UFC and Dana White threaten Tapout with Ban for Sponsoring Fedor?

(Sure you can kitty cat. All you need to do is touch Fedor and *BAM! Dana White kills cute kitty cat for touching Fedor*)

However, during my time here in San Jose, while spending time with very legitimate sources close to the situation, I was advised that certain parties within the UFC halted TapOuts participation in the event and threatened a UFC lifetime ban, if Emelianenko came out wearing their line.

Similarly, In Fedor’s last outing he came out wearing the ever popular RVCA clothing line which resulted in the UFC’s temporary ban from the Orange County based lifestyle Apparel Company. We witnessed evidence of said ban when UFC star BJ Penn did not come out in his traditional RVCA gear during his title fight against Frankie Edgar.

RVCA has since made amends and as is now Octagon worthy once again. However TapOut was apparently not willing to take on the same gamble as their Orange County counterpart and pulled the deal from Fedor, just days before Strikeforce goes live.

Loretta Hunt of Sherdog reports on the same issue with quotes from Vadim Finkelchstein and Evgeni Kogan of M-1 Global stating that the Tapout deal, and the previous RVCA sponsorship deal, fell apart due to pressure from the UFC. Tapout and RVCA declined to comment.

Um, real quick, how is this not illegal?

Seriously, if there are any lawyers out there please tell us how the Feds aren't gearing up for an investigation because on the surface it seems really, really, really illegal. Granted it might be difficult to prove in a court of law that Zuffa officials explicitly told Tapout officials they would be banned if said sponsorship went through but that's why we have Grand Juries because if you perjure yourself to a Grand Jury you will be in serious shiza.

Enough about our complete lack of understanding on corporate law and on to the real question: Can you get the Fedor Tapout shirt or will it end up as donated clothing to some third world country? Probably neither:

Q: When can fans get Fedor's Tapout shirt:

A: I'm afraid to disappoint the fans, but it seems like, never. Literally today they called me from the TAPOUT firm and told me that they were contacted by the representatives of the UFC, and that under the threat of tearing up all the contracts with their organization demanded that TAPOUT categorically stop producing all the shirts from the line of Fedor Emelianenko.

This is how Dana White feels about Fedor. So tell me, what can we think about such person after this, that even in things that have nothing to do with UFC, he still tries to mess it up for us. So it seems that the shirts will just stay a rarity that fans will

SBN coverage of Strikeforce and M-1 Global: Fedor vs. Werdum