Fedor Emelianenko ... pawn or power player?

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White doesn't "hate" the former PRIDE Heavyweight Champion -- even though his manager, Vadim Finkelchtein, laughed in his face when he offered them "big, big money" to fight Brock Lesnar back in late 2009.

White explains (via MMA Interviews):

"I really don't hate Fedor. His management made the biggest fuck-up in the history of all sports. We flew down there and tried to make Brock Lesnar vs. Fedor and it was for big, big money. They fuckin' laughed at it and I told them, and he'll lie if you ask him this, I told him and he knows I fuckin' told him -- not Fedor, Vadummy -- I told Vadummy, 'You're one punch away from being worth zero.' He didn't take it. They thought they were too cool and too slick and too fuckin' funny. Like I said, they're not laughing now."

The Combat Sambo champion instead found his way to Strikeforce, where he closed his San Jose career with three consecutive losses to Fabricio Werdum, Antonio Silva and Dan Henderson.

From a fan's perspective, there's nothing funny about that.

Hear more from White as he elaborates on his unsuccessful bid to land Emelianenko in the UFC for a big money fight against Brock Lesnar, after the jump.

Next up for Emelianenko is former UFC heavyweight hopeful Pedro Rizzo on June 21, 2012 at the Ice Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia, where the soft-spoken Soviet searches for his third straight victory on the International circuit.

More on that fight right here.