MMA In Russia
by: DarthMolen 1 year, 3 months, 3 weeks, 5 days, 9 hours, 7 minutes ago 3
Email Article Print ArticleThere’s a great interview of Finkelstein up at Sherdog. Finkelstein is the UFC equivalent in Russia and the owner of a promotion called M-1.
Apparently they did about 90% of the work for BodogFIGHT: St. Petersburg and Bodog took all the credit. Here’s one of my favorite quotes from the interview and it goes to show that perceptions are the same worldwide:
Sherdog.com: Please discuss the perception of MMA in Russia, it is not a sport that is that well known, and what you are doing to change that.
VF: Much the same as it was in the US when it first started; MMA in Russia was initially vilified as thugs brawling without rules and was very much looked down upon. Videos of street fights and such were constantly shown and the sport suffered.We have worked very hard to legitimize MMA into a sport that is slowly becoming more and more popular and one that young people aspire to participate and compete in. We are going to show the event in the middle of the beautiful city center, with five million dollar yachts anchored around the ring and three hundred year old palaces in the background. We’ve come a long way.
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Great interview. My one quote didn’t do it justice.
You don’t call somebody a “Crazy Russian” just because they have different agendas than you…
and you don’t step into somebody’s back yard and take all the credit for what they have done.
Does anyone seem to notice that Fedor’s manager is not acting in the best interest of his client? He’s instead concerned about bringing more events to Russia and getting more fights for Red Devil fighters, which in essence makes him richer, but does nothing for Fedor.
Yeah. Now that you mention it, I could see that as possibly the case.
Maybe it’s Fedor’s wishes because that is his gym that he owns and is trying to pull his own people up by his fame. We don’t know that conversation.
The “fighting in other locations” I don’t get. If a person has a chance to advance himself and it isn’t a matter of national pride on a global scale (i.e. olympics, etc) then I say take the money…