A bunch of insider's information from M-1 Global camp

Here are some highly reliable rumours/information I promised you a while ago. The information came directly from the source inside the M-1 Global camp.

You can see some of the rumours and predictions I posted. As you can see, they have been very accurate, but of course it's your call whether you think information below is trustworthy. So let's start, shall we?

Some of the information was already revealed by the Sherdog, but fortunately I have more than that. :) My own opinion will be in cursive.

• The first opponent of Fedor Emelianenko will be announced very soon. Currently there are some good candidates. The negotiations are going on with both free-agents and fighters with a contract in other organizations.
  
• It is doubtful that Fedor will be fighting a supertop opponent (like Josh Barnett or Randy Couture) in his first fight.
  
• Veteran Jeff Monson is considered (so no decision was made yet!) as the first opponent for Fedor.
  
• Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, a young fighter from Africa (that's what was read in the official information for his first Pride fight), who shocked a PrideFC world by KO'ing both Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Ricardo Arona in the first round. His candidature was cut, because of Sokoudjou's small experience in MMA. He must fight and win some more, to get a shot against Fedor. I think that it is still realistic to see Sokoudjou fighting in M-1.
  
• The name of Ben Rothwell was also mentioned as one of candidate for a fight. Although there are doubts that he is well enough known in the USA - something that is needed from Fedor's opponent.
  
• It was planned to organize a few events a year, with every event in a new country. So originally there were plans to have one event in Russia, one in Japan, one in Macao (which is the independent part of China and is considered to be Las Vegas of Asia).
  
• About Japan. There was an opportunity to make an event in Saitama for this New Year's Eve, but the decision was made not to do it, because American partners weren't sure that they were able to make everything "right" on time. It's quite optimistic to see, that they are trying to make things right! The problem with Japan is that they have a very tight schedule which makes it almost impossible to make a fast start; they have a TV filled a month forward, and you have to book a stadium a significant amount of time ahead, especially for the special days like New Year's Eve. The talks about TV, made me realize, that M-1 or their Japanese partners might already have an agreement with a Fuji TV, just like the gossips told a few weeks ago. This info is unconfirmed and should not be trusted blindly.
  
• Negotiations are going on with Takanori "The Fireball Kid" Gomi so hopefully we will see him fighting in M-1 Global.

And now two freeking big news! There was a lot of talk among journalists about the problems with IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) and marketing. You can read one typical opinion here.

1. First to the problem of IPR. The library of PrideFC fights (where Fedor's most interesting fights took place) was bought by UFC. So the questions arised on how M-1 Global will market Fedor Emelianenko, if they have no rights for his fights' materials and UFC will probably by very reluctant to give/sell them these rights? The big news is that Fedor Emelianenko has all the rights for the materials of his own fights! According to the source, Fedor was so respected in Japan and Vadim Finkelstein with the fighters of his Red Devil Sports Club had such a great relationship with Pride, that they were able to trust each other and pretty much dictate/say what they wanted to be included in the contract. Wow - that's all I can say! :)
   
   It's so unbelievable information, that I personally have difficult time believing it. Especially in the part of UFC not having any rights for Fedor's fights' materials at all! So we are talking about the exclusive rights for the fights and not about the non-exclusive (in which, both parties could have used them)! It's up to you to believe it or not, but it came from the same reliable source as many times before that... The whole IPR thing is so interesting and complex that I definitely need to write a post about that. It's a shocking news, but on the other hand, Finkelstein and Fedor have already shown their business-savvyness when they made a nontransferable contract with PrideFC, so Dana White had to renegotiate it when he wanted to have Fedor in UFC... Another point is that RedDevilShop already sells DVDs with Fedor's fights in Europe (France, etc) and these DVDs (or similar) were distributed among participants of the press-conference. I doubt that they would have done it if they wouldn't have rights for it. M-1 has also already shown many Pride fights in their time slot on the Russian National TV channel. So they must have some rights at least in Russia.
   
   
2. And now to the second big chunk of information about the TV contract, which closely relates to the problem of marketing. M-1 Global has said that getting a TV contract will be essential for the business, and that it will dictate and influence all other decisions. Journalists have been talking about a marketing aspect of hyping Fedor and M-1's dominance on the American market. They have been whining about how difficult it would be to get Fedor's face recognized by the general public, even with HBO, Showtime or with Mark Cuban's HDNet. Only these three channels were mentioned in the articles, and journalists were concentrating on them. But the surprise is that there is also other alternatives... Are you ready to hear it? Ok, here I go: ESPN! According to the source, ESPN "are in". I won't bet my head for 100%, because it can also mean that they only are in the negotiation process, but I am pretty sure that it was about a real contract! Can you imagine the opportunities this brings? A channel which is available in over 100 million homes in the United States and over 150 countries and territories via ESPN International!.. Introducing Fedor Emelianenko and to get people to know him will happen, exaggeratively speaking, in no time!

When the time comes, remember, that you first heard this information on RussianMMA.blogpost.com! :)

P.S. Here you can see a list of fighters, who are available for M-1. It's quite extensive list, just like the source from M-1 (when talking about the number of ongoing negotiations) has told me.