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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
M-1 Global president Vadim Finkelchtein has some worries about a fair playing field for his fighter Fedor Emelianenko in the upcoming Strikeforce Heavyweight World Grand Prix. With fighters in the field who have previously tested positive for banned substances, Finkelchtein says he will be requesting strict drug testing for the tournament fights. He expressed as much at a press conference in Moscow on Tuesday ahead of Fedor's February 12 bout with Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva.
"Two out of eight fighters in the tournament previously failed a drug test," Finkelchtein stated (translated by LowKick.com). "Obviously, I'm talking about Josh Barnett and Antonio Silva. We want fair competition for everyone, so that's why I will ask the commission to perform a strict drug testing."
"Fedor is not using any kind of substance to enhance his performance, and will be ready for any kind of testing. So if the commission decides to follow our suggestion, we'll be ready."
After their first hand experience with Josh Barnett, in which a lucrative fight on Affliction's third card never came to fruition due to Barnett's third failed steroid test, Finkelchtein says he doesn't want to have to go through that again.
"Our organization paid a heavy price after the cancelation of the fight between Josh Barnett and Fedor. We did a lot of promotion for this fight, which in the end did not take place. That's why as a promoter and manager, I don't want this to happen ever again."
The tournament kicks off with two quarterfinal bouts on February 12 in New Jersey, as Andrei Arlovski and Sergei Kharitionov square off in addition to Fedor vs. Silva.
Penick's Analysis: If it's going to entail the same testing procedures for each fighter and it's going to be uniformly applied throughout the tournament, it's not unreasonable to want to see strict testing done. But, if Strikeforce were to run in Japan as Scott Coker has stated he wants to do, or another commission that doesn't test, such as Texas, they'd have to take care of it all on their own. Again, provided it gets applied widely, and for each fight, then they should go for it, but they can't single fighters out and hold things up for testing if the other fights aren't being subject to the same thing.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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