Forums - Bellator/DREAM/Strikeforce http://mmacrypt.com/forum/ Not quite the big leagues but still pretty damn good en Sat, 18 May 2013 16:57:01 GMT vBulletin 60 http://mmacrypt.com/forum/images/ReptileGreen/misc/rss.png Forums - Bellator/DREAM/Strikeforce http://mmacrypt.com/forum/ Marcus Davis Plans to Finish His Career with Bellator… As Lightweight Champion http://mmacrypt.com/forum/showthread.php?31744-Marcus-Davis-Plans-to-Finish-His-Career-with-Bellator…-As-Lightweight-Champion&goto=newpost Thu, 16 May 2013 12:13:56 GMT Posted on May 15, 2013 by Mick Hammond Image:... Posted on May 15, 2013 by Mick Hammond




They say you can’t go home again, but for former UFC and current Bellator fighter Marcus “The Irish Hand Grenade” Davis, he gets a chance to do so when he returns to Bangor, Maine, for the NEF promotion on Saturday night.

“I’ve only fought in Maine as an MMA fighter twice,” said Davis. “I’m the only main card UFC fighter left. But no, there’s no pressure on me (fighting in front of my hometown crowd). I’ve just got to go out there and do what I do and come out with a victory.

“For me to grow the sport I love, the sport that takes care of my family and to grow my brand and schools here, it only makes sense to try to promote the hell out of MMA here as much as I can.”

Davis is returning to Maine following a disappointing Bellator debut in March where he ended up with a no contest due to his opponent, Waachiim Spiritwolf, being unable to continue after what initially appeared to be an accidental knee strike to the groin.

“As far as the match goes, I feel like I was in his head and honestly I think he took the coward’s way out,” said Davis of Spiritwolf. “His people are saying it was a low blow, but the referee couldn’t really see what had happened and assumed it was a low blow, but if you watch any of the video footage from the side, it completely shows all the kinetic energy and everything went right into his stomach.

“The doctor’s findings were that he had a panic attack in there. Anyway, it’s over. It’s disappointing that a victory got stolen from me basically because basically he was in over his head.”

Davis hopes Saturday’s bout against Darrius Heyliger will have a different outcome, even if to him the bout is a lot more difficult than people might expect.

“On paper it looks like the veteran guy against the guy that’s relatively new, but the thing is, it’s a horrible match-up for me stylistically and size-wise,” said Davis. “He’s six-foot-two and I never do well with guys over six feet (because) everybody knows I’ve got a short range. He’s a really good striker with a wrestling background that’s won by all means and comes from a very tough camp who have all done well in Maine; so stylistically it’s a nightmare for me.

“What I need to do to win is I need to go in there and control the pace and I’ve got to make him make a mistake and do the things I do best and not try to force anything.”

Should Davis get past Heyliger healthy, he told MMAWeekly.com he intends to move to lightweight full-time and return to Bellator later this year for what could very well be his last shot at glory.

“I’m going to finish out my career at lightweight as long as my body maintains it,” he said. “This year coming up, I’m going to go in the Bellator tournament and win my three fights and would like to be able to face Michael Chandler if he’s still champ at that time.

“I’d like a crack at (Chandler) and see what happens and then maybe a year or two after that hang my hat up in Bellator and finish up my career with them.”

http://www.mmaweekly.com/marcus-davi...eight-champion ]]> Bellator/DREAM/Strikeforce BluenoseGreig http://mmacrypt.com/forum/showthread.php?31744-Marcus-Davis-Plans-to-Finish-His-Career-with-Bellator…-As-Lightweight-Champion <![CDATA[Heavyweight tourney openers added to six-bout main card for Bellator's summer series kickoff]]> http://mmacrypt.com/forum/showthread.php?31736-Heavyweight-tourney-openers-added-to-six-bout-main-card-for-Bellator-s-summer-series-kickoff&goto=newpost Wed, 15 May 2013 22:00:09 GMT By Mike Chiappetta on May 15 2013, Image: http://cdn3.sbnation.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/13185889/volkovhalebellator.0_standard_709.0.jpg ... By Mike Chiappetta on May 15 2013,

Bellator MMA


Bellator's June 19 summer series kickoff will feature a six-bout, three-hour main card, as the opening round of the heavyweight tournament has been added on to the show.

The promotion confirmed the details of the four-man field, which includes former UFC fighter Vinicius Queiroz, Richard Hale, Ron Sparks and unbeaten Vitaly Minakov.

In the semis, Queiroz will face Hale, while Sparks takes on Minakov.

Minakov is 10-0 with nine stoppage wins, including three straight knockouts, while his opponent Sparks (8-1) hasn't competed since Oct. 2011.

Hale (21-5-1) competed in the season 7 heavyweight tourney, losing in the final against current champion Alexander Volkov. He is probably best remembered for his March 2011 inverted triangle choke submission win over Nick Fekete.

Queiroz (6-3) fought once in the octagon, losing to Rob Broughton at UFC 120. He's 1-1 so far in Bellator, with a TKO loss to Volkov during season 7.

The event emanates from the Winstar World Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma and airs at 7 pm ET on Spike.

The entire main card is below.

Michael Chandler (11-0) vs. Dave Jansen (19-2)
Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal (9-2) vs. Seth Petruzelli (14-7)
Renato "Babalu" Sobral (37-10) vs. Jacob Noe (11-2)
Vinicius Queiroz (6-3) vs. Rich Hale (21-5)
Vitaly Minakov (10-0) vs. Ron Sparks (8-1)
"War Machine" Jon Koppenhaver (12-4) vs. Blas Avena (8-6)

http://www.mmafighting.com/2013/5/15...-for-bellators ]]> Bellator/DREAM/Strikeforce BluenoseGreig http://mmacrypt.com/forum/showthread.php?31736-Heavyweight-tourney-openers-added-to-six-bout-main-card-for-Bellator-s-summer-series-kickoff Two New Preliminary Bouts Added to World Series ofFighting 3 http://mmacrypt.com/forum/showthread.php?31728-Two-New-Preliminary-Bouts-Added-to-World-Series-ofFighting-3&goto=newpost Wed, 15 May 2013 17:48:02 GMT Image: http://admin.mmaweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/MMA-World-Series-of-Fighting-Logo.jpg ...


