M-1: UFC Trying to ‘Ruin’ Fedor’s Sponsorships

M-1 Global says that Tapout withdrew a potential seven-figure, one-year sponsorship deal with Fedor Emelianenko earlier this week after the UFC told the clothing company to dump the fighter or lose access to UFC events.

Emelianenko, who meets Fabricio Werdum on Saturday at the Strikeforce/M-1 Global card in San Jose, Calif., was to have worn a specially designed Tapout T-shirt during his fight entrance, according to M-1. The Holland-based management group said the shirt went on pre-sale briefly this week before it was abruptly pulled from Tapout’s Web site.

“It was our understanding that the T-shirt was in production,” M-1 Global President Vadim Finkelchstein told Sherdog.com on Friday through an interpreter. “However, at the beginning of this week, we were told by our sponsorship representative that Tapout had received a call from (UFC President) Dana (White), which involved him saying that if Fedor signs a T-shirt deal with Tapout, then Tapout would be out of the UFC.”

Phone and e-mail requests for comment sent to Tapout on Friday were not initially returned. The UFC said it would not comment on the matter.

M-1 Global Director of Operations Evgeni Kogan said the management group was approached with the Tapout deal three to four weeks ago through its U.S. representatives. Numerous negotiations followed between the three parties for the next two weeks, said Kogan, including a conversation that specifically centered around whether there would be a problem with the UFC if a T-shirt deal was executed between Emelianenko and Tapout.

“The person from Tapout management told us that, no, there weren’t going to be any problems, that Tapout was a company that was older than the UFC and they were a company which has been in the market with fighters that don’t necessarily fight in the UFC,” said Finkelchstein.

According to Kogan, the Tapout representative told M-1 Global that the apparel brand company did have “issues” promoting other organizations outside the UFC, so a proposed T-shirt would not be able to feature the M-1 Global name or logo, to which the parties agreed. Kogan said a letter of agreement had been sent out by Tapout, but it wasn’t signed and returned before the apparel company allegedly changed its decision.

Finkelchstein said Emelianenko handled news of the soured Tapout deal the same way he handles everything -- calmly.

“Fedor isn’t greedy,” said Finkelchstein. “He’s used to these kind of fallouts from our friend Dana White, and to be honest, this didn’t come as a surprise (to him).”

Finkelchstein took a harder stance than his client, though.

“How does a T-shirt deal for fighter have anything to do with the UFC?” asked Finkelchstein, who has managed Emelianenko throughout his 10-year career. “The same thing happened with the RVCA deal we had, and this shows that there is constant pressure, that we’re constantly trying to be tripped up by the UFC.”

Finkelchstein said RVCA, another clothing company that sponsors MMA fighters, pulled the plug on Emelianenko last fall after sponsoring him for two of the three fights agreed upon in their signed contract. RVCA also had a three-year deal to produce Emelianenko-branded clothing (outside of his fight attire), said Finkelchstein, but that deal was terminated as well after the UFC allegedly banned the company from sponsoring longtime RVCA fighters B.J. Penn and Vitor Belfort until it cut Emelianenko loose.

Emelianenko’s contract with RVCA paid $10,000 a month for three years, totaling $360,000 plus a percentage of the T-shirt sales, said Finkelchstein. M-1 Global estimates that Emelianenko lost around $1 million after it acquiesced to RVCA’s request to quietly walk away from the contract.

Finkelstein believes the proposed Tapout deal -- which he said would have been largely based on a percentage of sales from multiple T-shirts worn by Emelianenko at news conferences, in training and around his fights -- could have generated even more revenue than the RVCA arrangement.

Finkelchstein also said M-1 Global remained silent about the aborted RVCA deal because it “had no interest in punishing companies that wanted to work” in the industry.

“We’re not the UFC. We’re not Dana White and we have no interest in hurting the business of other companies and organizations,” said Finkelchstein. “Unlike Dana White, who’s sometimes cruel, we have no interest in hurting other people in this business, or companies for that matter.”

RVCA representative Brad Blankinship said he had no comment regarding M-1 Global’s assertion that the company bowed to pressure from White to cancel its arrangement with Emelianenko last winter. (RVCA has been reinstituted as an approved sponsor of UFC fighters.)

“We never had a formal deal with Fedor and we remain friends,” said Blankinship. “We wish Fedor the best of luck in his fight this week.”

The UFC’s White has made no secret that the promotion wishes to sign the sought-after Russian fighter, who hasn’t lost since 2000 and has amassed a 31-1 record.

Last summer, Emelianenko was offered a multi-fight, seven-figure contract with the UFC, but he declined the exclusive deal. Emelianenko went on to sign with Strikeforce -- which has been willing to co-promote with his M-1 Global management on shows he appears in -- a couple of weeks later. White continues to voice his intentions to eventually bring the 33-year-old heavyweight into the UFC stable.

“It’s like (White’s) chasing us everywhere, and he’s trying to ruin everything,” said Finkelchstein. “There is constant pressure being exerted on us. We don’t comment about anyone. We don’t harm anyone. We’re just doing what we’re doing, and there’s this constant pressure being put on Fedor like he’s hunted everywhere he goes. Any influence they can exert on his career, if not directly then by any other means, they do it.”

In addition to the failed Tapout and RVCA deals, Finkelchstein said there has been a clear pattern of companies expressing interest in Emelianenko but then not entering into business deals with him for fear of repercussions from the UFC.

“There are a number of companies that, because of pressure from the UFC, have never gone into a deal with us because they were afraid of what the consequences would be based on the precedence of companies that have sponsored him (in the past),” he said.

In Tapout’s absence on Saturday, Clinch Gear has stepped in to sponsor Emelianenko and start off a one-year, non-exclusive deal. Clinch Gear shirts bearing Emelianenko’s name and the Russian crest began shipping Friday.

Clinch Gear, which was founded by former UFC top-five contender Dan Henderson and Aaron Crecy, has had its own history with White and the UFC. When Henderson wouldn’t re-sign with the promotion last year, the UFC banned the fighter’s clothing brand from sponsoring its fighters. Henderson subsequently signed with Strikeforce.

“We’re banned from the UFC and the WEC and we haven’t contested that,” Crecy told Sherdog.com Friday. “We understand they have their reasons. We’re excited for the opportunity to partner with someone like Fedor Emelianenko and we’re really grateful to have the opportunity to work with Strikeforce because it’s brought opportunities like this. We’ve had more exposure through Strikeforce than any other deal we’ve had before. They’ve opened doors for us, and we feel like we’re growing with the promotion. If you ask any MMA fan, I think the Clinch Gear brand has become markedly more visible in the last seven months since we left the UFC.”

Crecy said Tapout has been a “fantastic” sponsor of Henderson in the last year as well.

“I feel bad for Tapout if they were in a position where they were forced to choose between sponsoring Fedor and remaining in the UFC,” said Crecy. “That’s a tough position to be in.”

Finkelchstein said he was upset by the week’s developments but feels the industry’s landscape won’t change anytime soon.

“Currently the conductor of everything is Dana White, so what can we do?” said Finkelchstein. “The only thing we can do is shrug our shoulders and continue on. We’ve told the truth and there’s no reason to hide.”