UFC president Dana White has blasted Fedor Emelianenko’s management team, M-1 Global, for failing to do a deal with the UFC when they had an opportunity.
Speaking post-fight at UFC 133 to MMA Fighting‘s Ariel Helwani, White once again turned to criticise the Russian and his advisor Vadim Finklestein.
“Was Fedor the best in the world in 2005? I don’t know, we’ll never know the answer. And here the honest to god truth, and Fedor, and the crazy Russians know this, they know it, they can’t deny it, they can’t lie about it, they can’t say anything about it and if you do, you know the real f***ing story.
“We went out there and we made them a crazy offer, to come in to the UFC and prove he was the best in the world and they turned it down. Nobody in the right f***ing mind would have turned that deal down. But they did because they did not want to fight here.
“And if they really did, and I’m talking to you guys the crazy Russians if you really did turn that deal down because it was all about the co-promotion then you destroyed a guy who could possibly have come in and proven he was the best.
“They know it, they know what I’m talking about. You know what I’m talking about, we sat in a room, we were willing to do anything to make the deal happen. One thing you gotta understand about us and you can think I’m lying or whatever talking about the fans, I don’t f***ing care. When you guys say that you want to see a fight, I try and make that fight happen, that’s what I believe my job is and if you don’t believe… I don’t give a shit.
“I flew to some f***ing island out in the middle of nowhere, OK, and did everything that they asked to do, did everything they wanted us to do to go make this fight happen and we went there for nothing, those guys literally went there to not make a deal.
“I tried to make it happen. He would have come in to the UFC and fought Brock Lesnar, that’s what he would have done and we would have saw who won or lost. If Brock lost and Fedor won… I don’t make those decisions, the fighters do but I went out there and gave him an insane offer, insane and I’m so glad he didn’t take it. Now that I’ve seen what happened and how this has played out, I’m thrilled he did not take that offer.”
White didn’t hold back about what he thought when speaking about Vadim Finklestein, who always appeared to be the biggest obstacle to a deal in the past.
“Vadummy knows, he knows the offer, and his f***ing guy some political guy who laughed at the deal, I bet you’re not laughing now guys….I told them, I told them he was one punch away from being worth zero.”
