MMA News

Fedor & M-1 Global File Suit Against Affliction and 50 Others

By Marc Middleton on November 4, 2009

Source: Bloodyelbow.com

- M-1 Global and Fedor Emelianenko have filed suit against Affliction Clothing, Affliction Entertainment and 50 unnamed “John Does” in California’s Central District. The complaint alleges that Strikeforce, Affliction, and M-1 reached an agreement with M-1 to allow Brett Rogers to fight Fedor Emelianenko at Affliction: Trilogy. But at the time, it was unknown to Fedor and M-1 that Affliction was working on a renewed deal with the UFC that would force Affliction out of the MMA business.

The complaint alleges that Affliction kept these negotiations secret to trick M-1 into believing they were looking for a replacement and that the show would go on. They did not inform M-1 of its ongoing negotiations and new deal until July 24, 2009. At this time, Fedor had already flown back to Russia.

The deal to allow Brett Rogers to fight Fedor Emelianenko on Affliction: Trilogy was completed the day before the show was canceled, and during that time, Affliction was actively pursuing two options, those being the UFC deal, which if closed, they would cancel the show. The other was if they didn’t close, they would promote Fedor vs. Rogers.

The complaint also alleges that Todd Beard told M-1 that Affliction could not and would not promote internationally. They agreed to allow M-1 to pursue any such opportunities with Affliction content, which is what they did. M-1 began working on deals to broadcast the show in Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, South America, Eastern Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia, etc. M-1 says that Affliction was supposedly aware of all of this, and argues that Affliction knew it would force M-1 to breach its contract with all of its international partners if it canceled the event.

The complaint then goes on to state that the above mentioned led to the event being canceled and “determining what discussions and agreements took place between Affliction and the UFC, and when these discussions took place, Plaintiffs will amend this complaint to add additional allegations, causes of actions, and parties as supported by the facts discovered.”

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