Video interview Vadim Finkelstein

[Harrie Nak]

Vadim Finkelstein gaf een video interview aan mixfight.ru om opheldering te geven n.a.v. alle negatieve vragen en persberichten over hoe M-1 Fedor zou behandelen.

Gelukkig vond ik ook nog een vertaling van de meest interessante punten die besproken werden:

Half of fights in the prelims of June 26th show will have M-1 fighters. Some from Korea, America, and Russia including Magomed Shikhshabekov.

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Western press likes to tell fairy tales, like "Crazy Russians"... "Fedor's Manager", that we were offered 30 million contracts. I tried to answer these points, but for some reason they are not printing my answers...

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If Dana White really wanted Fedor competing in the UFC, he would already be in the UFC. He doesn't really want to. He just makes it visible as if he wants Fedor.

Fedor and M-1 are two different things. Fedor does not compete for M-1. M-1 is just trying to organize fights for Fedor with good fighters. And if these fights will be on UFC's territory, no problem.

Fedor has his own company like Oscar De La Hoya has Golden Boy. This company was made around Fedor. And our current goal is to create new breed of young fighters, and not to compete with Strikeforce or UFC. We need those companies solely as an apparatus to use them for our fighters to grow and appear on big TV channels, so that viewers recognize them.

So don't make us into monsters, as if we are against a big fight. We REALLY want a fight with Lesnar. We are wishing for it so bad. Fedor wants this fight. But it does not depend on us, or that we are twisting UFC's arm and demand a co-promotion. We were ready to agree to other terms, but nobody offers them. They are just making us to be some donkeys, crazy Russians, that we are trying to steal their business, and all that. And the biggest thing I cannot understand is how our (Russian) websites are supporting Americans...

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I tried to answer Dana White's comments many times, about him saying that we demanded to build an academy or other crazy things. I tried to send them all over, Sherdog, and other sites, but nobody would publish them. Because they receive money from the big monster (UFC).

They are trying to say that Finkelstein uses Fedor. Fedor is one of the smartest guys. He knows and understands everything. And every little thing - I talk it over with him. I think it's silly to think that Fedor is an idiot, or that I'm an idiot because we are just trying to stand up for our interests.

Question: Why can't Fedor come to UFC event, and sit in the front row for cameras to show him and talk about him, so that it would be a big PR in America.

To fly 11 hours over there, just to go to UFC... I'm not sure. If Dana White invites us, perhaps we will come if we happen to be in America at the time.

But you know that Fedor is not that kind of person. He's not just going to fly 11 hours to America just for a PR stunt. He had a million of such invites for bigger shows than UFC: American Wrestling, Superbowl, front row seats with all the stars, but Fedor didn't go. Because he doesn't need this fame, which he said many times. He's a simple normal man.

[micha]

niet echt verhelderend verhaal