Watch out MMA world because a new player has emerged, Mark Cuban. I had know idea this guy was entering the MMA world like this. I know he was running that HDNet company, but after reading and interview from Sherdog HERE he and another article from MMANews.com HERE Cuban is taking MMA alot more seriously. Mark Cuban is known as a super savy business man that is always working with the latest thing in business and entertainment. For those of you that have not seen this guy, he is the one screaming at the Dallas Maverick games. He is the owner of that team and several other companies.
His addition to MMA will equal another Dana White, but with a little more business savy. Recently in the Sherdog interview with Cuban he mentioned he was interested in signing Fedor Emelianenko to fight in some of the MMA venues he airs on HDNet. If it is gonna get done this will be the guy. He didn’t become a billionaire for being dumb. The organizations that are courting Fedor have the same problems with signing Fedor. His agent and himself want to have a lot of freedom in Russia to do as the please in Sambo tournaments and any other MMA fights that are held specifically in Russia. As some of you might have noticed PRIDE had an agreement with Fedor with the exception that if any MMA event was held in his home country he could fight in it like the Bodog event that was held while he was under contract with PRIDE.
One of the most important out of both of these exceptions is the Sambo tournaments. Fedor has rubbed elbows with Russia’s top brass (See Above pic with President Putin and his brother Alexander) because of who he is and what pride he brings to the country. Fedor is the man in Russia and the Sambo tournaments are very important to him and his country that he participants in them. I really don’t think these are negotiable. These are a bit safer than MMA because of the moves and rules involved as you can see in the Sambo picture below. The deals have also noted that he wants his team from Russia to have a shot at some contracts as well. One of these people from his team most notably is his brother Alexander Emelianenko which also fought in PRIDE.
HDNet hosts alot of MMA events and is a force to be reckoned with. On a side note HDNet has aired WEC events in the past as well as others like, Steele Cage, Ring of fire and American Fight League. It will be interesting to see how Mark Cuban and Dana White’s deal with each other in the future since both of them have such an extreme personality.
Catch MMA on HDNet
http://www.hd.net/fightnight.html
MMA News.com
http://www.mmanews.com/other/More-Info-on-Mark-Cuban-and-Fedor-talks.html
Sherdog
http://www.sherdog.com/news/news.asp?n_id=8834
