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[Brutus]

Dear Mr. White

Saying he will no longer permit Dana White to disparage him, former PRIDE heavyweight champion and famed Russian fighter Fedor Emelianenko has fired back and penned an open letter to the UFC’s head president and challenged him to allow a fight with UFC heavyweight champ Randy Couture or interim champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

The letter was today sent to MMAjunkie.com (UFC News & Rumors - MMA News - UFC Fighters - UFC Event Recaps and Previews - MMAjunkie.com) and posted on m1mixfight.com, the website of Emelianenko’s management team.

Ever since the UFC tried — and failed — to sign Emelianenko, White has continually blasted Emelianenko, questioning his fighting ability, world ranking and his quality of opponents. In an October 2007 press conference, White even went as far as saying that Emelianenko “sucks” and that “Fedor isn’t even a top-five heavyweight let alone (ranked) top pound-for-pound (fighter).“

The 31-year-old Emelianenko, who held the PRIDE Fighting Championships’ heavyweight belt for more than four years before the organization’s eventual demise this past summer, is a career 27-1. Although he’s defeated some of the most notable fighters in the sport — including current UFC fighters Nogueira, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and Heath Herring — he’s fought few (if any) top-tier guys in recent years.

Emelianenko recently turned down an offer to fight exclusively for the UFC, saying the contract was too restrictive, and instead signed with the recently restructured M-1 Global organization.

However, he still wants to challenge the UFC’s best, including Couture, who resigned from the organization in October for what he perceived to be a lack of respect from UFC executives, as well as the UFC’s inability to sign Emelianenko, whom he wants to fight before retiring.

As Emelianenko wrote (keep in mind it’s been translated by a third party):

Numerous times have I read mister White’s statements on Internet concerning myself. In my opinion, allowing yourself to say those things is not a sign of a gentleman or a grown man at all! If he candidly wants to prove himself right then let my fight with Randy happen or let me face the reigning UFC champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. In the future I wouldn’t want to hear those statements in my address ever again and I won’t tolerate that.

My last fight in Japan proved that I’m ready to fight anybody with any height advantage, skillset or experience. I have fought and still wish to fight the best athletes. The Randy fight is my goal number one right now, he’s a great fighter and this is a very unfortunate situation when too strict and one-sided UFC contracts don’t let this fight happen.

The whole world is eager to see me fight your champions, people don’t want to listen to your press-conferences. I’m signed with M-1 Global and this promotion is ready to organize such fights under our banner or in co-promoted events.

Sounds like Fedor is as fed up w/ Dana White as I am hearing about Fedor fighting Randy.

[ILJO]

Dana is a punk.

I respect him as a business man and what not but he is out of line with all the fedor shit talking he's been doing

Hopefuly fedor just put him in his place.

Put up or shut up dana

[azur_dog]

Honestly I'm not sure but I think Fedor would be in his rights to sue Dana for slander. Dont know if hed win or if the case actually has merit, but what Dana said about Fedor and mostly the way he said it was unproffesional. Fedor has every right to be angry with Dana in my opinion. True we've all said Fedor needs to fight better guys, but if what he said is true, the only thing that seems to standing in the way of the fight is the UFC.

[foundstarr]

Fedor forgets this is the land of free speech.

[Fightfan001]

I wish that Dana white would just say F*&% it and do it !

That would be awesome. I mean Pride extended the courtesy to UFC when Chuckie went over there. I think that still has a bad taste in Dana's mouth though, because of the Rampage beat down.

[scottsec]

Whaaaaaaaaa Whaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!

[whitey64]

Ok so Fedor wants to fight UFC's best BUT he dont want to be under contract for the UFC it dont make any sense to me and I dont know how he thinks the fight with Randy will happen cause it wont period and if that's Fedor's number one goal right now looks like he wont be fighting soon either and if he do it will be against people who shouldnt even be in the same ring as him.

[jlruthven84]

Fedor has a right to be fed up, but:

A) The UFC is NOT going to co-promote. They have too much to lose, and M-1 has much more to gain from that kind of a deal.

B) None of these proposed fights would take place in a cage, especially against Couture.

C) I'm sick of all this "crazy Russians," "strict UFC contract," etc etc bullshit. I know that Fedor's management had him sign over to M-1, but they don't own him...if he really wanted to consistently fight the best guys, he'd have signed a deal with Zuffa for a few fights, fought Couture, AA, and maybe Sylvia or Werdum, and he'd have proven his point.

I hate being on Dana's side but, aside from all the "Fedor's a joke" comments, I am.

[jesusatemyhotdog]

My care factor is at an all time low.

[Ramma]

Fedor shouldn't even bother responding to Dana... the shit out of Dana's mouth the last week or so has been amazing