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M-1 Global hires Monte Cox, signs Fedor Emelianenko, who are they?
By Jeff Comstock | October 22, 2007
Question: What do you get when you cross Fedor Emelianenko with, a producer of off-Broadway musicals, the agency that represents the world’s greatest tennis players, Monte Cox, and a Scientologist money maven?
Answer: Apparently M-1 Global MMA
After a press conference (video) following a PRNewswirerelease there are still more questions than answers swirling about MMA’s newest wannabe mega-promoter.
It was revealed that Fedor Emenlianenko is signed to a two-year, six-fight term deal with the new company. In the earlier press release it was announced that agent of the MMA stars, Monte Cox would become the promotion’s President & CEO. After that, the details of the venture all become a little bit sketchy.
The other players involved in M-1 Global are a motley crew of unlikely MMA promoters. First up is Mitchell Maxwell (Chairman, M-1 Global). Maxwell is a producer of Broadway and Off-Broadway shows. Maxwell serves as President, CEO and Director of Sibling Entertainment Group, Inc. It’s a a wholly-owned subsidiary of this company (Sibling Theatricals Inc.) along with mystery partner Garlin Holdings Limited, that are forming the M-1 Global parent company Sibling Sports, LLC.
Bob Clark (President of Sibling theatricals) recently joined Sibling after holding several high level management positions with well known companies. He has obviously been brought in to help guide the fledgling MMA promotion.
The newly formed M-1 Global has also formed a strategic alliance with SFX Media and Events. The connection here is Brian Patton. Patton was personal aide to ProServ founder and CEO Donald Dell. ProServ was acquired in 1999 by SFX Sports Group (SFX Sports was originally purchased by radio giant Clear Channel Communications in its acquisition of SFX Entertainment for $4.5 billion in 2000. Clear Channel Entertainment, the live-concert division of Clear Channel Communications, has since spun off into Live Nation, a separately traded company).
On August 21, 2006 Blue Equity, LLC announced that it has acquired, through an affiliate, three divisions of the SFX Sports Group from parent Live Nation by purchasing the tennis representation, sports media & live sporting events platforms from the world’s leading live entertainment company.
SFX is mostly known for it’s tennis division, where they have represented many of the world’s top players for over 30 years. The SFX Events & Media platform however has already moved into the MMA arena and lists both Elite XC and UFC fighter Houston Alexander as clients. One does not have to play six degrees of separation to find some interesting connections.
Brian Patton recently entered the mixed martial arts world by assisting MMA legend Matt Hughes as a business manager. He has since added Tim Sylvia, Jens Pulver, Robbie Lawler and Jason Black as clients. Patton has obviously worked closely with Monte Cox in his duties with these Cox managed fighters and now finds himself with an executive position with M-1.
Dennis Spencer, Executive Vice President of SFX Media & Events was quoted in the press release as saying:
“We are thrilled to have a strategic alliance with M-1 Global and the outstanding team that Sibling Sports has put together.”
Others listed as holding positions in the company are the former M-1 Mix Fight promoters Vadim Finkelstein, Apy Echteld and Joost Raimond. As Fedor’s management team, as well as being the owners of the Red Devil Sports Club they will obviously contribute to the fighter talent pool and lend their experience from promoting in Europe and Asia.
Gary Kreitz (CPA) is listed on the new M-1 website and will probably act as CFO or in a similar capacity.
The most head-scratching revelation, which was uncovered by Leland Roling of mma-analyst.com, is that Scientologist money maven, Michael Baybak, owns 6.3 million shares in Sibling Entertainment Group Holdings.
Bayback is best known for a settled lawsuit with Time Magazine, over this sidebar which appeared in a negative story about Scientology entitled The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power. The settlement consisted of Time printing a clarification stating that they were not accusing Baybak of illegal activity or of being a “Scientology front.”
Bayback’s involvement is interesting to say the least. Needless to say, M-1 might have no problems with seeding their events VIP section with famous celebrities.
The second partner company, Garlin Holdings Limited (a Jersey private limited company), remains a mystery. On October 16th, Sibling Entertainment Group Holdings, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: SIBE) [“Sibling Holdings”] announced Sibling Theatricals, Inc. [“Sibling Theatricals”], a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sibling Entertainment Group, Inc., signed an agreement with Garlin Holdings Limited to form Richfield Entertainment, LLC, (a Delaware limited liability company) for the purpose of developing and funding new projects.
