A battle is brewing between Fedor Emelianenko and M-1 Global , against Affliction entertainment over allegations of breach of contract after this summers failed third “Affliction: Trilogy” event.

MMAPayout.com has done some great work summarizing the lawsuit in “layman” terms for us mere mortals so we can understand.

Fedor had a three-fight contract with Affliction, and fought two of the three fights, and agreed to fight Josh Barnett to close the contract. Barnett failed a steroids test, Affliction had discussions with prospective replacements for Barnett (e.g., Vitor Belfort and Brett Rogers) but ultimately reached an agreement with UFC that would permit Affliction to once again sponsor UFC fighters so long as it agreed to exit the promotion game.

All contracts have what is called an implied covenant of good faith, and Fedor argues that Affliction, instead of satisfying its obligation of booking a third fight for Fedor by finding a suitable replacement for Barnett, chose the path of least resistance by returning to UFC and cancelling the third show altogether, leaving the contracts with Fedor unsatisfied.

The substantive issues in the lawsuit are interesting: in contract law there is what’s known as the excuse of impossibility, and here the argument would be that Barnett’s failing the steroids test rendered impossible the satisfaction of Affliction’s obligations on the Fedor contracts, with Fedor arguing that Barnett’s negative drug test was used as a mere pretext to allow Affliction to exit the promotion end of MMA and stiff Fedor.

Affliction has responded by filing a ‘motion to dismiss’ arguing that the lawsuit is frivolous. Affliction’s Tom Atencio commented on the situation to MMAPayout.com describing his company’s stance on the situation.

“Affliction landed a serious blow to the Fedor and M-1 lawsuit by filing a motion to dismiss in federal court in response to the Russians’ complaint only eight days after being served. . . . The counter by Affliction goes to show Affliction does not intend to rollover and be extorted by the Russian visitors and how frivolous and meritless Affliction considers the allegations of their complaint.”

For those readers looking for some greater details on the lawsuit visit MMAPayout.com for both of their articles detailing the ‘Breach of Contract‘ and the ‘Motion to Dismiss‘ by clicking the links. The folks over at Bloodyelbow.com have broken provided some more interesting information detailing the Fedor Emelianenko’s Affliction contract and the consulting agreement with M-1 Global.