M-1 flat out said that they didn't want Fedor fighting Reem because they knew he was on steroids. Fedor himself apparently didn't care but his management didn't want it to happen.
This was before Fedor had lost to Werdum and M-1 basically said that if Fedor ended up losing to Reem and he popped later (which he did), that would have been a really shitty end to Fedor's run. Coker did set up the Strikeforce HW tourney with the goal of Fedor vs. Reem in the finals, it just didn't work out. M-1 wanted extra drug testing if it happened.
Fedor didn't duck Reem. M-1 was just looking out for their interests and had just cause for not wanting the fight to take place.