Two New Preliminary Bouts Added to World Series of Fighting 3

Posted on May 15, 2013




Surging knockout artist Chris “Gritz” Gruetzemacher (11-1) of Glendale, Ariz. will square off with fellow fast-rising star Jerrod Sanders (11-1) of Oklahoma City, Okla. in a World Series of Fighting featherweight (145 pounds) preliminary card bout at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas on Friday, June 14.

A bantamweight (135 pounds) contest between emerging force Carson “Little Juggernaut” Beebe (13-2) of Schaumburg, Ill. and undefeated submission ace Joe Murphy (6-0) of Huntington Beach, Calif. has been added to the preliminary card as well, World Series of Fighting announced on Wednesday.

“We are excited to add another pair of match-ups to our preliminary card that will showcase a collection of the sport’s brightest up-and-coming athletes and future champions,” said World Series of Fighting President Ray Sefo.
“Since we launched our promotion last year, World Series of Fighting has made a commitment to building a roster of its own stars, so fighting as many potential future stars at our live events is critical in order to ensure that these athletes gain the necessary competitive experience to take their careers to the next level.”

The 26-year-old Gruetzemacher has been on fire since 2009, winning his last 10 fights. He has defeated each of his last seven opponents by way of (T)KO or submission, including four consecutive (T)KO victories.
Likewise, Sanders has notched nine straight wins. The 33-year-old has finished his last three opponents – two by way of submission and the third via TKO.
Beebe, the 24-year-old younger brother of bantamweight submission specialist Chase Beebe, is looking to return to the win column after he dropped a unanimous decision to Rolando Velasco in his last effort on Nov. 15, 2012. Prior to that, Beebe had reeled off seven consecutive victories.

The 25-year-old Murphy has been unstoppable since he made his professional debut with a first round (2:01) submission (armbar) victory over Orlando Aspericueta on May 1, 2009. Five of Murphy’s six wins to date have come by way of submission, including his last bout, an April 14 match-up with Tyler Weathers that Murphy won by way of armbar in the second round (2:56).
Tickets for the World Series of Fighting event, priced from $29 (plus applicable service fees), are on sale at the Hard Rock Hotel Box Office, all Ticketmaster locations, online at Ticketmaster.com and charge-by-phone at 800.745.3000.
The four-bout main card will air live on NBC Sports Network, beginning at 11 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT.

In the welterweight (170 pounds) main event and a long-awaited rematch, Jon Fitch (24-5) of Fort Wayne, Ind., will square off with fellow superstar Josh “The People’s Warrior” Burkman (25-9) of Salt Lake City, Utah.

http://www.mmaweekly.com/two-new-pre...-of-fighting-3 ]]> Bellator/DREAM/Strikeforce Kickass32 http://mmacrypt.com/forum/showthread.php?31728-Two-New-Preliminary-Bouts-Added-to-World-Series-ofFighting-3 WSOF Four man tourny for MW title! http://mmacrypt.com/forum/showthread.php?31699-WSOF-Four-man-tourny-for-MW-title!&goto=newpost Tue, 14 May 2013 18:38:15 GMT ---Quote--- World Series of Fighting will crown its first middleweight champion later this year following a four-man tournament. MMA veteran...
Quote:
World Series of Fighting will crown its first middleweight champion later this year following a four-man tournament.

MMA veteran Jesse Taylor, who has signed a multi-fight deal with the promotion, will join Dave Branch, Danilo Villefort and Elvis Mutapcic in the 185-pound tournament, WSOF president Ray Sefo and executive vice president Ali Abdel-Aziz confirmed with MMAFighting.com.

One semi-final fight will take place at WSOF 4 on Aug. 10 and the other will happen at WSOF 5 in September. WSOF 4 is slated to be held in California, although a specific location has yet to be finalized. The promotion's fifth event has yet to receive a specific date or location.
The winners are currently scheduled to meet in December for the title.

Taylor (26-9), a former The Ultimate Fighter cast member, has bounced around the MMA world since leaving the UFC in 2008. He has won his last six fights in a row, most recently defending the Cage Warriors middleweight crown earlier this month.

Speaking of champions, Mutapcic (13-2) left the Maximum Fighting Championship as their middleweight champion when he signed with WSOF last month. He has won his last five fights in a row.

Branch (12-3) is 2-0 under the WSOF banner, while Villefort (14-4) won his promotional debut at WSOF 2.
The entire tournament will air on NBC Sports Network.
Source: http://www.mmafighting.com/2013/5/14...rown-first-185

Guess they've decided to do titles now. Thought they didn't want to until next year. Wonder what that means for Burkman vs. Fitch though. ]]> Bellator/DREAM/Strikeforce Hired_Merc http://mmacrypt.com/forum/showthread.php?31699-WSOF-Four-man-tourny-for-MW-title! Bellator Champion only drug test, ONCE! http://mmacrypt.com/forum/showthread.php?31687-Bellator-Champion-only-drug-test-ONCE!&goto=newpost Tue, 14 May 2013 07:50:10 GMT
Quote:
Ben Askren has been standing atop Bellator's Welterweight division since 2010 when he defeated Lyman Good to win the title. Since then, he's improved his undefeated record to 11-0 with 3 successful title defenses. However, despite his success and 8 fights with the promotion, Askren has only submitted one drug test to a commission while fighting under the Bellator banner:

Ben Askren @BenaskrenJust read the article on why Bellator fighters don't fail drug tests. Hard to fail a test when you don't take it. Only been tested once!

Ben Askren @Benaskren
Don't really care that we aren't tested bc cheaters will cheat no matter what! Just thought the articles was really silly.

The article Askren seems to be referencing is a year-old op-ed from BJPenn.com. The author opined that Bellator fighters didn't fail tests because it would jeopardize their larger MMA career aspirations. Ben gave further light to the situation by revealing that many Bellator fighters aren't regularly tested in the first place. Askren later said that he believed it was the Pennsylvania commission that tested him, which would be his fight against Good in October 2010. If it weren't for Askren voluntarily submitting to VADA testing, he would not have been screened for performance enhancing drugs or any other illegal substances in over 2 and a half years.

