Vadim Finkelstein responded today to Dana White’s anti-Fedor propaganda campaign in the US media via the following press release:

M-1 President Vadim Finkelstein Responds to Dana White’s Name-Calling; Invites UFC’s President to meet Fedor at “Day of Reckoning”…

For over a year now UFC President Dana White has used an open forum to label the management of Fedor Emelianenko, led by M-1 President Vadim Finkelstein , as “the crazy Russians.”

For much of that time, White has influenced the United States media to reflect his beliefs, as Finkelstein tended to urgent matters of business — namely promoting his M-1 Challenge and managing fighters such as Fedor and Aleksander Emelianenko and Gegard Mousasi - instead of engaging in a war of words.

However, during a recent M-1 Challenge event, Finkelstein responded to White’s statements in an interview conducted by M-1 executives Joost Raimond (serving as Finkelchtein’s translator) and Jerry Millen (serving as the interviewer).

Thanks to a three-part YouTube series, members of the U.S. MMA media are finally being presented the other side of the story so that they can form an opinion for themselves.

During the interview, Finkelsteinwas asked by Millen what he thinks when he’s referred to in the press by White as a “crazy Russian.”

“Dana White has a tendency towards arrogance and everything not Dana White is either crazy or stupid,” Finkelstein began to respond through Raimond.

“All this stuff about us not wanting to work with UFC is just utterly and completely untrue,” he continued. “We’ve always been completely open to basically working with anybody, including the UFC, because our goal has always been to put the greatest fighters against each other. And if the greatest fighter is a part of the UFC, fine, let’s put him up against our best guy and see how they do.”

Raimond added that Finkelstein indicated that the UFC is very protective of their market share but that M-1 isn’t looking to take the UFC’s “pie” away, that his promotion simply wants to share some of it.

Finkelsteinalso responded to a question from Millen regarding comments made by White during a November press conference in Toronto to promote UFC 94. In the interview, which can be seen on YouTube, White responds to a question from a fan regarding Fedor fighting for the UFC by stating at one point that he has never even met Fedor.

White’s claim that he has never met Fedor is accurate, but it’s also a situation that Finkelsteinis more than willing to rectify.

“The invitation is right there,” Finkelstein expressed through Raimond. “If Dana wants to sit down at the table, he can come to St. Petersburg — he is very welcomed here. He can meet up with (me), he can meet up with Fedor. It’s not a problem at all.”

Finkelstein indicated during the interview that he has traveled to Las Vegas in the past to meet with White. And if White does not have time to travel to Russia, Finkelstein extended him an open invitation to meet the WAMMA heavyweight champion in Anaheim, California before he competes against Andrei Arlovski on Jan. 24 just prior to Affliction and M-1’s “Day of Reckoning” event.

“We’re not going to eat the UFC pie, but we want to share,” said Finkelstein. “The invitation stands. They are welcome at any point in time, and definitely at the Jan. 24 event. We’ll talk about it (and) discuss it. We’re open to any kind of deal.”

We get that its in his business interests to do so, but as we’re more concerned about the good of the sport the relentless efforts of White to spin the often clueless, always compliant US media that Fedor *isn’t* the best heavyweight in the world is the height of absurdity. Of course Dana tries to suggest that Fedor is completely irrelevant, which is even more absurd. Since the Russian fighting god would basically rip through the UFC heavyweight division like a knife through hot butter, Dana’s strategy is apparently to keep spinning for a few years until Fedor retires. He might be able to spin MMA noobs, but anyone with knowledge of the sport knows that Fedor is easily the best heavyweight on the planet.

Anyway, here’s the YouTube series. In part one, Vadim through a translator talks about his background:

Here’s part two, where he starts to talk about Dana and the “crazy Russian” blasts:

Here’s part three, where he talks about the future of MMA and other random topics: