M-1 Global and Fedor Emelianenko File Suit Against Affliction
Posted by Larry Csonka on 11.03.2009
Well this sounds messy…
M-1 Global and Fedor Emelianenko have filed suit against Affliction Clothing, Affliction Entertainment and 50 unnamed "John Does" in California's Central District. Here is the deal. The complaint alleges that Strikeforce, Affliction, and M-1 reached an agreement with M-1 to allow Brett Rogers to fight Fedor Emelianenko at Affliction: Trilogy. But at the time, it was unknown to Fedor and M-1 that Affliction was working on a renewed deal with the UFC that would force Affliction out of the MMA business.
The complaint alleges that Affliction kept these negotiations secret to trick M-1 into believing they were looking for a replacement and that the show would go on. They did not inform M-1 of its ongoing negotiations and new deal until July 24, 2009. At this time, Fedor had already flown back to Russia.
The deal to allow Brett Rogers to fight Fedor Emelianenko on Affliction: Trilogy was completed the day before the show was canceled, and during that time, Affliction was actively pursuing two options, those being the UFC deal, which if closed, they would cancel the show. The other was if they didn't close, they would promote Fedor vs. Rogers.
The complaint also alleges that Todd Beard told M-1 that Affliction could not and would not promote internationally. They agreed to allow M-1 to pursue any such opportunities with Affliction content, which is what they did. M-1 began working on deals to broadcast the show in Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, South America, Eastern Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia, etc. M-1 says that Affliction was supposedly aware of all of this, and argues that Affliction knew it would force M-1 to breach its contract with all of its international partners if it canceled the event.
The complaint then goes on to state that the above mentioned led to the event being canceled and "determining what discussions and agreements took place between Affliction and the UFC, and when these discussions took place, Plaintiffs will amend this complaint to add additional allegations, causes of actions, and parties as supported by the facts discovered."
Annnnnnnnnnnd now we know why Fedor wouldn't go to the UFC.
Posted By: Jon (Guest) on November 03, 2009 at 08:00 PM
I can hear Dana now..... "Those crazy Russians"
Posted By: Guest#1582 (Guest) on November 03, 2009 at 08:54 PM
im sorry im reading all of this and i dont understand wtf is wrong haha.. so M-1 is mad that affliction did secret negotiations with UFC and didnt promote their fight with rogers? even tho the fight didnt go down and the company went under.... so then they didnt have to then..
watever i dont care!
Posted By: wylun (Guest) on November 04, 2009 at 01:02 AM
Actually, it seems their complaints are very valid. Especially the part about M-1 Global setting up TV deals internationally. I hope, for Affliction's sake, that they settle.
Posted By: Josh (Guest) on November 04, 2009 at 04:51 AM
The sad thing is strikeforce will go away at some point. Faster if Fedor loses to Brett. But the Legacy of MMA will be told through UFC. In 20 years the books will written by UFC. If Fedor doesn't get his butt in the UFC then he will just be a foot note to the pages. He's needs to get in there and be man.
Posted By: NewBreedofMMA (Guest) on November 04, 2009 at 08:04 AM
If you read between the lines, the UFC offered Affliction the chance to cease operations even though they clearly didn't need to. You know they didn't need to, because they were ready to promote Rogers as Barnett's stand-in should the deal with UFC not happen.
But what DID happen was Affliction snatched the money out of UFC's hand and took a dump on all their fighters, left people out of work (remember how pissed off Gegard Mousasi was?), left fighters mid-training with no one to fight, and all because the UFC decided it didn't want Affliction as competition anymore and Affliction fancied a quick buck.
It cost M-1 a lot of money and a lot of respect from the TV companies as well as doing over the fighters. So now M-1 is going to sue Affliction for taking unnecessary action when they'd already signed contracts and made plans for a show.
Did it REALLY make sense that Barnett pulling out of the main event would RUIN the entire company? They spent millions and millions, Barnett no longer competing would do zero damage in comparison, yet they go under? Yeah, they copped out. Now they're getting sued, because Affliction NEVER. WENT. BUST. The company still exists. They just chickened out of MMA events.
Posted By: Jon (Guest) on November 04, 2009 at 09:07 AM
Um... Doesn't anyone remember Strikeforce denying the use of Rogers on Affliction Trilogy?
Posted By: Todd Vote (Registered) on November 04, 2009 at 10:31 AM
This guy summed it up perfectly:
"Annnnnnnnnnnd now we know why Fedor wouldn't go to the UFC.
Posted By: Jon (Guest) on November 03, 2009 at 08:00 PM"
Posted By: Chico Whoretiz (Guest) on November 04, 2009 at 12:09 PM
Afflicition was hemmoraging money...if the event happened, they would have went completely bust and not even had a t-shirt company anymore. Afflicition HAD to close to save themselves.
M-1 is secretly the Russian mob. Fuck them. And fuck Fedor for being a pussy and not being his own man. Hope Rogers KTFO him on Saturday.
Posted By: Ramsey (Guest) on November 04, 2009 at 12:54 PM
No Fedor didn't go to the UFC because he wants to be big fish in a little pond.
Posted By: thejyav (Guest) on November 04, 2009 at 12:59 PM
M-1 Global and Fedor kill companies.... not people.......
Posted By: Daniel (Guest) on November 04, 2009 at 09:57 PM
