Kempo Chris
12-14-2003, 12:03 PM
From www.insidefighting.com
Fedor's Manager Responds to Pride Press Release - 12/14/2003
by Ron Merrill
Almost three days ago the Pride FC released an official statement to the world, formally protesting what it perceived to be a major breach of contract involving Fedor Emelianenko, Antonio Inoki's Bom-Ba-Ye promotion and themselves. Pride’s assertions were simple: “We have had an exclusive contract for Fedor Emelianenko’s appearances in our mixed martial arts events, through his agent, since his appearance in PRIDE 21 “Demolition” on June 23, 2002.” That press release launched what has probably become one of the biggest topics of international discussion in the history of Mixed Martial Arts. Fans pontificated whether or not the Pride FC Heavyweight champion would be allowed to return to the organization if indeed he performed in a competitors show. When things didn’t seem as if they could become any more confusing, Pride FC fanned the flames of controversy by allowing middleweight sensation Kazushi Sakuraba to appear in Japan’s Sports Navi Magazine publicly sporting Fedor’s Heavyweight championship belt.
In the early hours of Friday December 13th, Miro Mijatovic, the worldwide promotional manager for both Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic and Fedor Emelianenko contacted me in response to Pride’s press release with the following statement: “Needless to say, we do not agree with the statements made by Pride in relation to the situation of the contracts between themselves and Fedor and Semmy. Pride press release contains a number of errors and incorrect statements. If you have any questions, I would be happy to answer them for you and your readers.” After following up with Miro on the matter, I received his official response to Pride’s press release as part of an exclusive for InsideFighting.com. You will find it posted below in it’s entirety.
Fedor’s Contractual Situation
Dear Ron,
Thank you for giving me the chance to clarify some confusion that seems to exist around Fedor's contractual situation. To clear this up, I would like to repeat what I said at the original press conference here in Japan last Monday 8th December 2003. But before I get to that, let me first confirm that I never threatened to pull either Mirko or Fedor from Pride. In fact, I will always be open to offers from any promoter for any fighters that I have contracted.
In relation to the contractual situation, as you may know, Fedor originally was represented by Russian Top Team (RTT). I understand that due to some problems with this management, Fedor decided to terminate his relationship with RTT and signed a management contract with Red Devil. On 5th December 2003 we signed an exclusive, multi-fight contract with Fedor and his new management, Red Devil. We also signed contracts with the exciting up and coming Red Devil fighters, Fedor's brother Alexander and Amar. These contracts were in both English and Russian because Fedor (and Alexander and Amar) do not read nor understand English.
Fedor told me that he has never signed any fight contract with Pride. Fedor has never seen the alleged contract nor does he know the contents of the alleged contract, which was shown by Pride at their press conference. If this alleged contract was signed by his previous management, RTT, then because he does not know and cannot read the contents nor did he authorize his previous management to sign the contract, that contract was not authorized nor agreed to by Fedor.
Since Fedor is not a party to the contract, Pride has no legal rights or claims against Fedor; Pride must make any legal claims against their contractual counterparty: Russian Top Team, for alleged breaches of contract. This has nothing to do with Fedor. Therefore, we do not see any legal impediments to Fedor's fighting in the future under our contract.
I'm sure that Fedor's fans are looking forward to seeing Fedor return to the ring on 31 December 2003 at Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2003 and then to a full schedule of events in 2004.
Miro Mijatovic
Tokyo, 13 December 2003
Fedor's Manager Responds to Pride Press Release - 12/14/2003
by Ron Merrill
Almost three days ago the Pride FC released an official statement to the world, formally protesting what it perceived to be a major breach of contract involving Fedor Emelianenko, Antonio Inoki's Bom-Ba-Ye promotion and themselves. Pride’s assertions were simple: “We have had an exclusive contract for Fedor Emelianenko’s appearances in our mixed martial arts events, through his agent, since his appearance in PRIDE 21 “Demolition” on June 23, 2002.” That press release launched what has probably become one of the biggest topics of international discussion in the history of Mixed Martial Arts. Fans pontificated whether or not the Pride FC Heavyweight champion would be allowed to return to the organization if indeed he performed in a competitors show. When things didn’t seem as if they could become any more confusing, Pride FC fanned the flames of controversy by allowing middleweight sensation Kazushi Sakuraba to appear in Japan’s Sports Navi Magazine publicly sporting Fedor’s Heavyweight championship belt.
In the early hours of Friday December 13th, Miro Mijatovic, the worldwide promotional manager for both Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic and Fedor Emelianenko contacted me in response to Pride’s press release with the following statement: “Needless to say, we do not agree with the statements made by Pride in relation to the situation of the contracts between themselves and Fedor and Semmy. Pride press release contains a number of errors and incorrect statements. If you have any questions, I would be happy to answer them for you and your readers.” After following up with Miro on the matter, I received his official response to Pride’s press release as part of an exclusive for InsideFighting.com. You will find it posted below in it’s entirety.
Fedor’s Contractual Situation
Dear Ron,
Thank you for giving me the chance to clarify some confusion that seems to exist around Fedor's contractual situation. To clear this up, I would like to repeat what I said at the original press conference here in Japan last Monday 8th December 2003. But before I get to that, let me first confirm that I never threatened to pull either Mirko or Fedor from Pride. In fact, I will always be open to offers from any promoter for any fighters that I have contracted.
In relation to the contractual situation, as you may know, Fedor originally was represented by Russian Top Team (RTT). I understand that due to some problems with this management, Fedor decided to terminate his relationship with RTT and signed a management contract with Red Devil. On 5th December 2003 we signed an exclusive, multi-fight contract with Fedor and his new management, Red Devil. We also signed contracts with the exciting up and coming Red Devil fighters, Fedor's brother Alexander and Amar. These contracts were in both English and Russian because Fedor (and Alexander and Amar) do not read nor understand English.
Fedor told me that he has never signed any fight contract with Pride. Fedor has never seen the alleged contract nor does he know the contents of the alleged contract, which was shown by Pride at their press conference. If this alleged contract was signed by his previous management, RTT, then because he does not know and cannot read the contents nor did he authorize his previous management to sign the contract, that contract was not authorized nor agreed to by Fedor.
Since Fedor is not a party to the contract, Pride has no legal rights or claims against Fedor; Pride must make any legal claims against their contractual counterparty: Russian Top Team, for alleged breaches of contract. This has nothing to do with Fedor. Therefore, we do not see any legal impediments to Fedor's fighting in the future under our contract.
I'm sure that Fedor's fans are looking forward to seeing Fedor return to the ring on 31 December 2003 at Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2003 and then to a full schedule of events in 2004.
Miro Mijatovic
Tokyo, 13 December 2003