Fedor 'much closer' to UFC deal
The biggest story coming out of Monday's edition of The MMA Hour was the news that Fedor Emelianenko is in active negotiations with the UFC.
According to "The Last Emperor", this is the closest he's come to stepping into the Octagon since he returned from a brief retirement last December.
"I would answer it like this," Emelianenko told host Ariel Helwani in Russian through a translator. "Right now I am much closer compared to when I just came back."
Emelianenko made short work of Jaideep Singh in his comeback, and is now set to face former UFC light heavyweight Fabio Maldonado this Friday at Eurasia Fight Nights 50 in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Singh and Maldonado are emblematic of the subpar competition Emelianenko has faced since he last fought for the Strikeforce promotion in America. The best heavyweights reside in the UFC, the one major company that Emelianenko has never worked for.
Helwani asked if Emelianenko's next fight will be in the UFC, and he gave a characteristically cryptic response.
"Let me put it like this: On June 18 (after the Maldonado fight), I am open for negotiations with all possible organizations."
One major distinction between these negotiations and previous flirtations with the UFC is the apparent absence of M-1 Global president Vadim Finkelstein.
Emelianenko was managed by Finkelstein for years, and it was understood that Emelianenko would not fight for any promotion unless they agreed to take on M-1 as a copromoter.
However, Finkelstein and M-1 are no longer part of the process.
"We're not working with Vadim anymore because of a number of circumstances," said Emelianenko.
The 39-year-old heavyweight legend would not specify what details were left to be ironed out, but he spoke highly of the opportunity to fight in the UFC even though nothing is close to being set in stone.
"I wanted to point out that I always wanted to fight for the UFC, and I would fight for UFC, but at this moment we're looking at a deal and that deal has to satisfy both parties, them and my organization," said Emelianenko.
"And as long as we have friction and as long as we are not 100% in terms of seeing eye to eye, we are all basically in limbo."