Strikeforce Contract Extension With Fedor Emelianenko Almost Complete

"I think the talks are going well. There are always things to get sorted and ironed out, but we are probably two-thirds of the way there," Kogan told MMAFighting.com Thursday afternoon. "I think that the next fight and the deal overall will be announced at the same time, within the next month. We have an [M-1 Selection] event in [Atlantic City,] New Jersey on September 18th and we may be ready to announce by then.

"Working out the details … timeframes, frequency of fights, financials of course and a few other things as well."

Over the weekend, Emelianenko attended the semi-finals of M-1 Global's tournament where he said he would focus his attention on Strikeforce and that he "didn't have any interest in the UFC" due to the one fight remaining on his current deal with the San Jose, California based promotion.

After getting derailed by Fabricio Werdum earlier this summer, White quickly hopped off his bandwagon and it seems as though the feeling is mutual. So much so, that the Russians won't even bother with hitting the free agent market or talking to UFC brass.

"He's being treated well, and we now have a good working relationship with them, which means he's getting regular fights," Kogan added. "And M-1, the organization he's a shareholder in, is also being treated well, and we are achieving some of our goals and working towards achieving others within this relationship."