Back in March, Jason Floyd of The MMA Report published the drug test results for Bellator 92. The event took place in Temecula, CA under the supervision of the California State Athletic Commission. All 22 fighters on the card were tested and every test came back clean. However, at Bellator 94 in Florida, the commission didn't test a single fighter on the card. While looking into the history of testing in Bellator, Floyd noted on Twitter that it was a difficult subject to research as many commissions did not consider drug tests results for any event a matter of public record.
Source: http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2013/5/13...lator-mma-news

That is crazy. Bellator are extremely unprofessional for a promotion that is meant to be ranked number 2. ]]> Bellator/DREAM/Strikeforce Hired_Merc http://mmacrypt.com/forum/showthread.php?31687-Bellator-Champion-only-drug-test-ONCE! Fight Master - Bellator MMA : Meet the Cast http://mmacrypt.com/forum/showthread.php?31686-Fight-Master-Bellator-MMA-Meet-the-Cast&goto=newpost Tue, 14 May 2013 05:33:36 GMT http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQJxDxsDgdg ]]> Bellator/DREAM/Strikeforce Rich Davie http://mmacrypt.com/forum/showthread.php?31686-Fight-Master-Bellator-MMA-Meet-the-Cast With fall season approaching, Bellator will have another time change http://mmacrypt.com/forum/showthread.php?31668-With-fall-season-approaching-Bellator-will-have-another-time-change&goto=newpost Mon, 13 May 2013 16:05:35 GMT *Image: http://cdn0.sbnation.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/13078779/062_bjorn_rebney.0_standard_730.0.jpg *Esther Lin, MMA Fighting With fall...
Esther Lin, MMA Fighting

With fall season approaching, Bellator will have another time change

By Dave Meltzer
May 13 2013, 10:00am


The announcement of the new time change for TNA Impact Wrestling by Spike TV to 9-11 p.m. Thursdays, guarantees Bellator will no longer air from 10 p.m. to midnight that night. It would make it difficult to air on Thursdays. But during the fall, with the exception of Tuesdays, there are issues with every night.

There was a news item a few days ago that on first glance, had nothing to do with MMA, but upon further thought, has everything to do with it.
The news bit was that Spike's pro wrestling franchise, TNA Impact Wrestling, is moving from its current 8-10 p.m. start time on Thursday to 9-11 p.m., effective at the end of this month.

How that affects MMA? Well, in quite a few ways. The most obvious is that the musical chairs that has been Bellator's time slot will have yet another change. Bellator had been following Impact from 10 p.m. until midnight, or sometimes well past that, during its first season on Spike. The weekly show in the early part of 2013 garnered an average of more than 800,000 viewers, more than triple that of any other season in company history, due to the station upgrade.
The first thing is not only is Bellator's time slot changing, but it looks very likely its night will change as well. A 7-9 p.m. time slot would be difficult. For one, the company that was booking a lot of West Coast venues, and getting fans to an arena for live main card fights at 4 p.m. Pacific time, let alone prelim fights at 2 p.m., in a West Coast venue on a Thursday is going to be death at the box office. Plus, the unpredictability of MMA means that it will frequently run past two hours, which would delay the wrestling show, which runs live every other week.

Running from 11 p.m. to past 1 a.m. takes it out of prime time and in that time slot, there is very limited possibility of growing and creating new fans.
Clearly this is not something long planned out. Bellator had just recently booked dates of Sept. 12 and Nov. 2 for its fall season, both Thursdays, at the Pechunga Resort and Casino in Temecula, Calif., and confirmed them with the California State Athletic Commission.

Bellator has had a roller coaster television situation since opening its doors in April, 2009. The first year, Bellator aired on ESPN Deportes, taping on Friday nights on a station that had very limited accessibility, often airing on tape delay.
In 2010, the promotion upgraded to Fox Sports Net, airing on Thursdays. The problem there is that FSN was a series of regional networks, with the priority being the local market teams. Bellator was frequently preempted, often airing well past midnight in many markets. The only way to really follow it was to set your VCR and hope it aired at some point as scheduled in your market.

In 2011, the move was made to MTV 2, which at first aired the shows on Saturdays. But ratings suffered going head-to-head with so many Saturday night UFC major events, not to mention the big boxing fights. So in 2012, to avoid UFC, the move was made to Friday, only to wind up with its main events going head-to-head with Ultimate Fighter, when FX took that show over and put it on Friday. Friday ended up being almost a graveyard for MMA, as Bellator's ratings took a hit as compared to the Saturday numbers, and both UFC and Bellator moved when the 2012 ended.

This year, with the move to Spike, it was put on at 10 p.m. Thursdays, live every week. The positives is it was without MMA competition on television, and had a somewhat conducive lead-in with pro wrestling. Virtually every week, the ups and downs of both wrestling and Bellator were the same, which seemed to indicate some audience similarities. The negative is that the main events often ended past midnight. Over the last six weeks, the TNA audience was down 12 percent from the same period the prior year, when it aired from 9-11 p.m., and on May 2 hit its lowest mark in the time slot for a show that didn't go against an NFL game.

Another aspect is that in the fall, Bellator on Thursday would have head-to-head NFL games against most of their shows. Spike learned from UFC, that it can survive a lot of competition, but it doesn't fare well head-to-head with the NFL. That's the reason Ultimate Fighter was moved from Thursdays on Spike to Wednesdays, to get away from battling football every fall.
As far as what is the plan right now, that appears to be up in the air.

"No decision has been made yet for the fall," said David Schwarz, Senior Vice President of Communications at Spike TV.
Surveying the scene, every night except one, Tuesdays, has major television competition issues. But Tuesdays are difficult to draw fans to live events.
Sunday goes against the NFL's highest rated game of the week. Monday goes against the traditions of Monday Night Football, and WWE Raw, which would be almost suicidal to buck.
Wednesday looks like a favorite, given Spike moved Ultimate Fighter to that night and had success. In addition, Spike is clearly trying to get fans familiar with watching on that night with the Fight Master reality show, a Bellator product, airing at 10 p.m. on Wednesdays. from June 19 to August 21.

Wednesday is also the most intriguing, because UFC is staking the claim to Wednesday night as its night, starting on Aug. 27. During the fall, it will air UFC Tonight and The Ultimate Fighter weekly on Wednesdays, as well as live fights, not weekly, but on a regular basis.

