M-1 Global is appearently in panic mode following the defeat of poster boy, Fedor Emelianenko, appearently major investor’s have already pulled the plug and M-1 have decided to close their head office in the Netherlands.
MMAFighting.com reported this afternoon:
Specifically, sources with knowledge of the situation say M-1 Global has closed its head office in the Netherlands, that some of M-1’s investors have already cut ties with the organization, that officials within M-1 know they’ve lost most of their negotiating power, and that overall, according to one source, the people at M-1 are “panicking.”
Netherlands office: Although M-1 Global was widely perceived in the United States as a Russian company because of its close ties to Fedor, it actually considered its office in the Netherlands to be the global headquarters. But that’s not the case anymore, as the Netherlands office has ceased to exist. M-1 Global knows it can’t count on as much income from Fedor in the future as it could in the past, and closing the Netherlands office was a cost-cutting move. As mixfight.nl first reported, the employees of M -1 Netherlands no longer work with the organization, although it’s not clear what will happen to Dutch fighters with M-1 contracts.
Losing investors: During Fedor’s reign as the sport’s heavyweight king, M-1 Global had some wealthy businessmen it could count on when it needed an infusion of cash. Basically, these were businessmen who were willing to lose money on an investment in M-1 just because they liked being associated with the toughest man in the world. But Fedor no longer has that allure, and as a result those investors have signalled to M-1 that they won’t be infusing any more cash in the promotion.