A week later the same companies form Sibling Sports, LLC for the purpose of creating M-1 Global, LLC, with Garlin Holdings Limited as managing members. I’m interested to see who will be found when the curtain is pulled back on Garlin Holdings.
The other involvement which remains unexplained is that of Marc Ecko. His company has recently gotten into the business of sponsoring fighters to promote his clothing brand. Ecko also hosted the press conference and has some synergy with M-1’s new website as ecotv.com is hosting a video of the press conference.
to be continued…
…and we’re back with some more thoughts and analysis.
M-1 Global obviously has some great assets for a fledgling promotion. Fedor Emelianenko is the world’s best Heavyweight fighter. Monte Cox is one of MMA’s most experienced promoters and managers. M-1 will be the destination of choice for many fighters with current ties to Monte Cox, Echteld and Raimond in Holland and Russia’s Red Devil Sports Club.
They obviously have big plans and one would have to assume big money backers to be planning events all around the world, including the USA, Europe, Russia, Japan, Korea and China, which were all mentioned during the press conference.
M-1 Global is prepared to work with other promoters, so we can expect to see them join with the likes of FEG and Pro Elite to co-promote events. It sounds as if plans are already underway.
Another huge question that will have to be answered before going forward is television. Monte Cox indicated that there has been interest shown by the likes of HBO, Showtime and Mark Cuban’s HDNet.
“We’re looking for a television partner that we hope to get soon,” he said. “That’s going to dictate where we’re going to go and when. The goal is to open in the United States in February and we should have a date and an opponent soon.”
Without television in place, M-1 will never get off the ground. If they can reach a deal with HBO, M-1 Global will become a major player overnight.
The initial roster of fighters should be announced within the next 10 days, which will keep the internet buzzing with rumors for the next week.
This blog about Russian MMA kept a good tally of the news as it came in and helped point me in the right direction a couple times. So thank you to the Russian MMA writer for pointing me to the new M-1 website and press conference video.
Topics: Jeff Comstock, M-1, MMA | 47 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
how they going to keep this international motley crew happy under the same roof? its going to be fun to watch it though; US entertainment industry people, dodgy russian business men, fight managers, fighters, ex Pride people – sounds more like the United Nations than a MMA promotion
May I be the first to post… I really believe in this theme of the first MMA conglomerate. I do believe with all of the connections that these businessman have come together for, what he hope to be in the future, a common good.
The fact that Ecko has a pretty big distribution base in the urban fashion realm in both lower and upper class fashion adds to positive competition from other fashion brands entering the MMA business. With the talent pool rising with fighters they should be more attractive to Japan and its fighters as they are a global organization not just some gaijin promotion. However, at this rate in the MMA landscape who knows what the Japanese fighters are really doing; I just see this M-1 Global as a good business venture.
Zach, I have many comments to make on this MMA business but I am just really upset that you did not tip me off to Sibling Entertainment 5 days ago before the stock went up 4 times over! Seriously, you know I am all about investing, especially in MMA! Of course, for the next week the stock will go up and every day I will tell all my friends, “I should have invested in SIBE but I thought it was over extended.”
Hope you guys enjoy my post.
Great work piecing this together. Ultimately the fate of this org is what other fighters they can put on a card. If they have Couture’s blessings, I’m sure he can bring in some Xtreme Couture fighters. Monte’s fighters and some Red Devil fighters is a start.
With Fedor alone, they can step right into Japan and Korea and do a big show.
Jeffield – there is no prospect for any big MMA show happening in Japan right now. You think K1 wouldn’t have grabbed Fedor if they thought he could sell out Saitama Super Arena? K1 wasnt interested and I think K1 knows the Japanese market better than Vadim F and Monte Cox and they know that Fedor on his own will not carry a major event in Japan
M1 will live and die in the US (shows in Russia and Holland will not keep them alive). Japan? Good luck to ex Pride people getting a TV contract. Korea? good luck making money there without any Korean fighters.