Bellator vs. UFC head-to-head at first glance seems to be the worst of all possible moves for the No. 2 promotion. But there are a few variables. First, Spike will be in roughly 10 million homes that won't have access to Fox Sports 1. Second, Spike is an established station that is regularly among the top 25 cable stations. Fox Sports 1 is starting from scratch, an unfamiliar channel to most sports fans unless they were motor sports aficionados. If Bellator can go head-to-head with UFC programming and appear competitive, whether they really are competitive financially, there is a certain positive perception that would come out of it. Bellator will also be running live shows every week, while UFC will not. But there is also the risk of getting creamed and not even being able to draw its base audience, the hardcore MMA fans, who will eventually gravitate toward Fox Sports 1.

Thursday seems out, Fridays drew weaker numbers for both UFC and Bellator when they were there before, and Saturday goes back against UFC's biggest events, its pay-per-view shows, as well as some televised events, the major boxing fights, as well as major college football.
No date has been announced for he beginning of the fall Bellator reason, other than the first booked date in California indicates it would start the second week of September at the latest.


http://www.mmafighting.com/2013/5/13...er-time-change ]]> Bellator/DREAM/Strikeforce Kickass32 http://mmacrypt.com/forum/showthread.php?31668-With-fall-season-approaching-Bellator-will-have-another-time-change <![CDATA[Garcia camp disputes 'Phantom Bellator Rep' story]]> http://mmacrypt.com/forum/showthread.php?31656-Garcia-camp-disputes-Phantom-Bellator-Rep-story&goto=newpost Sun, 12 May 2013 19:00:52 GMT


Garcia camp disputes 'Phantom Bellator Rep' story





Leonard Garcia was recently released by the UFC, following five consecutive losses. Garcia is one of the most exciting fighters in the history of the sport. A split decision win over Chan Sung Jung at WEC 48 in 2010 was called "the best fight I've seen in my life," by Joe Rogan, who has seen as many top-level fights live as anyone ever. Another fight the same year, also a winning split decision, over Nam Phan, won Fight of the Night. Garcia went on to win five more 'OTN' bonuses.
When Garcia was released, he was expected to be snatched up quickly, as a fighter generating that level of excitement comes on the open market so rarely.
Garcia told Bellator" target="_blank">MMAFighting.com he was reluctant to review an offer from Bellator, due to public differences between the organization and both former Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez and former Bellator bantamweight champion Zach Makovsky.

"The good offers have come from World Series of Fighting," said Garcia. "I believe Bellator made an offer, and I haven't asked to hear it yet because my intentions are to come back to the UFC. I feel if I go to Bellator, I'll never come back. That's one of things where I'm not sure that I'm ready to hear an offer from them."

"I've also read some stories about a champion there that was promised so much money and was forced to fight for less."
"At the moment those are the stories that I'm hearing, and you can't fight for a company like that. You just can't do it. They'll hold you back. If it's true, they'll hold you back. But if it's not true, if I find out different, then I'll openly talk to them and see what they can offer."

Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney told MMAJunkie no offer was ever extended to Garcia, and that the promotion had "no interest" in the 33-year-old featherweight.
"Leonard Garcia has never been approached by our company," said Rebney. "We have never had any interest or expressed any interest in signing Leonard Garcia. But he claimed to have been approached by Bellator about signing. Now, I've got a lot of respect for anybody who steps inside the cage. I've got a lot of respect for anybody who's got the guts to be a professional mixed martial artist. But with all due respect, we had no interest in signing him."
Rebney said Garcia was not the only figure approached by a phantom Bellator rep, citing as well a Southwest gym owner and an East Coast manager.
Garcia's management, Haymaker's Empire Sports Management, told MMAJunkie that that Rebney's claim "strains credulity."

"In light of Bellator's alleged legal chicanery with their own champions like Eddie Alvarez and Zach Makovsky, and high-profile fighters like Leonard Garcia making known their desire to avoid a potentially bad situation, it is not surprising Bellator is trying to get ahead of the bad PR plaguing their promotion," said Garcia's reps in a statement to MMAJunkie. "However, this story about a 'phantom' Bellator representative making phony offers to fighters just strains credulity."

"One must wonder, if this had actually been occurring, why Bellator waited until now – after Garcia made known his and other fighters’ mistrust of their promotion – to suddenly decide to make mention of 'The Bellator Phantom. The claim appears childish and far-fetched at best."

"Haymaker’s Empire Sports Management stands behind its fighters and won’t allow them to be trashed by any organization."
Haymaker's Empire Sports Management President Jerry Villasenor said that the contact had been directly to Garcia, and not through his management team. Villasenor said that Garcia could not identify the Bellator employee in question.
"Leonard got the call the day it had been announced that he had been cut by the UFC," said Villasenor. "He received tons of calls for interviews and tons of calls from promoters expressing interest. I think once they realized that Leonard had no interest is when the 'Phantom' was born."

Garcia ultimately signed with Legacy FC, and debuts July 19 against Rey Trujillo at LFC 21.
So what do you think UG? Does anyone here know the Southwest gym owner and an East Coast manager in question? Trolling is ubiquitous on the the Internet; is it seeping like a fungus into MMA generally?

http://www.mixedmartialarts.com/news...tor-Rep-story/ ]]> Bellator/DREAM/Strikeforce Kickass32 http://mmacrypt.com/forum/showthread.php?31656-Garcia-camp-disputes-Phantom-Bellator-Rep-story Former Bellator Champ Makovsky Accuses Bellator Of Making Him Fight For Less Pay Than Contracted http://mmacrypt.com/forum/showthread.php?31640-Former-Bellator-Champ-Makovsky-Accuses-Bellator-Of-Making-Him-Fight-For-Less-Pay-Than-Contracted&goto=newpost Sat, 11 May 2013 21:02:02 GMT ---Quote--- Former Bellator Lightweight Champion, Eddie Alvarez, has been in a legal dispute with the Bellator promotion for the past several...
Quote:
Former Bellator Lightweight Champion, Eddie Alvarez, has been in a legal dispute with the Bellator promotion for the past several months.


Now another former champion, still signed with the promotion, has come out with an interesting tale that really portrays some questionable insight to how the Bellator promotion takes care of their fighters.


Where there is smoke, there is fire and I’m sure it’s safe to assume that these instances are not isolated to just Zach Makovsky and EddieAlvarez.


