Here’s an update to something I touched on the other day: Does Fedor’s inclusion in EA’s MMA video game preclude him from fighting in the UFC? Apparently not, if you believe what UFC president Dana White said at a press conference yesterday.
The press conference yesterday addressed a number of issues, including the return of Tito Ortiz and a deal with ESPN UK. (ESPN is launching a new channel in the UK, primarily to showcase all the Premiership games it just won the rights to.) But what concerns us here at CrunchGear is that EA MMA game.
Dana White has said in the past that anyone, with the exception of Randy Coture, who signs up to be in the EA game will not fight in the UFC. Fedor looks to be another exception. White said that he offered Fedor an “assload of money,” a deal that he’ll never find anywhere else in mixed martial arts. For whatever reason, Fedor’s people didn’t agree to the deal. (Rumor has it that Fedor’s people want to co-promote any possible UFC fight, presumably against Brock Lesnar, something that UFC doesn’t want to agree to.)
So, reading between the lines, Fedor’s inclusion in the EA game should have no effect on any possible UFC fight(s). Other things may hold up the deal, but it doesn’t look to be the game.