The reason why Ben Askren and Fedor will and never will fight in the UFC...

[thobra]

Sure they knew it but what is your point? The UFC has never let another fighter fight in another combat sport (except the co-promoting with Chuck in Pride and look how that turned out...).

Fedor knew this coming into the negotiations with the UFC. It was a point they would never budge on. It had nothing to do with Russia or Sambo or Fedor. It was about protecting their brand and making sure that events didn't get fucked up by something outside of their control.

Fedor and management knew this was a deal breaker and yet they still negotiated with the UFC for months.

And on Fedor's return he went to Bellator rather than the UFC. Probably because they pay top dollar for has beens and the UFC doesn't.

Let's compare the success and brand between the UFC, M1 and Bellator? I'd say Fedor needed the UFC a lot more than the UFC needed Fedor.

He chose Strikeforce because they made a better deal, And the UFC would not allow him to do Sambo. I am not so sure the UFC even offered much money, or worked very hard to get him, since they knew Fedor could never accept it if he couldn’t do Sambo anyway.

Since SF also had the best HW fighters at the time, it was the place to go.

Sure. On his return, Bellator also gave him the best deal. They love the old stars.

As in any other job, Fedor chose the employer that paid most, And could solve his needs.

 

[thobra]

his last world championship in sambo was 10 years ago. it really wasn't a big thing, and combat sambo has only even HAD a world championship for 17 years.

here's how fuckin huge it is:

What Are you talking about? Fedor was the Face of Sambo, And one of the most popular athletes in Russia, carrying the olympic torch, And leader of the Sambo fed. Yes, And the talks with UFC And SF was almost 10 years ago

 

[kflo]

What Are you talking about? Fedor was the Face of Sambo, And one of the most popular athletes in Russia, carrying the olympic torch, And leader of the Sambo fed. Yes, And the talks with UFC And SF was almost 10 years ago

he's all of those things because he was a dominant mma champ and represented russia as global athlete in mma, not because people give a fuck about combat sambo.

 

[suffersystem]

Ben Askren is too boring? Yep, its a good thing the UFC never brought in a top 5 ranked WW when they had the chance...this being the premier MMA organization and all. Gotta make way for all those exciting and technically proficient WMMA fighters like Betche, Magana, etc. Peak talent in all of those divisions. Not to mention the legit MMA fighters like Phil Brooks and Mike Jackson, who are obviously worthy of being in the UFC, and who are no doubt going to put on a barn-burner performance full of high level MMA.

Unfortunately we will never know if he was actually top 5 material. he has one top 15 win, from almost a decade ago.

 

[SavageAngel]

I'm still sore we didn't get Rousey x Cyborg. That beating would've been so epic.

 

[thobra]

he's all of those things because he was a dominant mma champ and represented russia as global athlete in mma, not because people give a fuck about combat sambo.

He was all of this because he was the most dominating Sambo champ in Russia, And the Pride of the country. As Sambo is a military sport. Sure, also using Sambo to be an mma champ helped.

 

[Takes_Two_To_Tango]

Fedor ducked ufc.
Ben is too boring for ufc

If he ducked the UFC, why did he fight UFC champions like Arlovski and Sylvia?

 

[kflo]

He was all of this because he was the most dominating Sambo champ in Russia, And the Pride of the country. As Sambo is a military sport. Sure, also using Sambo to be an mma champ helped.

Lol. Cmon. Do you have any evidence combat sambo has any popularity? Again I posted fedor in an empty gym fighting for the championships. Guys are no shows for matches. There’s almost no coverage.

Sport sambo is much bigger and more competitive.

 

[TUFNewb]

Which fight?
I don't mind being wrong. Was Ben ever close to being finished in his 18 pro fights? Or did he have a close fight?

He won a very close 5 round split d over Jay Heiron, a fight which many thought he lost.

It was a long time ago, so it doesn't mean a ton, but Jay was probably the most decorated collegiate wrestler he has fought, and I think that fight shows how well rounded guys with good defensive wrestling could give Ben a lot of trouble.

 

[thobra]

Lol. Cmon. Do you have any evidence combat sambo has any popularity? Again I posted fedor in an empty gym fighting for the championships. Guys are no shows for matches. There’s almost no coverage.

Sport sambo is much bigger and more competitive.

Sigh... you Are just making this up for no reason..
Since the 80s, Sambo has exploded, And is one of the really big sports in Russia And the states around, with millions of competitors.

Obviously, sports Sambo is more for the masses, like more guys do wrestling than mma, as it is less violent.