“Just before the Dantas fight, I had added some additional fights onto my contract for a potential raise,” Makovskytold BloodyElbow.com. “If I were to beat Dantas, my pay scale would have gone up pretty significantly, and if I lost to Dantas, mypay scale would have stayed where it was. In that deal I put in that they have to have… they were going to give me three fights every 14 months. Which is a reason they gave me why, on releasing me. They said that they just couldn’t keep me active enough to fulfill that end of their agreement.


“The issue I had was that… so when I signed [those] additional fights to my contract, I had a potential raise against Dantas, and if I lost the fight I was supposed to go back to where I was. But Bellator has it that you’re at a certain rate, and if you win your pay goes up by 1,000/1,000 for your next fight and if you lose it stays the same.It never decreases. I won the tournament, I had two non title fights,so my pay scale increased for each of those fights. Then I signed this new part of the contract to fight Dantas, and if I lost I should have went back to where I was, not the original [salary], which is what they offered me. Basically what happened was, they weren’t going to give me another fight in 2012, besides Dantas. I had to kind of really push to get that fight with Leone. And then when I got the bout contract it was for 2,000 and 2,000 less than what I believe my contract said I should be fighting for.”


“What they did say was, that if I insisted on getting what my contracts aid, they wouldn’t be able to afford to put me on the card to fight for that, and that they could offer me this 2,000/2,000 less,”Makovsky explained. “So if I wanted to fight this year it’s basically… and it was my choice to accept the fight, but it was like ‘you can accept this, or you can wait till next year and fight and do whatever.’ That rubbed me obviously very poorly.


“I only had one [fight at that point in 2012] and I lost, so I didn’t have my win bonus. This is all I do right now, so I definitely needed at least a second fight in a year. I kind of had to accept those terms. It was unfortunate, and I did what I had to do because I needed a fight. That’s the story there and Eddie knew about it because we’re good friends and we talk. I never wanted to bring it up.”
Source: http://www.bjpenn.com/former-bellato...an-contracted/

Bellator does not look very good at the moment. Don't know what to make of this anymore, I don't think I can even comment on something like this. From a fighters perspective this sucks, but I have no idea what is actually happening anymore. ]]> Bellator/DREAM/Strikeforce Hired_Merc http://mmacrypt.com/forum/showthread.php?31640-Former-Bellator-Champ-Makovsky-Accuses-Bellator-Of-Making-Him-Fight-For-Less-Pay-Than-Contracted Alvarez Continues to Fight For His Career (Video) http://mmacrypt.com/forum/showthread.php?31628-Alvarez-Continues-to-Fight-For-His-Career-(Video)&goto=newpost Sat, 11 May 2013 14:29:17 GMT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nezUBf-GOzs ]]> Bellator/DREAM/Strikeforce Rich Davie http://mmacrypt.com/forum/showthread.php?31628-Alvarez-Continues-to-Fight-For-His-Career-(Video) <![CDATA[Bjorn Rebney fires back at Eddie Alvarez, calls fighter's statements 'completely false']]> http://mmacrypt.com/forum/showthread.php?31624-Bjorn-Rebney-fires-back-at-Eddie-Alvarez-calls-fighter-s-statements-completely-false&goto=newpost Sat, 11 May 2013 05:55:41 GMT *Image: http://cdn3.sbnation.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/12991259/007_bjorn_rebney.0_standard_352.0.jpg Esther Lin, MMA Fighting Bjorn Rebney...
Esther Lin, MMA Fighting

Bjorn Rebney fires back at Eddie Alvarez, calls fighter's statements 'completely false'

By Luke Thomason May 10 2013, 10:17pm


The CEO of mixed martial arts' second-most important organization fired back at claims made by former Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez that Bellator changed his contractual language and are using him as a pawn in a war with the UFC.

From a public relations standpoint, it's been a rough week for the world's number two mixed martial arts organization and its CEO Bjorn Rebney. Former Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez made a series of explosive claims in an interview with Ariel Helwani on Monday's The MMA Hour. Among others, Alvarez contended Rebney had little say in the dispute, that Bellator had changed his contractual language without his knowledge or consent, and much more.
On Twitter in the days leading up to the interview, Alvarez further asserted on Twitter Bellator malfeasance caused Cosmo Alexandre to be financially destitute and former Bellator bantamweight champion Zach Makovsky to be paid less than what was contractually agreed upon with Bellator.

Last, but certainly not least, former UFC featherweight Leonard Garcia claimed he was offered a deal by Bellator after being released by the UFC this week, but wasn't interested in accepting it based on what he'd heard from the plights of the aforementioned fighters.

To Rebney, these contentions come as something of a shock. More importantly, Rebney argues they're a series of claims that aren't just untrue by word, but demonstrably false.
In this interview with MMA Fighting, Rebney outright challenges the truth of Alvarez's statements about Viacom and Bellator, reasserts his role as the organization's decision maker, and much more.


Bjorn, a bit of an interesting time for your organization - there's so much to get to, so let's see what we can unpack with this Eddie Alvarez situation. I'm assuming you saw his recent comments, which we'll get to piece by piece, but your general take on going public with some of the things he's suggesting are true? What's your general take on what's happening?
Well, the general take about what's happening is that Ed's made a series of statements about Bellator and Spike over the last few weeks that are completely untrue. You know, it bothers me - for as hard as this company works, and as much as Spike has meant to mixed martial arts and mixed martial artists, and providing the revenue, the ability and the platform for so many fighters to earn a great living in this space - for Ed to make the kind of statements he's been making about Bellator, Spike, and Viacom, is offensive. And they're untrue statements.
It had been my intent to maintain the high ground and not engage in a public back-and-forth. And we don't have any intent to engage in a public back-and-forth. This isn't going to be an ongoing public feud, but it just reached a boiling point where we had to come forward and point out the fact that many of the things he was saying are completely untrue. They weren't opinion, they were just false.
He's characterized this "battle" as one where he's a pawn between Viacom and, let's say, Zuffa, and that it's not really about what Bellator is; it's just about these larger parent companies. What is your response to his assessment of this battle?

