Fedor Emelianenko, M-1 sue Affliction over collapse of Trilogy show

Steve Sievert, MMAjunkie.com Nov 5, 12:55 pm EST

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As Fedor Emelianenko prepares to make his Strikeforce debut Saturday in Chicago, he still wants a piece of Affliction.

The Russian heavyweight and M-1 have filed suit in California district court against Affliction and its MMA promotional division seeking damages for breach of contract. The lawsuit stems from Affliction's cancellation of its Trilogy show in August.

Under terms of the fighter's agreement with Affliction, Emelianenko was to fight for the promotion three times and earn $300,000, plus travel and accommodation expenses for each bout. Affliction delivered only two of those bouts and, according to the suit, also breached the "covenant of good faith and fair dealing" as it related to its fighter agreement with Emelianenko.

According to the suit, after Josh Barnett failed a drug test and was knocked off the card, Brett Rogers was tapped as a replacement and was willing to fight Emelianenko at Trilogy. However, Emelianenko and M-1 allege that, "Affliction elected to serve its own financial interests at the expense of its partners" by sponsoring the UFC, instead of staging its third show.

Emelianenko and M-1 assert that Affliction didn't inform them about negotiations with the UFC to resurrect its sponsorship agreement, the successful outcome of which would have led to the cancellation of Trilogy.

And, ultimately that's how it played out.

The suit alleges that Affliction was "speaking out of both sides of its mouth" while it was actively involved in discussions with the UFC; at the same time it purportedly was negotiating to obtain a replacement fighter for Trilogy.

In addition, the lawsuit states that Affliction breached the duty of good faith and fair dealing by failing to sign Rogers and canceling the show. M-1 also alleges that Affliction failed to honor a consulting agreement in which M-1 was to provide consulting services to the upstart promotion.

With Emelianenko set to fight Rogers this weekend, the fighter and M-1 are getting the bout they sought last summer. However, that's a secondary matter. Affliction failed to deliver a payday Emelianenko and M-1 believe they rightful deserve.

Steve Sievert is the business columnist for MMAjunkie.com. He is also the former MMA beat writer and lead blogger for the Houston Chronicle.

Check out more UFC News at MMAjunkie.com. This story originally appeared on MMAjunkie.com and is syndicated on Yahoo! Sports as part of a content-partnership deal between the two sites.

Updated Nov 5, 12:55 pm EST
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  1. dlargemail
    90. Posted by dlargemail Tue Nov 10 4:31pm EST

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    Oh common nobody wants to say s#@! after the fight. He beats down the hope and all of a sudden its nope.
  2. dlargemail
    89. Posted by dlargemail Sun Nov 8 12:23pm EST

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    Well one thing everyone can agree on is I still cant spell for S$#!. Thats wreaks.
  3. dlargemail
    88. Posted by dlargemail Sun Nov 8 11:50am EST

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    Lets see Brock or anyone in the UFC leave their lilttle comfort zone and truly fight anyone in the world!
  4. dlargemail
    87. Posted by dlargemail Sun Nov 8 11:49am EST

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    rext the reason why Fedor was a 9 -1 favorite is because most of the people that bet on the fight knew Fedor is the one to beat. The fight was a joke hey. keep telling youself that! slim toast, your way of thinking reaks of nonsense. Fedor has had only 4 or 5 legit fights, are you serious? if you think his record is full of wins over washed up fighters your sorely mistaken. I kind of expected the talk to continue because of all you guys out there that will never accept him as the BEST! not even if he beats down Brock and Dos Santos and who ever else the UFC and their fans think can beat him. Fedors dominance is clear, and he doesn't have to join the UFC to prove that. If Fedor has only fought has beens and fighters not good enough to crack the top 10 why does the UFC want most of the guys he fought to fight for them? Anyone that thinks he is ducking fighters or hasn't fought the very best fighters( who would fight him not the other way around) is dreaming. Just keep telling yourselfs hes not the best and watch his record continue to climb into the sports realm of imortality.

    I guess Shogun is still over rated too hey. After taking a page out of Machidas book. Hes only fought has beens he shouldn't even be on the list right. You guys are full of it.


