Finkelstein, Vadim Grigorievich

Born on August 14, 1964 in the city of Fergana (Uzbek SSR), where his family was evacuated during the war. In 1970, the Finkelstein returned to Leningrad. When Vadim was 14 years old his mother died. Vadim has a younger brother, Eugene Finkelstein.

Until the age of 20, Finkelstein worked as a seller, and later became the head of a section of five departments. At the age of 21, he founded the Aromat cooperative, which was engaged in the trade in fruits and vegetables. Then he opened an Uzbek restaurant. In the early 90s, Vadim left for Holland. A year later, Finkelstein supplied Royal brand alcohol to the Russian market. In parallel, he registered in the Netherlands the company Infin Gala International , which was engaged in the wholesale supply of meat to Russia.

In 1995, by order of Vadim Finkelstein, Dutch experts developed the energy drink Red Devil ^[1] . The appearance on the energy market did not go unnoticed by the organizers of European mixed martial arts tournaments, who turned to the new manufacturer to become a sponsor of one of the championships.

In 1997, on the basis of the sports club "RED DEVIL", the Federation of Mixed Martial Arts arose in St. Petersburg. In the same year, Vadim organized the first mixed martial arts tournament (MMA or Mixed Martial Arts in translation - mixed martial art) in Russia, which received the status of the European Open Championship and was held in the arena of the Yubileiny sports complex, attracting more than four thousand spectators. Seeing that the organization of this tournament was successful, Vadim began to organize several tournaments a year, in which famous athletes took part: Fedor Emelianenko , Jeff Monson and others. In 2008, the mixed martial arts league “M-1 Global” (president became Vadim), which held a joint tournament in Japan M-1 Yarennoka

Vadim was the manager of Fedor Emelianenko from 2003 until the departure of Fedor from sports in 2012. Also in 2008, Vadim Finkelstein founded a new project - the international world championship among clubs “M-1 Challenge”, which took place in several countries: Russia, Holland, Great Britain, Finland, etc. In the 2008 season, 10 championships took part in the championship teams. The winner of 2008 was the club from St. Petersburg (Russia) - “Red Devil”. In 2009, Vadim launched the M-1 Selection project. The M-1 Challenge 49 tournament, which was held in Ingushetia on June 7, 2014, was included in the Russian Book of Records, becoming the most popular event at an altitude of more than 1,500 m above sea level . The tournament attracted spectators in the amount of 23255 people.

On May 16, 2012, the MMA Union of Russia was created. Vadim became Vice President of the Union. Fedor Emelianenko was elected President. At the request of Fedor and Vadim, mixed martial arts (MMA) was recognized as an official sport on September 27, 2012. From September 28 to September 30, the first official Russian MMA Championship was held ^[2] . On September 30, a congress was held and the World MMA Association (WMMAA), registered in Monaco, was created. The president of the Association is Vadim, the honorary president is Fedor Emelianenko. On November 14, 2012, the open European Championship in MMA was held. Currently, the World MMA Association includes representative offices of 46 countries ^[3] .

In February 2018, in the Primorsky district of St. Petersburg, Vadim opened the M-1 Arena sports and entertainment complex ^[4] .