I don't know that that's Ed's assessment. I'd be willing to guess that outside sources have put that quote-unquote 'assessment' into his head. But I will tell you this: every single decision, with regard to Ed matching the contract, the steps we've taken and the legal steps that have been taken, have been made directly from this office, from this CEO at Bellator. The decisions have not been made by Spike and they have not been made by Viacom. I'm sure you can imagine or conjecture a thousand different reasons why various parties would want to paint Viacom and/or Spike into this picture.
What Viacom and Spike have done is they've done an amazing, amazing job of contributing hundreds of millions of dollars into this great sport. And they've helped take it from a sport that nobody had heard of, and nobody had seen on television, and nobody was aware of to a sport where I believe that the world's greatest athletes can earn a great living in this sport, can support their families and can become crossover stars in this sport.
That's what Spike and Viacom have brought to the table, so to try to drag them in because Ed's getting information from other sources as to who he should try to paint with what kind of brush. If Ed wants to paint anybody with a brush, he should be painting me - as the CEO and chairman of Bellator - and Bellator, the company he signed with in 2008, took a six-figure check from, and signed an agreement with. That's who he should be painting. Anything else is completely disingenuous and positioning - it has nothing to do with where this real fight exists.

One of the things he said that caught my attention was that he said he wasn't even sure to what extent your role, as yay or nay, was involved here. You're directly challenging that - you're saying this idea that Viacom is pulling the strings and you're sort of just getting the news later on is false?

It's completely false. And I've sat down with Ed face to face and made it completely and utterly clear to him that the decisions, the movements, the steps we were taking and the position we were taking was a decision that I was making, and it was a decision I was making based on the contract he signed, based on the commitment we had made to him financially, based on the agreement he had executed, and there was no other party involved. There was no other party voicing an opinion, there was no other party saying "do this" or "do that." The decisions of this company on this matter have been made 120% by me and by Bellator. That's it - not by any other group or party.

Fans say, "Listen, Bellator might have a case, Viacom might have a case, whoever is on that side ... maybe they're right. Maybe the contract language is what they say it is and Eddie Alvarez agreed to that, and that's all fine. But as long as Eddie's out there just trashing everybody, and maybe he believes what he's saying, maybe he's not even intentionally being disingenuous, but he's believing it and other fighters are hearing it. Is it really worth it to Bellator to just go white-knuckle with him and get their name dragged in the mud?"

Yes, it is, and I'll tell you why it is. And this is a question I've been asked by a bunch of people but it's time we answered it. When you sign a contract with an organization like ours, or any of the other top organizations, of which there is only one, the UFC - the expectation is that you're going to honor that contract. We didn't get into this industry nor are we in this industry to be a developmental program for anybody. We didn't get into it to be a stepping stone. We got into it to be the #1 mixed martial arts organization in the world. And in 4 years, we've gone from being #6 to #2. The intent was never to be #2.
So, to allow a fighter that we've put on television multiple times, paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to and given a $150,000 bonus to to sign a contract, to blatantly violate that contract and to not live up to its obligations is something that a 2nd-tier promotion or a feeder-system promotion might do ... but it's not something that we're going to do. We're going to support our fighters, we're going to build them into stars, we're going to have relationships like the relationships we have with Joe Warren, King Mo, and Pat Curran, the list goes on and on, we're going to do everything we can to make them the biggest possible stars we can. We're going to put the focus and the focal point on them - not on the promoter, not on the person wearing the suit, but ultimately on the guys who have the courage and guts to step in the cage.
We're going to do all the things we do differently from the UFC. But we're surely never going to be a feeder system, and we're surely never going to be a stepping stone. So, if there's an agreement in place ... look, it's the fight industry, and this is a fight that we feel very vested in. And for Ed to be making the kind of false statements that he's making, it does not make this situation any more likely that we're going to settle it. We were interested in settling it when Ed was simply saying 'Hey, I just have a disagreement with Bellator' but now that I'm sure that he's come to the realization that we're contractually in the right.
Maybe that tone is changing, but until Ed stops spreading complete falsehoods about this company and about the incredibly good people at Spike and Viacom, who've given fighters like Ed the opportunity to make a $250,000 bonus; to make huge signing bonus money, to make six-figures per fight. That's because of Spike and Viacom. So until those attacks stop, filled with untruths, we're going to keep right on in the middle of this fight.

If you can, to the extent you can elaborate on it, please do, he has said the same thing: that there was a moment there where you guys were going to potentially renegotiate. Or at least there was some kind of back and forth about achieving a reconciliation before it went to trial. That all fell apart. Can you tell us why?

I have absolutely no idea. I can't tell you the specifics because there was an agreement signed that any of the terms of the settlement we'd proposed to Ed wouldn't be shared, and any of the discussions we had wouldn't be shared by us. But what I can tell you is that we met in Albuquerque about 2 months ago, we had a very fruitful series of discussions and it looked like it was a settled matter. And, literally, we got done with the meeting, Ed stood up, shook my hand and said, "I'm not going to apologize for anything and I don't think you should either, but I'm glad we've been able to get this worked out."
We had one attorney there, he had one attorney there, and it was just Ed and I in the room, sitting and talking through things. When it got done, I thought it was done. I thought it was settled. We didn't get exactly what we wanted and I don't think Ed got exactly what he wanted, but that's how settlements work. Ultimately, by the time Ed got home on the flight, it was off the table. We hadn't changed any terms or looked to alter anything we agreed to, but it was off the table. So, I don't know. You'd have to ask Ed, but I thought we had it settled as well. That's why, for a long period of time, I kept saying 'Hey, I hope this can be settled. I hope this thing can be worked out. I'm hopeful it can and I believe it can.'
Ed, for some reason, either through his own accord or at the direction of third parties, has literally started making false statement after false statement after false statement about Bellator. So, at this point, we're not going to be in a position to settle until such time as Ed stops making false statements and admits those statements were false, we're not going to sit down and discuss a settlement with him. It's just not going to happen.

Let's get to some of the data points that he's brought up recently so I can get your take on it. One is he had said that Bellator was initially, contractually in language, required to meet all the terms, and then that was letter changed to the material terms. So that would be, sure they can match the show/win money or the signing bonus, and then somehow the language on the contract got changed ...