    Because you guys that hate cant see past the UFC let me say this, he is the best and what you or I think doesn't matter. And it probably never will!
  5. <i>doerfast</i>
    86. Posted by doerfast Sun Nov 8 10:29am EST

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    Broke Lesnar is 4-1. Wooo Eeee! He's fought 5 times and already has a lose. A lose to a has been to boot.

    He has a steroid a*s to boot! Fedor is 31-0 31-0 you nut lickers!

    Take Broke and Dana and let them get in the cage and ball lick each other. Now that would be worth PPV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  6. luchd
    85. Posted by luchd Sun Nov 8 10:16am EST

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    lmfao i knew that some of you haters were gonna say fedor fought a nobody and this and that about brock. but the fact is what it is yes everyone has a fighting and one punch chance but look at that russian in the ring hes so calm and rogers wasnt no walk in the park he caught fedor with blows that some of your best ufc fighters would have been tapping out from. but i know he has to come to what ya know is the best promotion in the world the u.f.c. to beat the best. who is the best in the u.f.c. randy,big nog,mirr,gonzaga,lesner,lmfao kongo omg mirr has a fighting chance and thats about it. please no history not his story. and no disrespect to big nog either he got it in with fedor
  7. ~~$SLIM$~~
    84. Posted by ~~$SLIM$~~ Sun Nov 8 9:57am EST

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    man all you fedor nuthuggers i agree with many people when they say that fedor " THE CHUMP" ONLY HAS FOUGHT WASHED UP LOSERS, he has only fought 4-5 guys that i think back in the day were legitimate top 15 even 20 fighters. HE FIGHTS BUMS, AND LOOKS GOOD DOING IT. thats it !!! of course if you took a fighter wiht a record like his and put him in the ring with a way lower level fighter hes gonna hand him his a$$. the main reason fedor and his pathetic m-1 global would not go to the ufc is because 1. THEY WANT MAJORITY CONTROL AND $$$$$$$.... AND 2. BECAUSE THEY DONT WANT TO SEE THERE PRECIOUS LITTLE MONeY COW GET HIS A$$ HANDED TO HIM... by the likes of cain valesquez, or any of the top 5 heavies in the ufc. so quit drinking the kool-aid and wake up!!!!
  8. Rich
    83. Posted by Rich Sun Nov 8 7:21am EST

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    The more I think about it, Dana White becomes more of an @#$%!
  9. rext
    82. Posted by rext Sun Nov 8 7:16am EST

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    What a joke this fight was i cant believe that Fedor is still even in top 5. Brett Rogers are you kidding me he was a 9-1 underdog when is Fedor gonna fight some real fighters!
  10. <i>tarheelaz</i>
    81. Posted by tarheelaz Sun Nov 8 2:25am EST

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    The more I think about it, Dana is going to have to offer Fedor ownership of the company to get him to fight in the UFC. It seems that he is all about money. Maybe one day we will see him there, but I am not holding my breath...
  11. danielc
    80. Posted by danielc Sat Nov 7 9:07pm EST

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    From what I read back in the day the thing that stopped the contract negotiations was that M-1 wanted to split all earnings with the UFC for any Emelianenko promotion. So I think that Dana was pretty smart to not sign that. Cause I sure as hell would not sell half of everything that I will earn in the future to hire one person no matter how great that person is.
  12. IDGAD
    79. Posted by IDGAD Sat Nov 7 2:35pm EST

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    What a load of crap! Know nothings putting themselves into the heads of people they wouldn't even know by sight, even if they were told they were in a crowded room with 'em. These are fully grown men who make decisions based in their own, hopefully, informed self interest. To attempt to seize some sort of moral 'high ground' about 'honor' or 'respect' by folks who know nothing of the generalities of such situations let alone the specifics reeks of juvenile fantasy, cheapening the meaning of both 'honor' and 'respect'.
  13. dlargemail
    78. Posted by dlargemail Sat Nov 7 12:58pm EST

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    Stupid post button on the screen. its happened to me too.

    Your right Royce had hopes of winning and He was fighting someone that was his weight. The simplistic nature of my comment earlier does not reflect fully on the situation. It does take more than just Matt Hughes saying I want Royce Gracie, however the fact remains that Royce was the underdog in the fight, and a heavy 1 at that. Dont get me wrong I think that Royce was instrumental in keeping UFC alive in the early days and I think his fight with Hughes was kind of a payback for the grueling tournaments of the early 90s with measly checks for fighters that had to potentially fight 3 or 4 times the same night in order to be the champ.

