Props: Sherdog.com
Quoteworthy:
"There are certain clauses in that agreement which haven't been lived up to. In one of these clauses was co-promotion, and given that M-1 spent a significantly larger amount of money on the first show than did Strikeforce, we would like to see something along the lines of a number of M-1 fighters fighting on the M-1 Strikeforce show, the main show, the undercard, etc. From our point of view, we're waiting for the decision of, primarily, Scott (Coker) and Strikeforce, but also that of Showtime, and basically delivering in the relationship, going forward, that which was promised to us in the first place. This (decision) doesn't depend on us at all. The ball is in their court. Fedor is in good shape. He's constantly training to keep his form up. He needs around a month and a half warning before a potential fight and he'll be able to fight. So the 26th of June is not a problem. Fedor is frustrated. He's upset that he hasn't been given the ability to fight. Again, the (delay) to make the fight happen, hasn't been on us. It's been on the other side. Because of their refusal to agree on giving us what was promised in the (contract) signed, the fight hasn't happened. We're not asking for anything other than what we were promised initially. ... What we want is simply a 50-50 (relationship). We don't want a repeat of the November 7 show, which for all intents and purposes looked like a Strikeforce show. We want to be 50-50 partners. We want this to be a proper fully fledged co-promotion."
M-1 Global President Vadim Finkelchstein explains why top ranked heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko has been missing in action since a second round knockout over Brett Rogers last November on CBS. Finky wants Strikeforce to do a better job of co-promoting including (but not limited to) the addition of more M-1 contracted fighters on co-promoted shows and well as an increased brand awareness so that stateside audiences don't think it's merely a Strikeforce show that just happens to have Fedor appearing. Anyone think Scott Coker is having second thoughts about his M-1 relationship? Or is M-1 not getting what they paid for?
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