The 25-Million Viewer Man: Fedor Emelianenko Bigger Than the UFC?
Photo by Esther Linn. Copyright Strikeforce.
M-1 Global and Strikeforce announced Monday that Fighters.com Heavyweight Champion “Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko’s (31-1) second round knockout of fifth-ranked “Grim” Brett Rogers (10-1) was viewed by over 25 million homes across the world November 7.
The promotional partners previously confirmed that 5.46 million Americans tuned into the fight on CBS.
CBS Senior Executive Vice President Kelly Kahl said, “CBS was proud to be the U.S. broadcaster in a fight seen by millions domestically and by millions more around the world. Strikeforce and M-1 Global put together a great card, showcasing some of the best fighters in the world. Our ad sales for the fight were strong, especially for advertisers that target young men — a group with a growing appetite for MMA.”
M-1 Global and Strikeforce claim an additional 16 million viewers watched the fight on Channel 1 in Emelianenko’s native Russia. The fight was also broadcast in South Korea, China, Latin America, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Ukraine, Finland, Africa, Turkey, Israel, Indonesia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Malta, according to the promotions.
“We are extremely happy with the preliminary broadcast reports,” said M-1 Global CEO Joost Raimond. “The demographics of these numbers were very promising as our network broadcasting partners in the U.S., Russia, and Korea reach an enormous audience alone. Coupled with a dozen other countries and our successful internet stream in Japan and other territories, all early accounts and indications tell us that ‘Fedor vs. Rogers’ delivered worldwide more than any other MMA show in the history of the sport.”
If true, the numbers put up by Emelianenko’s Strikeforce debut prove M-1 Global President Vadim Finkelstein’s repeated claims that Emelianenko is bigger than the UFC outside of the North American market.
Fighters.com’s sources indicate that the international broadcasts were a substantial hurdle to negotiating a deal for Emelianenko to fight in the UFC. M-1 Global has cultivated markets across the world with it’s traveling M-1 Challenge team tournament series and Emelianenko is an established sports superstar in Russia, Japan, and South Korea. The UFC doesn’t have broadcast deals in many of the markets Emelianenko is most popular.
Sources close to the negotiations between M-1 Global and the UFC have indicated to Fighters.com that M-1 Global wanted to utilize it’s existing broadcast deals in markets outside of North America to broadcast Emelianenko’s UFC fights. UFC President Dana White’s stubborness about controlling all aspects of the UFC broadcast is documented and might have resulted in failed negotiations with HBO, as well as failed negotiations to put Emelianenko in the Octagon versus second-ranked UFC champion Brock Lesnar (4-1).
Though it was certainly White’s guarded management of the UFC that made MMA a profitable sport across North American in the last four years, critics must now question whether White’s continued insistence on total control is leaving the UFC behind, or at least leaving a lot of money and opportunities on the table.
M-1 Global and Strikeforce seem more than happy and capable of picking up that money and those opportunities. And, with over five million viewers being introduced to Emelianenko in November, the biggest MMA star outside of North America could be poised to become bigger than the UFC in North America too.
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UFC should have signed him. Now Fedor is skyrocketing viewers across the planet and the UFC heavyweights are almost all injured. Bad business decision.
uh oh Dana, looks like you might be screwed. To keep UFC it’s own brand Dana thought it’d be better not to put M-1 beside UFC for Fedor. UFC will survive, but they don’t have Fedor. I just hope they’re smarter than EliteXC, putting the whole business on the shoulders of one fighter. I know you can’t compare Kimbo and Fedor, but if he did ever happen to lose, it might not be good for the company.
25 million people tune in to see Fedor beat another inferior opponent whooooooooo.
lol at james, everyone is an inferior opponent to fedor
Fedor is looking for the door. Not adding him to the UFC line up means nothing. He has two more fights in him maybe.
Brett Rogers did outstanding against Fedor. I would pay for a rematch today!!
So strong was Rogers that Fedor was not able to use any Sambo or keep him on the ground.
As usual the perfectly timed punch saved the last emperor. Only the uneducated will say that Rogers was not doing very well against Fedor. I thought I would see the loss everyone has been dreaming about. Odds were 6 to 1 this time, and I’ll be betting against Fedor on the next one, if a rematch is bound.
