M-1 Willing to Share Fedor

M-1 Chief Operating Officer Joost Raimond has made an offer the UFC can refuse: His organization would be willing to share Fedor Emelianenko for one fight.

“I’d like to reach out with an invitation to Mr. Dana White, Mr. Brock Lesnar and Mr. Frank Mir to come out to our show,” Raimond told MMAWeekly. “… Hopefully we can follow up in the same lines as what the UFC has done for Mr. Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ in a one-fight deal. I think we can make that happen for other occasions, and we’d like to make that happen.”

Two observations: Mr. Raimond is very polite. And Mr. Raimond is very delusional.

Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, one fight deal or not, is fighting Mustapha al Turk. And while al-Turk gets due credit for being a prizefighter of some skill and prominence, the UFC has not invested any degree of money or time in elevating his profile. He’s not the UFC’s heavyweight champion. And “Cro Cop” can’t run off after a win being hailed as the consensus best.

At this point, Emelianenko seems to be well insulated by a group of caretakers that make reasonable negotiation unlikely. The only way we’ll see him in a cage is if happens to kill a sparring partner.