UFC was forced to give up on an all-time-great fighter after dangerous negotiations, claims commentator-podcaster Joe Rogan.
These days, the premier organization in mixed martial arts isnât known for signing top talent, but in the UFCâs golden era, they were absorbing promotions left and right. One of the biggest what-ifs that never came to being in the UFC was legendary Russian fighter, Fedor Emelianenko.
Emelianenko is regarded as one of the greatest fighters of all time, perhaps the greatest heavyweight in MMA history. âThe Last Emperorâ defeated the whoâs who of heavyweight MMA from 2000 to 2009, remaining undefeated - bar a cut TKO - in his first 30 contests.
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Joe Rogan details âunreasonableâ negotiations between Dana White and Fedor Emelianenkoâs team
Despite his accolades, Emelianenko never fought in the UFC, which Rogan claims is due to âconfrontationalâ negotiations between his management and the UFC.
âFedor was controlled by some Russian people that were very rough men â gangster-type characters,â Rogan explained on his podcast. "They had a bunch of negotiations with the UFC but they were very unreasonable demands.
â⌠They wanted to own a piece of everything. . . . Negotiations were very intense and very confrontational; they got bad. Dana [White] had to up his security. . . . These were dangerous people. . . . It got crazy.â
In his twilight years, Emelianenko fought for Bellator, picking up a 4-3 record. He also fought for Strikeforce, which was later absorbed by the UFC.
This is the closest fans will ever see Emelianenko fighting UFC-level competition; he went 1-3 in the promotion but was still on the tail end of a lengthy career.
Am just listening to that part of the Topuria podcast now.
Too bad they never put together the fight with Randy at the time
I thought this was pretty common knowledge? I remember Dana publicly telling stories about the negotiations and specifically blaming Vadim Finkelstein and all his demands for the deal falling through multiple times
Weird that all the other promotions managed to make a deal with him.
Guess Coker and Atencio are not as pussy as Dana White and the Fertitas. 
Greasy
Rogan will believe anything Dana tells him lol
Sad ending for the last emperor.
Yeah? Look at those promotions now.
Howâs that relevant to what was being discussed?
Itâs relevant in that the UFC would have been able to make a deal if they agreed to terms that were threatening to the profitability of the company. Dana wasnât willing to do that. Coker was. And his company no longer exists because he made bad business decisions.
The thread (and my post) are about security threats and Dana being scared.
Yea but it sounds like Dana was worried about threats from the people controlling Fedor because he wasnât willing to cave in to their demands. If he had done so like Coker then there would have been no security threat.
Still remember Rogan announcing the deal was basically done on UFC whatever it was. Would have been interesting to see.
So those other orgs either offered Fedor so much that the scary gangsters were happy and didnât kill them or upped their offers because Fedorâs scary gangsters put the scare on them? This was all going on in Vegas? And your source is Dana White and Joe Rogan?
What kind of idiots believe anything that Dana White says when it comes to fighter negotiations? What kind of idiots believe anything Rogan says full stop? He was pissing and moaning about schools getting litter boxes for kids that identify as dogs the other day. 
And there it isâŚ
Guess that answers my question 