Let me interrupt you, because this is one of the more infuriating aspects of this entire situation. It's one of the aspects that's been so disconcerting. If you go to the court filings, every single document is there. There was never a change of a single word. What Ed is talking about - and this is what is completely and totally untrue, this is false, this is a statement that's completely untrue - Ed's attorney and our attorneys were communicating consistently when that early release document was drafted. The 2008 contract that Ed signed with this company has the exact same wording in it. The exact same wording that the early release document has in it.
Ed's claims that somehow he was tricked into material terms being in that letter is absolutely, completely 100% false. The documents are available in the courthouse and I can forward the documents over to you. That is a completely false statement.
Ed was not misled, Ed was not in the communications. Ed's attorneys were talking to our attorneys. Ed came to us and literally said to us, "Hey, is there any reason for us to wait out this amount of time with the exclusive negotiation period?" And, literally, as a favor to Ed Alvarez, because of how I felt about him at the time - a feeling that no longer stands - but how I felt about him at the time, I said, "Of course. Let's just let you go get the offer. If we're going to match it, we'll match it, and if not, there's no reason to sit you out for 3 months. Let's just let you go get the offer." The wording in our contract that Ed signed and the wording in that early release document are exactly the same. There is no mention of material terms in the release letter. It's completely false, and it's in the court documents.

I'm just sort of left confused, and I'm sure people who listen to this and read are going to be confused ... if this is so clear, and I guess we're just speculating, but why is he saying what he's saying then?

Here would be my suggestion. My suggestion would be, even if you don't trust what I'm telling you, just go to the court and pull a copy of the document, which anyone is allowed to do. You'll see the early release letter signed by Ed's council and by ours, and you'll see the contract, and you'll see that the language is exactly the same and there was no misleading, there was no lying, there was no switch of the cards underneath the deck - it is exactly what we were claiming it is. So for Ed to claim that, and for Ed to stand up and imply that somehow we switched the deal on him, or we tried to do something tricky or conned him into something, it is completely and totally false and the documents back it up.
I don't have any idea why he'd say it, but part of the reason that, instead of just continuing to stay silent and just allow this thing to play itself out, when statements like that are made, that we can show without any questions are completely untrue, it just reaches a certain point where you say wait a minute: in 2007, I put every single dollar I had in the world into building this company, I took it from an idea in my head into something that's the 2nd-largest mixed martial arts organization on Earth, it's seen in 120 countries around the world and it's got a partnership with Spike, et cetera. At some point you just reach a boiling point where you say "time out." You can't, no matter who you are, you can't attack something that was built from literally nothing to something of this level by just sweat, blood and tears and not expect somebody to come back and say, "You're lying."

Zach Makovsky had actually spoken about it only after Alvarez brought it up. He'd been silent about it after he'd moved on from Bellator and signed elsewhere, or whatever was the case. As Makovsky explained it, he had a certain baseline, and if he'd won the Dantas fight it would've gone up and if he'd lost it would've stayed the same. But he'd won two other fights that were supposed to raise his level of pay - $2000 to show and $2000 to win - the extra fight he asked for after the Dantas fight, you guys didn't want to pay him. That's his claim, so I'll now ask you for yours: what's your claim about that situation?

Again, I've got a copy of Zach Makovsky's promotional agreement and I've also got a copy of the actual bout agreement in terms of what Zach was paid. Zach was paid exactly what he was owed under the promotional agreement for his loss in the world title fight to Dantas and he was paid exactly what he was owed under the promotional agreement for his 2nd loss to Anthony Leone. Exactly what he was owed underneath the promotional agreement. There was no lessening of the purse, he wasn't cheated out of a penny, he was paid exactly what he was owed. And I've got the promotional agreement as well as the two bout agreements to back that up.
So I have no idea why Ed would make that statement and I don't know why Zach would make that statement. For a short period of time Zach was a champion with us and he always seemed like a good kid. I don't know why he'd make that statement, but I've got the promotional agreement plus the two bout agreements and he was paid precisely what he was owed under his promotional agreement for both of those fights.

He claimed that he wanted 3 fights I believe, in 14 months, and that ultimately you guys let him go. He'd lost 2 in a row, but you guys let him go because, you know, you liked him at the time - I don't know how you feel about him now - but he wanted 3 in 14 and you just couldn't give him 3 in 14 and that's why he was released. Is that true?

Not only is it untrue, but it's inaccurate. We actually gave him the 14 for the world title fight. We gave him the 14 for the world title fight. It had nothing to do with how many fights we could or couldn't give him, it simply had to do with the fact that he'd lost to Dantas, and then we set him up with a fight that he was supposed to win to get himself back on track against Anthony Leone, and he lost that fight. And at that point, we just felt we had some unbelievably talented 135-pounders that deserve an opportunity, and we put Zach into a fight that he was supposed to win and he didn't, so we figured after back-to-back losses that we'd just part ways with him. That's why we released him.

The last one deals with Cosmo Alexandre. It got the point with him where he was literally tweeting how much money he was putting into his car - $4 worth of gas and, I think, even with a hash tag that said "Thanks Bjorn." So the last time he fought was November 9th of 2012. Has he come to you and said, similar to what Makovsky is claiming, "Hey I'd like to be active," or where is the dissatisfaction, insofar as you're able to tell, with Alexandre coming from?

I know exactly where it's coming from. Cosmo signed with us 18 months ago. He's been provided 6 fights over an 18-month period. That's a fight every 3 months on average. Cosmo, after going 5-1 and after his 6th fight with us in a year-and-a-half, literally more frequency of fights than almost any fighter in mixed martial arts, was offered a spot in our 155-pound tournament in Season 8. He turned that fight down because he said he couldn't make 155. Now, his promotional agreement mandates that he fights at 155. 4 days later - and this is in writing, all of which I can send you as well, because this is why I'm coming forth now and having these conversations. 6 fights over 18 months, built him up from a world renowned kickboxer who nobody in MMA had ever heard of to a guy on the cusp of being ready to participate in the tournament. We had 6 developmental bouts with him, the idea being is we would build him up through 6 fights and then put him in the tournament, which he agreed to.
In his agreement, there's a 6 developmental bout deal. We offered him a spot at 155 on Season 8, he turned it down on paper. Four days later we came back to him and said, OK, if you can't make 155 any longer we'll offer you a spot in the 170-pound tournament; a $100,000 tournament with the compensation starting at 10/10 in the fist round. He turned down the spot in Season 8 170-pound tournament. As a follow-up to that, we have now offered him a spot in the Season 9 170-pound tournament because he's told us that he can't make 155.
This is the third offer we've made to Cosmo Alexander to compete in a $100,000 tournament. He signed a contract with us that had six developmental bouts with his understanding being, from the moment he signed the contract, you'll fight six imes for us and we'll develop you. After that sixth fight, you'll be ready for tournament participation. He's turned down two of three offers so far to compete in tournaments, and we're waiting on him right now to determine whether he's going to accept the offer to participate in the tournament at 170 pounds coming up this September.

