Sherdog article: Finding Fedor

Finding Fedor - an excellent article by Evgeni Kogan at Sherdog.

I am a true believer in personal touch. I don't think that you can really understand a person and predict his or her actions without first knowing the history of that particular person. You can't know what is going on inside the head if you don't know how the person grew up, what he went through and what is his mindset. Being familiar with the culture is also very essential.

One of the many reasons I created this site was to give an insightful view at Russian fighters, their culture and their way of thinking. And I am happy to tell you that this is exactly what Evgeni Kogan did in his article. Must-read, without a doubt!

Here are some of the most interesting quotes.

It was a tough upbringing, but Fedor remains, first and foremost, a Russian. His relationship with his country can be summed up by the centuries-old tradition of Russians lovingly calling Russia "Matie Rodina," or Mother Russia.

This may seem contradictory, considering the incredibly hard life Fedor and millions of other Russians have had. But to see contradiction is to misunderstand the Russian psyche. The concept of "nastoyashyi muzhik" or being a "real man" is alive and well here. A man is either a real man or life destroys him -- and destruction happens plenty in Russia, where the average male dies at 58.

The idea of "nastoyashyi muzhik" is taking on the chin whatever life has to throw at you. It's about taking pride in being strong enough to survive and thanking your country, which makes you stronger. In Soviet times the effect was a sort of lifelong Stockholm syndrome with perhaps misplaced loyalty, but now challenges are seen as merely hurdles in the sprint for a bigger, brighter and more global future in which the runners themselves are the architects.

Fedor is the definitive "nastoyashyi muzhik."

The interesting thing is that this concept of "nastoyashyi muzhik" plays a significant role in everyday life. If you listen carefully for the shouts of Fedor Emelianenko's trainers during the fights, you can hear their cheers - "Fedor - ty muzhik!" (rus. Федор - ты мужик! - Fedor, you are the man!).

There is also some information about the proposed UFC contract, which was eventually turned down.

In particular Finkelchtein, Fedor's manager, cited the harshness of the UFC's terms and the organization's inflexibility as two issues preventing an agreement. There were some specifics, such as the widely publicized clause that wouldn't let Fedor compete in combat sambo and the UFC's refusal to sign some of his Red Devil teammates.

"I never met Dana White, never spoke to him on the phone, never exchanged e-mails," Fedor said. "However, I did read a lot on the Internet about what he said in regard to me and Vadim [Finkelstein]. I also read e-mails that he sent to Vadim; all of his correspondence was very upsetting. The contract that we were presented with by the UFC was simply impossible, couldn't be signed -- I couldn't leave. If I won, I had to fight eight times in two years. If I lost one fight, then the UFC had the right to rip up the contract. At the conclusion of the contract, if I am undefeated, then it automatically extends for an as yet unspecified period of time, though for the same compensation.

"Basically I can't leave undefeated. I can't give interviews, appear in films or advertising. I don't have the right to do anything without the UFC's agreement. I could do nothing without the OK from the UFC. I didn't have the right to compete in combat sambo competition. It's my national sport. It's the Russian sport, which in his time our president competed in, and I no longer have the right to do so. There were many such clauses; the contract was 18 pages in length. It was written in such a way that I had absolutely no rights while the UFC could at any moment, if something didn't suit them, tear up the agreement. We worked with lawyers who told us that it was patently impossible to sign such a document."

Fedor is a man who fought all of his life to be independent of the system, to belong to himself and to forge his own future. He is where he is because of the people around him.

Next quote should really be drawn to the wall of everybody who is criticizing Fedor for not accepting UFC's offer. It's interesting to see, how people were smart enough to read the article, but weren't able to understand the message.

In his view the UFC offer, which was not open for reasonable negotiation, proposed that he exchange everything that makes him who he is -- his team, his freedom and his future -- in return for more money than anyone else at the time was making and the possibility of fighting in the strongest heavyweight division in the sport.

Next one tells us about the importance of the culture-knowledge. This is one of the many reasons why I think that UFC is a local American company and in a present form has no future outside the USA.

The negotiations were not helped by the differences in how both sides did business. The Russians did not understand the UFC's negotiating tactics. The lack of courtesy and personal insults upset them. Coming from a country where the decision makers are rarely in the spotlight and the most powerful men are never the loudest, the Russians did not understand the UFC's professional wrestling-esque business and marketing model. They did not understand why the king is also the court jester and why the dirty laundry of negotiations must be aired in the harsh glare of camera flashes.

I could really quote the whole article... But please, read it and spend some time thinking about it. So you wouldn't say something stupid (a mini-article by Ben Fowlkes at FiveOuncesOfPain)