During the M-1 press conference, Fedor Emelianko said to the the audience,

“I am very pleased to hear that Randy Couture thinks so highly of me. I deeply respect him and have been watching him since his first fight. I admire him greatly. Once in Prague (Czech Republic), he saw me and I came away with a warm feeling, and it will be an honor for me to fight him.”

The “baddest man on the planet” is a pretty humble and classy guy.  Almost like the Russian version of a Couture. 

I wasn’t able to find an embedded video clip for the press conference, but you can check it out here:http://eckotv.com/video/M-1Global/fedor_emelianenko_signs_with_m1_global

It’s fairly long, 43 minutes, but here are some of the key points:

- M-1 knows that they are an underdog in the sport of MMA but feel confident that they will reign supreme

- President and CEO Monte Cox told a lot of jokes that got few laughs

- Fedor looked bored to death and awkward in a suit and tie

- M-1 Global planning on running six events around the world in 2008

- Their first show will be in February and headlined by Fedor Emelianenko (whose opponent hasn’t been named)

- Three other major events will be headlined by Fedor, two in the U.S. and a summer event in Tokyo

- Cox spoke of having to make a television deal for live coverage prior to finalizing the date and time of the first event

- M-1 is very interested in ex-UFC champ Randy Couture, claimed they would offer Couture $1 million more than he currently makes per fight in UFC for what would be the dream fight against Emelianenko. They also said they would add a $1 million bonus to the winner.