Fedor is a big star in Russia And one of their biggest sports stars.

 

[opie]

:shrugs:

They chose not working for a jerk over making big scratch and the big publicity that comes fighting in the biggest MMA promotion in the world

I mean, if that's what's important to them, great.

There are sooooooo many other fighters that were able to work with Dana White without issue, so if they couldn't make it work, seems like that's on Askren and Fedor more than anything else.

fedor was in the premier organization until that organization folded. ufc didn’t get rolling til after pride. fedor fought the most dominant ufc champ and ran him over. he fought another ufc champ and knocked him out cold with one punch.

dana wanted his champ to fight pride’s champ. pride told dana he could enter his champ in the tournament if he wants a chance. his champ didn’t make it past the second round of the tournament. the guy that beat dana’s champ went on to get shitted on by the pride champ.

hate all you want, but the ufc was a b-tier org until pride fell apart due to yakuza involvement.

 

[Bacco]

Lol at any douche siding with dana on this

He shown more than once his colors, he let his fat-lady personality interfering with business

In actual pro-sports are athletes the crazy ones and promoters/businessmen have to find solutions

You don't see more fighters say fuckoff because ufc got monopoly


Who know where ufc will be now if they got an actually high level figure instead the Fertittas putting him there because they was childhood friends

 

[PEDS Help me Post]

Fedor ducked ufc.
Ben is too boring for ufc

lol 3sumrock is the 3rd post in a Fedor thread.

His alert system must be faltering.

 

[PEDS Help me Post]

Well said.

As much as I would've loved to have seen Fedor in the octagon... UFC integrity might've taken a bit if they showed that much leniency towards one specific, albeit special, fighter.

The ufc made the right 'business' move, per say, and I can't say I completely fault them for it.

And so did Fedor.


He's sitting at a $20 million net worth while the 35 year old guy who just broke the UFC HW title defense record has a net worth of $2 million.

It seems like Fedor handled his career just fine.

 

[Jarvan]

?

The title of your thread which continued into the post was

"The reason why ben askren and fedor will never fight in the UFC is... Dana White"

Like I said, I agree on Askren but you said Dana was the issue with Fedor when it simply wasn't.

''' Dana can't take full blame for this one because Fedor's got a shady management team behind him and perhaps looking into their interests more so than the interests of Fedor. But whatever the case might be, it's a fuckin shame. '''

I'm still not sure where you're getting that from.

 

[Mmmmmmma1234]

Dana a pretty shitty business man imo and always a was the ufc growth was inspite of him, way more than he's helped he's a dinosaur that should have been replaced long ago, worse yet WME gave him more power and that's why it's #s are down.

 

[Dave Poodle]

We all know why the UFC will not let guys do other combat sports when in contract. And that is why they chose not to sign Fedor. But everyone, including the Fertittas know and understand that Fedor could never be signed if he wasn't allowed to fight Sambo. An american company could never pressure the face of russian sports to stop doing Sambo, and they obviously knew that. If they really wanted him, they needed to make an exception. Strikeforce did.

While we'll never know exactly how things went down Dana said later on that they relented and offered to allow him to do sambo but the co-promotion thing was something they couldn't get around.
M-1 Global were also a pain in the arse to deal with according to Strikeforce, making even more demands once he was fighting there. That deal was one of the things they cited as scaring off their investors.

 

[Pacemaker Joe]

Will and never will? Are they the Schrödinger's cat of MMA?

 

[thobra]

While we'll never know exactly how things went down Dana said later on that they relented and offered to allow him to do sambo but the co-promotion thing was something they couldn't get around.
M-1 Global were also a pain in the arse to deal with according to Strikeforce, making even more demands once he was fighting there. That deal was one of the things they cited as scaring off their investors.

Of course, the co-promotion was difficult. So was the Sambo. I am not saying that The UFC did wrong in not getting a deal with Fedor. It was probably a well thought out decision, but Strikeforce got the deal, so they obviously offered more, And at that time the UFC could have done the same if they really wanted him.

Still, at the time, Strikeforce had more top 10 And top 5 HWs, so it was the place to fo for the big guys.

 

[Katsumi Yamada]

Free fact: Have never seen an Askren fight and not sure have ever seen a highlight gif. Maybe bc he doesn't have 1?

But you're right: money decision. Would cost too much without enough draw back. Fedor is shot, he struggles in LHW division today

That's too bad you're missing out.

Best displays of technical wrestling I've seen in MMA.

You should go and learn what elite wrestling in MMA looks like...if you want to post like you know what you are talking about on MMA forum in future.