    Royce Gracie is an icon of the sport and even with the loss to Hughes I sill consider him easily a Hall of Famer. He didnt do his unbeaten status in the UFC any favours though by haveing a comback fight with a man who was at the very pinnacle of his MMA career. The 20 years past the prime thing was heavily exaggerated because I have an extremely poor sense of humor.
  14. sneakyfoot
    77. Posted by sneakyfoot Sat Nov 7 12:15pm EST

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    The UFC doesn't make fights on their own accord. The fighters have to agree to it and usually want two things: to be compensated fairly for the fight and to be matched with someone they believe they can win against. In other words, Gracie wanted the fight to happen too and honestly believed he could win. Perhaps he was in need of some cash and saw an opportunity to make more in one night than he ever had before: who knows? Either way, the fighters' camps also have a big influence on which fights they take so a lot of people had to come together to agree to that fight.
    Besides all that, Gracie wasn't 20 years past his prime. Most men hit maximum strength, bone density, etc between 30 and 33 yrs old. This is their "prime" for being a professional combat sport athlete. So Gracie was only about 7 years past his prime. I also seriously doubt that Hughes dreamed up this match up on his own. He too saw it as an opportunity for another big pay day that he was confident he could win. You can't blame the fighters for how these things go down. An organization makes matches to make money and fighters take them to keep the money rolling in. If it was a bad idea, the blame sets squarely on the shoulders of the match maker.
    They did, btw, fight at a catch weight so that Gracie wouldn't have a problem cutting weight. I am sure he honestly believed he had great chances in this fight because it was one of the rare opportunities he had to fight someone who didn't out-weigh him by 75 or 100 pounds.
  15. sneakyfoot
    76. Posted by sneakyfoot Sat Nov 7 12:15pm EST

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    The UFC doesn't make fights on their own accord. The fighters have to agree to it and usually want two things: to be compensated fairly for the fight and to be matched with someone they believe they can win against. In other words, Gracie wanted the fight to happen too and honestly believed he could win. Perhaps he was in need of some cash and saw an opportunity to make more in one night than he ever had before: who knows? Either way, the fighters' camps also have a big influence on which fights they take so a lot of people had to come together to agree to that fight.
    Besides all that, Gracie wasn't 20 years past his prime. Most men hit maximum strength, bone density, etc between 30 and 33 yrs old. This is their "prime" for being a professional combat sport athlete. So Gracie was only about 7 years past his prime. I also seriously doubt that Hughes dreamed up this match up on his own. He too saw it as an opportunity for another big pay day that he was confident he could win. You can't blame the fighters for how these things go down. An organization makes matches to make money and fighters take them to keep the money rolling in. If it was a bad idea, the blame sets squarely on the shoulders of the match maker.
    They did, btw, fight at a catch weight so that Gracie wouldn't have a problem cutting weight. I am sure he honestly believed he had great chances in this fight because it was one of the rare opportunities he had to fight someone who didn't out-weigh him by 75 or 100 pounds.
  16. dlargemail
    75. Posted by dlargemail Sat Nov 7 11:28am EST

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    They cant sighn Hendo because hes beaten most of the toughest guys to beat in the UFC and hes had some decent fights against champions like Anderson Silva and Rampage. when Hendo KO's someone that has 0 loss's on his record all the other guys that lost to that guy are like damn he just KO'd the guy I never had an awnser for. I doubt that anyone could find more than a handfull of fighters on the planet that really want Hendo right now. Hes not a stepping stone fighter that can be used to get to the top he comes prepared every time for the win. Thats why he left the UFC its got nothing to do with money it has to do with the fact that he is a very hard fight for anyone in middle or lightheavyweight so nobody wants to fight him. Talk about ducking fighters. Hendo is not a young buck anymore and he needs to stay active because father time is catching up with him. All fighters fight to be the Champ and if he cant do that with the UFC then he has to look elsewhere.
  17. dlargemail
    74. Posted by dlargemail Sat Nov 7 11:12am EST