The fact that Fedor has never been knocked out or submitted, and that he, no matter how screwed up he gets, can still place a perfect placed punch, or perfectly executed submission shows the overconfidence of other fighters who believe that they “have him on the ropes.” I’d bet Brett Rogers was confident in that, I bet Arlovski was condfident in that, and if you look up Fedor’s first title defence in Pride against Fujita, he did it then, and he’s still doing it now. Good luck Fedor.
The fact that Fedor has never been knocked out or submitted, and that he, no matter how screwed up he gets, can still place a perfect placed punch, or perfectly executed submission shows the overconfidence of other fighters who believe that they “have him on the ropes.” I’d bet Brett Rogers was confident in that, I bet Arlovski was condfident in that, and if you look up Fedor’s first title defence in Pride against Fujita, he did it then, and he’s still doing it now. Good luck Fedor, and f*** all American haters!
I think that Fedor doesn’t really get motivated until he’s been slammed or hit a few times – the Randelman, Arlovski, and Rogers fights were perfect examples of that. In one interview, Fedor said something like, “I try to go easy on my opponents, until they take advantage of my kindness. Then I end the fight.” Fedor is a very easy-going guy – in the Gary Goodridge fight, you can actually see him smiling as he pounds the hell out of Goodridge. Unreal! It makes you wonder what he could do if he got really angry – he’d probably kill someone.
ALLTEETH,
You need to watch that fight again. Watch the Fedor/Rogers fight with no sound.
Fedor dominated. Rogers never came close to hurting him. Punch a guy who bleeds all the time and get some blood = nothing. Punch a guy and watch his knees wobble=damage.
Fedor was just patient. He was very confident and those submission attempts were pure showmanship. Rogers landed few shots to fedors face or body, most hit his forehead. The first time I watched that fight, it looked pretty close. But it was the commentators adding excitement. I watched again with the sound turned off, it was a one sided fight,-all fedor.
Thats said, I think Fedor looks slower than he used to be.
@Enzo
I totally agree. If the comments about Dana White wanting to control all of the broadcast rights outside of the USA are true, it’s a bad business decision to not partner with M-1 Global. Who knows the real truth? Regardless, Fedor should have his chance to fight the best that UFC has to offer and put the speculation to bed about whether he is or isn’t the best ever. He’d beat *anyone* in the UFC – period – no question. He’s the King of MMA.
fedor was so lazy and complacent in his fight against rogers he was clearly going t6hrough the motions. obviously he didnt get up for this one and the way he manhandles rogers with ease at times was a JOY to behold. full credit to rogers he tried his damn hardest and his strength was immense. one thing that i find incredible with fedor is that he will forego all striking defence if he sees a submission oppurtunity, as he proved twice against rogers once losing top mount and ending on his back after a failed kimura and once whilst attemtpting armbar in guard. we will only see the true best of fedor when he is placed against an opponent who is ezxpected to do well. fedor is the best bar none, certain people only get the hump with him due to the fedor fan cult that is now worldwide, who i must admit can be very tedious and annoying but not as much as ignorant american fans who cant stand a white russian being the undisputed king of there sport….fedor or brock??? fedor by armbar in the first round…
@MMA Fan
In repsone to Fedor beating Bret Rodgers…Bret Rodgers has Man Boobs and is not a real Heavyweight contender in MMA…HE wouldn’t even make the top 15 in UFC …He fights a bunch of nobody’s and has beens to get to 10-0 record…Simple fact is, if Fedor comes to the UFC it’s over for him…Brock Lesnar, Shane Carwin, Frank Mir, the list goes on …That’s the Bigger reason he didn’t come to UFC…Fedor’s scared bottom line. If you pay attention to MMA… every fighter that has left UFC and ended up in Strikeforce or WEC has lost and been on a losing streak in UFC and Dana White let em go because they are weak…
Robby, carwin has an almost identical record to Rogers, knockin out nobodies and beats gonzaga,Rogers knocks out nobodies then clipped arlovski, Rogers was ranked higher then carwin when he fought fedor ( even though I think carwin would beat him )