At Least the M-1 Rumor Mill is Healthy

(Is M-1 dying? Is Fedor one of those Russian spies? Is Jerry Millen a zombie? The real question we should be asking is whose legs are those?)

This morning Michael David Smith wrote a report describing dire straights for M-1 Global stating that their main office in the Netherlands was closing, the company was having issues with investors and was in a "panic".

M-1 Global Director of Operations, Evgeni Kogan, quickly responded by shooting a verbal volley across Fanhouse's bow, saying, "apparently it's too much to expect even mediocre levels of journalism from some of our press."

Kogan followed that toss of the Twitter glove by telling several writers that the Fanhouse report was wrong and that only 4 employees out of a total global staff of 70 had been let go due to "restructuring". Evgeni also characterized the mood of M-1 employees as being "upset" in Fedor's loss rather than the staff collectively pushing the panic button so hard that it no longer works.

Michael David Smith also talked to Kogan but added this tid bit:

"Original sources has reiterated that in the days following Fedor's loss, Kogan told multiple employees of M-1's Netherlands office that they are losing their jobs because the office is closing. Told that Kogan had denied the original story, the source said Kogan was "lying.""

So you have Kogan denying the overarching theme and specifics of Smith's report with Smith and Fanhouse sticking to their guns while giving Evgeni a chance to speak. Here's hoping we get our first M-1 Global video blog rant...

Middle Easy breaks down all the rumors and points out that Evgeni Kogan was very polite in saying that the majority of rumors following M-1 are baseless. On the other hand Bauzen makes a note that the chatter surrounding M-1 Global is similar to the chatter that came out of Affliction and EliteXC before... well... it's not polite to talk about the dead.

An interesting little media note to close us out. It seems that a majority of fans are quick to dismiss anonymous reports when they deal with Zuffa but often cite them as gospel with other promotions. Say what you will about that (we aren't really trying to score partisan points) just thought it was interesting trend.