MONDAY MORNING BLACKBELT

     Good afternoon guys and gals, woulda had this up sooner, but worked a 12 hour shift last night.  
As I had "reported" last week, it doesn't look like Fedor is gonna fight in April on CBS or in May on showtime.  I didn't realize we were now on sherdog, a few of you asked for my source and I didn't give it.  You have to realize that we here on mania go on reputation, and my reputation is saying things before many know and being right!  If I give my 2 sources I have, I'll never get a scoop again.  The UFC in the movies and Brock returning in the summer announcement came from me a full week before it was officially announced, those are two good examples of how good my source is! Well, it's now been announced that fedor wont be fighting and the reason is money.

     Fedor and M-1 are saying they weren't compensated enough for their last fight.  I guess my question is (and I'm a huge Fedor fan) did he get paid what his contract stated?  Did M-1 put up what they were supposed to?  And finally this goes to show that the whole cross promotion argument reigns true!  First, what does Fedor's contract state he is supposed to make.  I don't have the contract in front of me, but I think it was something like 250k and he also received a signing bonus when he signed with strikeforce.  He also owns a percentage of M-1 and is paid by them.  If he agreed to this salary, then why complain.  He must know that he's not a huge North American draw, but coming off 2 huge wins over former UFC champions and a great come back win over Brett Rogers, his stock as a draw is rising rapidly.

     M-1 has the huge sticking point that they must co-promote any event in which Fedor is in.  This means a 50/50 split on the whole event and an "M-1 presents" in the credits.  From what I'm reading, M-1 isn't living up to their end of the agreement, though I do not know to what extent.  So what you ask is my point in all of this?  Dana White offered Fedor a ton of money (reportedly) and he said "no thanks" because the UFC wouldn't co-promote.  What I don't understand, why not take the huge pay increase from the UFC, disband M-1 and just compensate all your M-1 cronies instead of sinking another ship!   Look at the predicament that fedor has put strikeforce in.  They now have to put Jake "I put the majority of fans to sleep on the last CBS card" Shields as the main event and hope that Hendo knocks him oput.  If Shields is able to get this fight to the ground and blanket Hendo, it'll be a disaster for strikeforce.  The other thing I'm reading is that strikeforce is depending on Herschell Walker brining fans to tune into CBS.  So for us hardcores, we get an old ex football player with minimal mma skills as a main card bout.

     With the departure of Gegard Moussassi from M-1, it also makes you think.  Reports say that UFC made a big offer to Gegard and M-1 failed to tell him about the offer, essentially lying to him for their benefit.  So this begs the question, what does Fedor actually know?  You'll have those "super fans" that say he makes all his own decisions, but those who are rational and free thinking are starting to see a pattern.  Bottom line is, even if Fedor is a 10% owner of M-1, 10% of nothing is still nothing, and the rate they are going, this is what's going to happen.  To make the most money for himself and M-1, he should fight on every CBS card, build up a mainstream North American following and get his ass into the UFC.  Forget co-promotion, he'll make a hell of a lot more money without it.  Finally, I thought Fedor didn't care about the money etc.  So let me get this straight, he doesn't care about the money yet he's holding strikeforce hostage right now over money!?  hmmm.