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    Gracie was almost 20 years past his prime and I believe that the UFC wanted to show the world how MMA had changed, that's the reason they put on the Hughes vs Gracie fight. Even though he knew he was going to take a pounding in the fight he still went in there at 40+ years old and gave it his best shot. I believe that he probably would have had problems with most of the fighters in the UFC that night let alone the best welterweight in the world. It was a slap in the face before the fight even started. I would have rather seen a submission grappling match between the 2. Of all the fighters in the world they had to pick Royce to fight Hughes why is that? Because he stuck mainly to his original style and was an easy target for Hughes to showcase his skills.
  18. sneakyfoot
    73. Posted by sneakyfoot Fri Nov 6 11:39pm EST

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    I actually do believe Hughes' win over Gracie was an indicator of the evolution of the sport. This was a transition period when fighters were figuring out that they couldn't wake up at 12:00PM, drink a beer, do a few bench reps and call themselves fighters anymore. More and more, fighters began training with the same discipline and dedication as professional boxers or collegiate wrestlers. Gracie came from an era when noone was required to make weight or wisely choose a weight class that best suited them. He was the baddest dude on the planet during the budding years of the UFC, but when everone got scientific about their aproach to the sport... it meant the playing field was going to be more level from then on and that included for the master (Gracie) himself.
  19. sneakyfoot
    72. Posted by sneakyfoot Fri Nov 6 11:30pm EST

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    dlargemail, I didn't say Hughs beat Gracie with wrestling. I didn't even come close to saying that. I said he had a huge strength advantage. It's one that almost all wrestles enjoy over the average martial artist due to their training and weight cutting. Hughes dominance was a display of how much stronger he was than his opponent regardless of the fighting style he was employing during the bout. And as for wrestlers in the "olden days"... I know they were there, but they (on average) didn't have the pedigrees that many of the modern fighters do. Lesnar could probably attest to that. I don't think Coleman or any of the other old timers could hold a candle to Lesnar's wrestling prowess even when they were in their prime.
  20. rob
    71. Posted by rob Fri Nov 6 10:49pm EST

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    fedor is not turning down fights, the ufc doesnt pay their fighters good and they don't treat them well. why do you think they can't sign hendo.
  21. dlargemail
    70. Posted by dlargemail Fri Nov 6 2:52pm EST

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    mkenny I'm tired of the entire thing also. I wish hed sighn but he wont. you cant fault Fedor for trying to get other fighters in the UFC from his home land. On the other hand you cant fault the UFC for offering Fedor the contract they did this situation sucks for the MMA universe. Regordless Fedor will be in the minds of his country men considered a hero!.
  22. dlargemail
    69. Posted by dlargemail Fri Nov 6 2:43pm EST

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    sneaky foot you cant tell me that you actually believe the fight between Hughes and Gracie was a good indicator of how the sport has evolved. If you watch that fight agian I think you will see Hughes using mostly Jiu-Jitsu technique in order to control Royce on the ground, not wrestling. If I where Matt Hughes I would be embarassed to have ended the career of a legend in such a fashion. They should have put together a better matchup for Royce and then let him ride off into the sunset.

    Seriously If I where Hughes I would feel like I just beat up my DAD.
  23. <i>mkenney1972</i>
    68. Posted by mkenney1972 Fri Nov 6 2:39pm EST

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    I am sick of tired of this guy turning down fights here, trying to sue over there, who does he think he is? Its MMA which is gaining popularity, but still not basketball, football, baseball or soccer who's athletes are know worldwide. he thinks he's the king of the world, its actually to the point where its annoying every time i see his name
  24. dlargemail
    67. Posted by dlargemail Fri Nov 6 2:02pm EST

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    66 continued;

    Not mention Randy the natural. Grecko double under hooks master!
  25. dlargemail
    66. Posted by dlargemail Fri Nov 6 1:57pm EST

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    Sneakyfoot I was with you up until the point you said HW's didn't have good wrestling roots before 2 or 3 years ago. Probably the best take down I've ever seen was Mark coleman taking down Rizzo. He slid half way across the ring on his knees to secure the double leg. there have been plenty of great wrestlers in the HW class such as Dan Severn, Mark Coleman, Kevin Randleman to name a few. these guys had some serious wrestling backround. I Dont think they had as exstensive testing policy for stearoids as they do in the UFC over in Japan when Fedor had most of his fights,so I think its about even.
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