"Why didn't Fedor just sign with the UFC?"To understand him is to recognize that given the circumstances, it was never a choice.
Hearing Fedor discuss the UFC negotiations and understanding his background and motivation, it is obvious that he was as likely to accept the UFC's offer as he was to become a completely different man.
In particular Finkelchtein, Fedor's manager, cited the harshness of the UFC's terms and the organization's inflexibility as two issues preventing an agreement. There were some specifics, such as the widely publicized clause that wouldn't let Fedor compete in combat sambo and the UFC's refusal to sign some of his Red Devil teammates.
"I never met Dana White, never spoke to him on the phone, never exchanged e-mails," Fedor said. "However, I did read a lot on the Internet about what he said in regard to me and Vadim []. I also read e-mails that he sent to Vadim; all of his correspondence was very upsetting. The contract that we were presented with by the UFC was simply impossible, couldn't be signed -- I couldn't leave. If I won, I had to fight eight times in two years. If I lost one fight, then the UFC had the right to rip up the contract. At the conclusion of the contract, if I am undefeated, then it automatically extends for an as yet unspecified period of time, though for the same compensation.
"Basically I can't leave undefeated. I can't give interviews, appear in films or advertising. I don't have the right to do anything without the UFC's agreement. I could do nothing without the OK from the UFC. I didn't have the right to compete in combat sambo competition. It's my national sport. It's the Russian sport, which in his time our president competed in, and I no longer have the right to do so. There were many such clauses; the contract was 18 pages in length. It was written in such a way that I had absolutely no rights while the UFC could at any moment, if something didn't suit them, tear up the agreement. We worked with lawyers who told us that it was patently impossible to sign such a document."Fedor is a man who fought all of his life to be independent of the system, to belong to himself and to forge his own future. He is where he is because of the people around him.
In his view the UFC offer, which was not open for reasonable negotiation, proposed that he exchange everything that makes him who he is -- his team, his freedom and his future -- in return for more money than anyone else at the time was making and the possibility of fighting in the strongest heavyweight division in the sport."
From the article on Sherdog.com
I am super excited to see him fight Hong Man Choi, when he could be fighting Randy.
NOT. I cannot believe the way Dana and the UFC do things. This is the biggest MMA matchup of
ALL time (or all times as Dana says incorrectly)... Hopefully Dana White and the UFC will see the light like HDnet fights and start co promoting (they did this in the past when it benefited them.
Read the rest of the story on Sherdog by clicking here here