I’m surprised there hasn’t been more criticism of the conflict of interest with Fedor’s agents. Were they representing Fedor’s best interests or M1’s?
So my big question right now is, who is the money mark who will get taken to the cleaners by Vadim and Fedor? Is the Scientologist going to lose his shirt or will the unkowns behind Garlin lose it all? Who is the sucker here?
One thing I am sure of is that Vadim and Fedor walk away with millions when this thin collapses in year or two.
Somebody is backing this thing big time, there is no reasonable explanation for a small company like this to suddenly go at this thing. Vadim and Fedor had multiple offers on the table, yet the go with someone who knew nothing about MMA or who Fedor was? Seems odd.
C’MON now folks! What’s with all the skepticism & negativity?
I can understand the surprise & curiosity over this thing’s backers are, but let’s give it a chance for cryin’ out loud. Some people are already writing it off & we’re months away from it’s first promotion!
Let’s face it, as much as I love the UFC, I love the sport of MMA more. And ever since Zuffa bought out Pride, Dana & the boys have gotten “too big for their britches” to use an antiquated term. Like all monopolies do, they’ve become over-confident, egotistical & arrogant in their dealings with their talent ( re: Couture ), the other business entities they negotiate with ( re: HBO ) & talent that they haven’t yet acquired ( re: Fedor ).
And while EliteXC & those entities that it works with closely, like Strikeforce, have offered a moderate amount of competetion since it debuted earlier this year, it’s obviously not in the position to REALLY take on the beast that is the UFC.
But, M-1 Global just might be. We shall see.
I believe that a lot will be learned about them once they announce their talent roster. If it turns out to be the type that will attract a big time television network to sign up to broadcast their events, then that’ll be huge. And I’m specifically thinking of HBO.
Dana had been SO insistent that a deal between the UFC & HBO would be signed that he’d been calling it a “done deal” for the better part of a year. Then, after all that time negotiating, HBO stepped away from the deal. If M-1 Global steps into the void left by the aftermath of Dana’s non-deal & manages to get a broadcast package for their events, it would be a MASSIVE coup on their part. And immediately put them right up their on the same level as the UFC IMO.
Look what Time said about the scientologist financial backer for the company:
Neither man agreed to be interviewed for this story, yet both threatened legal action through attorneys. “What these guys do is take over companies, hype the stock, sell their shares, and then there’s nothing left,” says John Campbell, a former securities lawyer who was a director of mining company Athena Gold until Baybak and Gerbino took it over.
[…] as a result of misrepresentation. Baybak actually sued Time regarding the article and as a result Time added the following caveat to the article: that they were not accusing Baybak of illegal activity or of being a “Scientology […]
The big question that I have, and I think alot of people do as well, is what is going to make this company a success when so many other corporations and organizations (WFA, IFL, World Fighter) have all had similar hype stories at their creation, and then a fizzling at the end. In the case of the IFL, they are not dead per se, but they are in some “Dark Water”
No non-UFC organizations so far have had as a big an opening splash as M-1 Global.
Coming out with Fedor, Red Devil, Monte Cox, and possibly Xtreme Couture, is much bigger than anythign we have seen from the IFL, EliteXC, HDNet, Steele Cage, etc, etc, etc.
M-1 Global not only came out with big MMA names, but they have other BIG, mainstream associations. IE, the SFX group and Ecko Enterprises. Plus they had a relatively well-publicized/organized press conference. The other startup Orgs have had none of this. Sure, Elite XC is on showntime, and is run by a successful boxing promoter but thats about all they have going for them.
Not saying this is makes M-1 Global a guaranteed sucess, but lets not compare them to terribly thought-out promotions like the IFL.
HBO stepped away from the UFC because the people who were there who were interested in putting MMA on the air left the company. UFC or no UFC, there won’t be any MMA on that network until that changes.
M-1 has all the hallmarks that we’ve come to recognize from the MMA organizations that are emerging recently: next to no financial backing, no apparent business plan, people involved who know nothing about MMA, one or two high profile fighters and a cast of also-rans, a backdoor stock floatation via merger with a dormant shell corporation, and the strong smell of conspiracy and corruption.
I wouldn’t call it skepticism.
If you want to know my real opinion, this entire charade is designed to get a merger with UFC.
