Just a few days ago people were wondering if Fedor Emelianenko would fight on another Strikeforce card or if the “negotiating” between Strikeforce and M-1 Global would cause the two promotions to separate. Well it seems that things aren’t as bad as originally thought. Here’s the quote, via Sherdog, from Evgeni Kogan, M-1 Global’s Director of Operations.

“I think June, July is realistic (for Emelianenko’s return). It’s not 100 percent. Don’t take this as a fight announcement, but I think during the summer. After the CBS show, we thought that the (Strikeforce) terms needed a little bit tweaking — nothing major, just a little bit of tweaking. So, we had a round of negotiations with Strikeforce. Everything went positively. We’re pretty much at the end. For us, it’s really important that the M-1 Global brand is acknowledged on these co-promotion events. As much as the partners made a lot of effort to acknowledge the co-branding, the media basically picked up on the fact that it was Strikeforce and kind of forgot about everything else, which wasn’t the most ideal for us.”

This seems to be the most honest and straightforward of all the comments made from the higher ups at M-1 Global and also addresses what exactly the problem was. The MMA News will keep you in the loop.