Evgeni Kogan, M-1 Global's Director of Operations, talks to Sherdog about the recent negotiations between his company and co-promotional partners Strikeforce:

"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."

The most interesting aspect of this comment, at least to me, is the fact that Kogan seems to believe that the media needs to acknowledge M-1's role in the co-promotional efforts between his company and Strikeforce. Whether Kogan believes that or not, it should be obvious that no amount of negotiations between M-1 and Strikeforce will result in the media staying on the message M-1 wants delivered.

It's also interesting to note that Kogan was once a contributor for Sherdog, and has since risen to power in M-1 operations.