It’s the USFL all over again.
Jeremy (not that Jeremy) provides some interesting food for thought.
Some financial web sites are already touting the Sibling Entertainment Group Holdings, Inc stock, as its price shot up on the news.
We all know how Jeremy Lappen guided Rampage to the WFA and how that turned out.
I see parallels here with Fedor and his management, and the potential for much more of the same.
Jim Allcorn: I find it ironic that you question other people’s negativity and skepticism, shortly before launching into a tirade of negativity about the UFC, which really isn’t warranted. The UFC acts nothing like a monopoly; in fact the closest sports comparison I can draw is that the UFC acts like a small-market baseball team that has recently moved up to mid-market. While the grabbing of the Pride guys is a big-market move, almost everything else they do speaks of a company that sees competition left and right.
I can’t decide whether Fedor and his management are being taken to the cleaners somehow, or this is actually some kind of sudden investment that Sibling decided to pull out their asses and will actually make a profit. It seems so damn shady with the non-existent backing, shell corporations, undisclosed backers in Garlin Holdings, undisclosed backing period.
A merger seems odd considering Fedor wanted this contract, do you think the UFC would actually buy the company and then change his contract? Or would they hold a sale on the word that his contract stays the same, etc.?
Rampage is still fighting on his WFA contract.
How many fights are on Fedor’s M-1 deal? How long does it extend?
Ahh, ok. Thanks for the clarification.
Six fight deal, 2 million per fight, two years.
Jeremy, Rampage is not still fighting under his WFA contract, he signed a new contract before he fought Chuck.
In my best Frank Trigg impression, “Here’s the thing”
What if they are just simply fronting enough money to get Fedor, build some hype, then lock up a TV deal, venue deals, and ticket sales and probably some PPV deals internationally and in the U.S. knowing that they will make a big splash?
Potentialy, they could raise enough money in the first event to legitimately keep the promotion going loing enough to get a big stable of fighters, etc. It’s obviously a huge risk.
Leland: They don’t have a chance in hell of doing all those things you mention AND even making back the costs of funding. The UFC has been losing money like crazy on their European events, and they have a huge head start in terms of name recognition and organizational infrastructure.
M1 = WFA minus Quinton but add Fedor.
Within a year, UFC will buy out Fedor’s contract. Seriously, I am an MMA fan, but between spending $40 a month for a UFC PPV with at least 6 top ten fighters in different weight classes or M1 just to watch Fedor, it really isn’t a hard decision (Get Barnett and I may pay for that one PPV if they end up fighting each other). I will not add HBO for them as I have not added Showtime for EliteXC. M1 has to get itself on regular cable because it won’t sell HBO and it won’t sell PPV. Good luck on the 50k buys from the hard cores of the hard cores.
Am I a pessimist or a realist?
Michael,
That was definitely my thinking, but I was wondering if any organizations have ever done this. I can only think of one real company that ever overcame such huge losses to start only to blast back with huge profits: Amazon. But this isn’t the Internet, this is MMA.
I think M-1 is being a bit too optimistic. The international numbers will be their bread and butter, I believe. If they can sell it in Japan, which they probably will, especially with Fedor and possibly Barnett on the card, or grabbing up some Shooto talent or Gomi, I think they could do well there. The U.S. will be a different beast entirely.
From watching the press conference, I can’t help but get a sense of hopefulness, but heading back into reality, the financials look absolutely horrible. All the mystery surrounding the numbers is odd. I believe they have to have some major investors.
Cyphron, I think to the casual fan, you’re being a realist, and probably for more than a few hardcore fans as well.
As to the whole M1 thing…no paper trail seems strange from a financial perspective. It’s going to be interesting to watch, but who these investors in the background are is now the operative question. Shell companies with no money and LLCs with no faces are hardly signs of something good.
Actually Rampage renegotiated with Zuffa prior to fighting Chuck.
Leland: I think there either must be a ton of financial backing we don’t know about, or this whole thing is some sort of shady front for a game we aren’t seeing. I could certainly see them doing well in Japan after some time, but having Fedor gives them a top-heavy pay structure, and they are either going to have to grow a lot, or be a tiny organization with one super-marquee fighter. Neither proposition makes sense with the financials we are seeing.
