It looks like the show is over for M-1 Global. Sherdog.com’s Greg Savage confirmed earlier reports that Fedor Emelianenko was headed to free agency in an interview with M-1 Global’s CEO Monte Cox. Cox stated that Fedor had never signed a contract with the promotion, and that the letter of intent only prohibited him from fighting outside the promotion while both sides were talking money.

Cox stated later that attorney fees from the negotiations went “well into six-figures” without ever getting a contract signed. He also said that Fedor’s side commanded a significant amount of money that would have made it much harder to be successful.

Fedor’s demands

One of the issues that came up in the article was regarding the amounts of money that Fedor was requesting in the contract negotiations. Although we don’t have specific numbers, the question comes up as to whether or not it was Fedor’s management and Fedor himself asking for large amounts, or if M-1 Global simply blew their wad on the signing bonus and simply couldn’t pay for a fighter like Fedor to fight at over $1 million per fight.

In researching Sibling Sports back when M-1 Global first broke onto the scene, it was evident that Sibling didn’t have a large amount of money to play with. Their finances didn’t show any large backers like the Fertittas, and their business sense was mostly in theatrical events instead of sports. We still remained optimistic because of the addition of Fedor to the promotion, but logical minds prevailed in predicting this downfall.

This is likely a case of both sides being at fault. M-1 Global has held at least one small event in Europe, but has likely not made a big profit from the event. They spent $1.5 million dollars on a signing bonus to Fedor Emelianenko and have yet to create a roster of fighters or a larger stage event in the States or in Europe. With little to no money coming in and a lot of dollars moving out, it’s likely that the penny pinching is about to begin. Fedor’s demands were likely too massive for M-1 Global to deal with as well, and as Cox stated in the interview, he feels that the promotion can now turn a profit without sinking big money into Fedor. I tend to agree considering Fedor isn’t a draw in the States… yet.

Differences in philosophy

Another issue that sprouted during the interview was the differences in philosophy between M-1 Global’s American division and their division in Europe that was being handled mainly by Fedor’s management team and M-1 Mixfight administration. Cox had this to say about the dealings:

"We have different philosophies," Cox said. "It's just the way that it is. For me, I'm not as concerned about all the glitz and the glamour of the show; I just want to have good fights and I want to make money. That was my goal."

I expected this to be a problem for the promotion in terms of production ideas for different regions of the world. It should have also been expected that Cox would likely have a much different view of how to run an event since he is much more an organizer of small promotions in the Midwest than giant productions like the UFC or EliteXC.

I admire Cox’s stance on producing good fights. For far too long, we’ve seen some terribly lopsided battles on Japanese cards that have produced ratings to an extent, but were nothing more than a spectacle. Those fans who hated those fights still need to understand that spectacle makes money in Japan, and that’s likely where M-1 Global Europe was heading.

In the States, I’m not so inclined to believe that unbelievably giant Koreans taking on WWE wrestlers would produce the same type of ratings, but different kinds of spectacles can produce the same type of hysteria. Kimbo Slice is one of those guys. He may not be the greatest technical striker in the game today, but his legendary status that has accumulated through Youtube videos has only helped in grabbing viewership to see him knockout a recognizable name from the past.

In the end, I think it still comes down to money when we talk about differences in producing an event. From the quote, it sounds as if M-1 Global Europe wanted the production values of PRIDE and M-1 Global in the States wanted quality fights with less production values. Monte’s idea would be a much better business model to make money by far, and it was probably the best idea for the promotion in its infancy. Creating PRIDE production values costs a lot of money, and I’m sure that was a deciding factor as well to break off the partnership.

Final thoughts

Zach Arnold called it… I bow to the Nostradamus of FightOpinion.com. The interesting part about all of this is that it very much seems like M-1 Global had less money than what was originally thought. Fedor’s demands were extremely high, and their European division wanted “glitz and glamour” over actual quality in their fights. The differences amount to one side wanting PRIDE, and the other side wanting HDNet Fights, and we all know what happened to PRIDE. Monte Cox made a smart move regardless if M-1 Global in the States succeeds or not.