While appearing as a guest on yesterdayā€™s edition of Jim Rome is Burning, UFC president Dana White once again answered questions regarding the status of heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko.

ā€œEverybody that thinks this guys is as good as he is, I want to find out too. Iā€™m as big or bigger a fight fan than anyone that watches mixed martial arts ā€¦ Somebody believes that this guy is possibly the best, which I personally do not think that he is one of the pound-for-pound best in the world.

ā€œYes, heā€™s one of the top heavyweights in the world. I want to find out how good he really is, but it takes two to make a deal. Not just one guy. Not, ā€˜Dana, you gotta get this done.ā€™

ā€œTrust me, this has become an obsession. I have done everything in my power to try and make this deal happen.ā€

Unlike last week in Abu Dhabi where White originally confirmed his ā€œobsessionā€ with bringing Fedor into his Octagon, and parlayed that by claiming to have spoken with Team Fedor ā€œmore recently than [we] would think,ā€ the promoter simply tried to recruit the Russianā€™s services by questioning his 31-1 resume.

Other than that, it was the same ā€˜ol spiel. Domestically, Emelianenko remains under contract with Strikeforce, although for the past two months both sides have been trying to ā€œtweekā€ the original three-fight contract they had agreed upon less than a year ago.

If for some reason Emelieanko decides to bounce from Strikeforce, the UFC may still not be his landing spot. M-1 Global, the Russian-based company that represents Fedor and is owned by his manager, Vadim Finkelchtein, refuses to allow their client to fight on any show they canā€™t co-promote on.

That is the main barrier that has kept Fedor from joining the UFC and will continue to be a roadblock unless M-1 caves. While both sides have made it perfectly clear they will not budge when it comes to co-promotion, the UFC needs this deal a lot less than Team Fedor, despite Whiteā€™s newly found ā€œobsession.ā€

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Written by Tom Ngo