One truly crazy idea is that Monte already has handshake deals in place with some of the UFC’s top talent to fight for M-1 in exchange for stock options or something of the sort. If relations between top talent and the UFC are really as bad as some are claiming, I could see guys like Franklin and Arlovski jumping ship with no guarantee of big money.
Having a few fighters along the lines of Arlovski and Franklin under contract without having to pay any cash could give M-1 a big tool to enter the US market without having to spend nearly as much money as they would otherwise.
You’re an optimist, cyphron.
Fedor/Lindland did what on PPV? 15k buys?
13,000 PPV Buys for Fedor/Lindland.
Think about this…. If Fedor is getting $2 Million a fight then you are realistically looking at a fight card that will cost between $3 to $5 Million with advertising, production, fighter salaries, and other expenses.
If they charge $40 a PPV, and get $20 for each one….. They need 150,000 PPV Buys to just break even with $3 Million of expenses. No MMA company has gotten over 50,000 PPV buys that wasn’t called the UFC.
Now, if they get Couture for a PPV, the expenses for the event will be around $6 Million if not more. That means a minimum of 300,000 PPV Buys. And it’s not like Couture is a shoe in, nor does he have any life left on his career at this point.
I have to laugh at the fans and media who get all pumped up for this stuff. Can you say Battleship? WFA? IFL? K-1 USA? The list goes on and on. Nobody can compete with the UFC at this time. I’m sure at some point it will be done, but not anytime soon.
I’d add HBO in a minute to watch M-1. I added Showtime just for EXC and kept it cuz its only $6 a month and the cards are getting more frequent.
HBO is always a possibility, but it is highly unlikely. M-1 has no real TV background. They have not really produced a card worth mentioning as of yet. And outside some hype from some leftover Pride fanboys, they are no different then the many other MMA companies before them that are trying to enter a near impossible market.
I just don’t see HBO going in that direction.
And while we all discuss Fedor on a message board, Dana White announced on SpikeTV that Liddell/Silva will happen in December…. Already making Wanderlei Silva a bigger star then Fedor will likely ever be.
The big thoughts over on Fightlinker.com is that M-1 is a definite money scame…ala something that made Pride look like the handicapped Boy Scouts or something. Ties with the Russian Mob, the Vancouver Stock Exchange and a theater company? You couldn’t write shit this good.
If Couture signs on to fight Fedor…what are they going to do for an encore?
And lets not forget that the IFL is on free-to-air national television, and look where it has gotten them?
45 Huddle, you are just the biggest hater, its getting ridiculous.
The new organization just formed literally yesterday, and you are already predicting its demise on pure, unadulterated speculation. Its pathetic.
We all know you are a huge UFC mark. We get it. Enough with the overkill.
The whole Russian mob deal is simply exaggerated speculation at this point, but the Michael Baybak deal that I reported earlier is the real deal. He was on the Vancouver Stock Exchange though. We haven’t heard anything about him, and he doesn’t own majority ownership in the company. I think we can discount him for now.
while i dont find myself agreeing with 45 Huddle on much – his negativity is on the nail for M1
M1 is Vadim Finklestein. Having a tshirt sponsor (Ecko), some broadway musical producers and Monte Cox (yes, a big fighter manager, but whats his track record as CEO of anything? fight managing and CEO’s require a different skill set). The shady investors in the background on the world famous Vancouver exchange just tops the whole circus off
M1 has a miserable record of failures with its series of horrible Russia v USA events both in St Petersburg and Atlantic City – and yes, Red Devil fighters formed the Russian team, with Monte’s ATT fighters generally making up the bulk of the US team
M1 never got on TV or PPV because it was horrible – bodog’s production looks Pride like in comparison
Dont get your hopes up – M1 is a train wreck and a scam. But if you believe in it so much, you can always go buy some shares and help pay Fedor’s signing bonus
So for being so negative. I have been a hardcore fan of this sport since 1999, and this is seriously like the 20th company that was supposed to be the next big thing.
I know it is hard to believe, but I had this same negative attitude when The Fertitta’s purchased the UFC. They made a believer out of me. The other 19 companies completely failed.
