Speculate who is the billionaire who bought out M-1?

[VladKGB]

[ QUOTE ]
The new ownership of the M-1 Global promotion and its acquisition of number-one world ranked fighter Fedor Emelianenko will be announced Monday at a press conference in New York City. A conference invitation sent out today was devoid of the usual details, including the event’s host, who has gone to great lengths to keep its identity a secret till Monday. It is expected that the promotion will also announce its first event in the U.S. for February, with the PRIDE heavyweight champion headlining against an opponent yet to be named. Emelianenko will be in attendance.

The Fight Network was the first to report that the Russian-based M-1 Mix-Fight promotion recently sold to an undisclosed American buyer tied to the entertainment industry. Established in 1997, M-1 has held over 30 events, mostly in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Former M-1 owner and Russian businessman Vadim Finklestein, who manages the 31-year-old Sambo champion, facilitated the signing of Emelianenko (26-1, 1 NC) to the revamped organization, which trumped offers made by the UFC, Strikeforce, and Mark Cuban’s HDNet Fights, among other rival promotions. Finklestein and colleague Apy Echteld will remain with M-1 in executive positions, while a CEO will be announced Monday as well.

Last Thursday, UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture relinquished his title, citing the UFC's inability to sign Emelianenko as one of his reasons for resignation. Emelianenko is six months removed from his last performance, a first round submission over 2000 Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling silver medalist Matt Lindand at April 14's Bodog Fight "Clash of the Nations" in St. Petersburg, Russia.

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Who do you guys speculate is this mysterious billionaire? Vince McMahon? Mark Cuban?

[Jack of Arcades]

It's obviously Mark Cuban. He wants to make a rip off of the Ultimate Fighter to get his third lame reality show up and running.

[MikeyPatriot]

Everything I've heard states that it is definitely not Mark Cuban, and it's someone who has had no previous interest in MMA. I'd like to have heard wrong though.

The whole idea of "revealing" the "mystery billionaire" has a real Vince McMahon feel to it.

It's really [censored] stupid though. We shouldn't have a revealing of the "mystery owner" at a press conference announcing the signing of the #1 fighter in the world. Said owner should be known and the focus should be on Fedor.

[HajiShirazu]

"keep its identity a secret till Monday"
Gotta be Vince McMahon and a good chance we start seeing legit MMA fights on/after Raw.

[Nonfiction]

[ QUOTE ]

It's really [censored] stupid though. We shouldn't have a revealing of the "mystery owner" at a press conference announcing the signing of the #1 fighter in the world. Said owner should be known and the focus should be on Fedor.

[/ QUOTE ]
Which is why I think it has to be Vince, since he LOVES the spotlight.

[BowToYourSensei]

i remember reading somewhere that mcmahon's no longer a billionaire according to forbes (never bothered to verify with forbes though), with a net worth of like, 800 mil.

[offTopic]

[DonkeyKongSr]

1) Mysterious billionaire
2) Entertainment industry
3) Combat sport
4) Announcement in NYC

All signs pointing to Vinny Mac.

EDIT: I see Shane McMahon rumors too, basically same diff, the McMahons make the most sense given the situation and this elaborate setup for an big announcement.

[MikeyPatriot]

I've read that Shane has been pushing for Titan to get involved in MMA.

[KDawg]

I'd be pretty sure that it's not vince. He still doesn't fully view UFC/MMA as competition, and he decided against buying UFC back when SEG was forced to sell it. He's never really had much intrest in MMA as has been seen over the years with his utter lack of knowledge in pushing former MMA fighters that turned to wrestling and his complete lack of knowledge of pushing MMA type characters.

If anyone was to want to do this, it would be Shane, but Shane isn't a fan of the spotlight like Stephanie and Vince. He's a lot more reserved like his mother. Something like this flies in the face of how he's operated over the past few years as an employee of Titan entertainment

Another reason that it most likely isn't Vince is that the Fed is expanding into other areas right now and is looking at setting up developmental territories outside of the US. Their focus has been on that and to go ahead and buy a MMA group while doing that makes little financial sense, and while Vince may not make full sense all the time, he always makes financial sense