placed in front of you. We can all agree Dana sounds like a childish douche bag when he runs his mouth and says Fedor isnt top, Fedors a joke blah blah fuckin blah. But lets not give Fedor a free pass to act like a fuckin idiot because of what a great fighter he is. Like it has been said before, you sign a contract with an org to fight/play, you arent gonna be allowed to be used as the poster boy for some org to build them up. I really dont think the NFL would allow the Pats to play Arena Football in the off season to make some extra dough or because playing the Philadelphia Soul would be an interesting match up. Fedor wanted rediculous shit to fight in the UFC, he didnt get it so hes fighting chumps. Dana didnt want to give in to Fedors demands so the Fedor v Randy superfight never took place. They both need to shut the fuck up and so they dont sound so damn stupid. ok, rant over

[Bullock]

^^^
Agreed, but split your shit up into paragraphs, lol.

[willieshatner]

Originally Posted by Clint

But why should they? It will only hurt their business severely because you will have guys fighting a month before your scheduled fight and screwing up your events (see HD Net Fights). At a minimum you have to have your Champ be exclusive, in which case Randy still wouldn't be able to fight.

Anyways UFC's contracts aren't 100% exclusive. You can fight for another org if the UFC gives you permission to do so. Like Liddell fighting in the K1 GP and them loaning the recent WEC FW fighter to K1. However they are never going to let a competing organization borrow a fighter where it helps them gain a stance against the UFC. That just makes no sense.

But if it was, it would be because of Randy. Fedor-Lindland drew 15,000 PPV buys and seond coming did something around 25K.

So it promotes Fedor to the Randy fans, which benefits the UFC in no way.

I never said it was cut and dry, I'm just not convinced that having a non-UFC fighter face a UFC fighter is so bad for the UFC. Having the good fights will bring in more money. If the sport can meet the growth potential that I believe it is capable of, there will be so much money to go around that UFC will make more than they do now even if they have to split some of the profits. And they won't have to spend as much money promoting the fighters because other orgs will be doing some of that work for them.

They could simply have the contracts stipulate certain fight dates and prohibit the fighter from taking a fight within the couple of months prior to the fight. anyway, we've seen that fighters are just as likely if not more likely to injure themselves training than in a fight

I honestly believe that Fedor and Randy are pulling stunts like this because they are trying to help the sport evolve