SamScaff, you need to open your eyes. 45 Huddle is being a realist here.
45 Huddle merely said that at this point M-1 is no different from every other upstart MMA org that’s emerged in recent years. He’s completely correct. Look at what assets M-1 has, compare it to what other start-up orgs had, and realize that M-1 has so much more in common with the IFLs and EliteXCs in the world than it does to a top organization like UFC or Pride (in it’s prime).
We can go through it step-by-step. UFC makes enough money to be self-sufficient and is getting more and more profitable as time goes on. M-1 is going to lose a lot of money before they turn a corner in this market. UFC has huge trademark recognition (Remember the dumb blonde from the Strikeforce show that asked if MMA was like the UFC?). M-1 is unknown to all except the hardcore MMA. UFC has the vast majority of the top 10 fighters in the world. M-1 has one.
Now compare M-1 to EliteXC, WFA, IFL, etc. You’ll see a lot more similiarities…
I’ll jump on the conspiracy bandwagon since everybody wants to lose their damn mind and go crazy out of nowhere. The Fertittas are actually running Garlin LLC through Frank J. Fertitta Sr’s, (who definately due to conspiracy linked to ZUFFA has had his wikipedia detailing his life removed), old organized crime connections in Italy with the Maceo crime family. They signed Fedor to a huge contract through shadow investors bought up the stock and are gonna split the revenue from the stock gains on this boiler room operation with Baybek then use that to buy ProElite through another shadow company and pay off their true masters in Yakuza that own FEG.
^What that guy said
And these investors talk about being committed to the sport, but as soon as they lose money (Bodog), they start to shut down operations or greatly reduce it. Here is a list (from memory) of the next big companies in MMA:
IFC – Put on a few big tournaments. Did nothing from there.
WFA (Original) – Where the fight club meets the night club. Need I say more?
WFA (2nd) – Sold to Zuffa.
WEF – Two huge shows and then the promoter became a crook.
Extreme Fighting – 4 Shows and bust.
IFL – Losing money and likely out in 2008.
World Fighter – Never even got started.
Battleship – Most classic concept ever. Fights on a boat.
Bodog Fight – Billionaire owner who couldn’t produce 2 minutes of interesting TV.
DEEP 2001 – Supposed to be the next Pride.
IVC – Created Wanderlei Silva. Became nothing.
I know I am missing a bunch, but that was a decent list to start with. And you wonder why I think M-1 will fail? Hmmmm……
There’s a lot of comedy here from 45. Such as:
Now, if they get Couture for a PPV, the expenses for the event will be around $6 Million if not more. That means a minimum of 300,000 PPV Buys. And it’s not like Couture is a shoe in, nor does he have any life left on his career at this point.
I like the idea that Couture has nothing left in his career, given that he is the UFC Heavyweight champion, just defended his title against a consensus top 5 fighter in successful fashion, and that his hold out with the UFC has made mass media unlike every other hold out or defection in the history of the company.
IFC – Put on a few big tournaments. Did nothing from there.
The IFC has been around for over a decade. Last I checked, they are not necessarily attempting to usurp the UFC’s place in America or Canada.
WEF – Two huge shows and then the promoter became a crook.
The WEF had a number of big shows, its just that they weren’t taped.
DEEP 2001 – Supposed to be the next Pride.
Became a feeder league for PRIDE. Outlasted PRIDE.
IVC – Created Wanderlei Silva. Became nothing.
The IVC operated in Brazil. How big do you think an organization can get in Brazil? Riofights probably has as many or more eyeballs on it in the developed world than any Vale Tudo organization in history.
Body_Shots,
Thanks. I keep hearing that Quinton is coming up on his contract, so it seemed unlikely to me that he would have only had three or four fights on a new one in UFC. However, it does make sense that they would want to make sure he was in the fold before giving him a shot at a belt.
You are welcome! 🙂
Thank you for these kind words!
I hope to god Mark Hunt signs with UFC, though rumour is thats iminent, without Hunt who is Fedor going to fight? Barnett? Um sleeptime.
[…] Caplan to Meltzer has tried their hand at giving a solid overview. One of Jeff Comstock’s final pieces over at FightOpinion.com tried to decipher why all these people at the M-1 Global press conference […]