Is his claim that he doesn't want to fight in tournaments?

No. He's never told us he doesn't want to fight in tournaments. He just keeps turning down the invitation to compete. Our promotional agreement with him said we'd give him 6 developmental bouts and then put him in a tournament. We gave him the 6 developmental bouts over 18 months. That's an incredibly active schedule for any mixed martial artist. That's a year-and-a-half with 6 fights. Then we offered him a spot at 155 in the tournament and he turned it down. Then we offered him a spot at 170 in the tournament literally 4 days later. We said, fine, if you can't make 155, we'll offer you a spot in a $100,000 tournament at 170 pounds, and he turned that down. Now we've offered him a spot in the next 170-pound tournament which starts 3 months from now. And we've yet to hear back from him.
So, look, all you can do as a promoter in this space is sign contracts and offer to keep guys very busy. We've done an amazing job of keeping Cosmo Alexandre busy. We've kept him busier than probably 90% of the mixed martial artists in the world. Nobody fights 6 times a year. Nobody fights 6 times in 18 months. It just doesn't happen in our space. And we've kept the kid incredibly busy and, basically, what he's doing now is turning down fights.
And if you're not going to accept fights, then it's difficult for us to pay you. And I'm not trying to be sarcastic or rude, it's just that when you sign a promotional agreement ... look, this isn't me claiming "Oh, I promise I made him an offer." I'm literally saying that we have a written correspondence where we said here's an opportunity to compete in a $100,000 tournament that starts at 10/10 and then goes up to 15/15 and then 20/30. This is what we built you for, this is why we gave you 6 developmental fights in such a short period of time, this is exactly what you signed up for, now here's the offer. And he turned them all down.
If there's a fighter out there that someone has under contract, whether it's us or the UFC, and they're claiming poverty because they haven't been offered fights, then I'd completely understand. That's the promoter's fault. But when you're a fighter that's gotten 6 fights over 18 months and you've been offered a spot - a legitimately locked-in spot, in 2 tournaments, one at your contracted weight and one above your contracted weight because you now say you can't make your contracted weight - it's tough to understand how you can then complain about the fact that you're not making money.
All we can do is offer fights. All we can do is consistently step up and say hey, we're offering you fights. And if a guy like Cosmo doesn't take them? I don't know what we're supposed to do at that point. I would suggest this to you - you might want to do some research as to who manages Cosmo Alexandre.

Leonard Garcia made an interesting comment this week: that he had been released by the UFC and he was fielding offers from other organizations, one of which of World Series of Fighting. Another was that he had heard, I believe through his manager, that Bellator had offered him something, but he wasn't interested in it.

I am so glad you brought that up.

Did Bellator offer him a deal?

Not only did Bellator not offer Leonard a deal, but we've never spoken to Leonard. I will say this and it's probably important for you to get out there because it's important for us as well. For some reason that we don't understand, there are a collection of people out there making phone calls to different gyms and different managers right now claiming to be talent development people with Bellator and Spike.

If anyone out there who is a manager or a fighter or a gym owner get a call, and that call is not from me, Sam Caplan or Zach Light, then they're not speaking to Bellator. And look, I've got a lot of respect for anybody who's got the courage and the guts to step inside that cage. I have no disrespect intended to Leonard Garcia, but coming off of what I think is five back-to-back losses, we had no intent of signing Leonard Garcia. Leonard Garcia has never been on one of our developmental lists. We've never reached out to Leonard Garcia. We wouldn't sign him and we didn't make any attempt to sign him and we never reached out to talk to anybody about him.

Whoever actually reached out or didn't reach out to Leonard Garcia wasn't a representative of Bellator, wasn't a representative of Spike. And I know for a fact there are people out there right now claiming to be talent development personnel for Bellator/Spike. Why they're representing themselves in that way, I couldn't really tell you. You can use your own best judgment as to why they're making those claims, but if it's not Zach Light and it's not Sam Caplan or myself, then you're not talking to Bellator.

So, I have no idea how Leonard Garcia got contacted or by who, but it wasn't by Bellator. We won't be signing nor do we have any interest in signing Leonard

I'm curious. Who are these people?

That is an extremely good question. I couldn't tell you.

How do you know about it? Are you getting reports from people?

Yeah, it's happened twice in the last 48 hours. We've gotten calls literally, one from a gym owner, one from a manager saying 'hey, you know, I've dealt with you, I've dealt with Sam and Zach and I got a call from a guy named 'X'. He said that he's a Spike/Bellator talent development person and wanted to talk to me about my fighters'. These people ask us: does this guy work with you or have you ever heard of him? Absolutely not. We've never heard of him.

So, I don't know. I can't even begin to tell you why, but the only thing I can say is, look, there's two MMA organizations in the world right now that are large scale. If you're not talking to Zach Light, you're not talking to Sam Caplan or myself, then the person on the other end of the phone isn't real and is pulling a scam or is making a call based on what someone asked them to make a call about.

Leonard Garcia is a good example. We never called Leonard, we never reached out to Leonard. Never talked to anybody about Leonard and won't be.

Let's say you win. This all goes your way. Unfortunately, it has to go to trial, but the judge sides with Bellator and Eddie is back with you. Isn't going to be weird having a guy who you have this personal relationship that has been ruined and may have hatred for you now being tasked with fighting for you?

It's not something that I give an amazing amount of consideration to. Up until just recently, I still thought there was a really good likelihood we'd be able to get this thing settled. I don't think that that exists at this point because like I said, we're just not going to sit back and allow Ed to make completely false, untrue statements about the company and about our partners and then look to settle something with him.

I don't know. It'll depend. Look, lawsuits take an extremely long time. I don't know how long this one's going to take, but by all accounts, it could take well over another year.

From this point?

Oh yeah, sure. Lawsuits take a long time. The discovery process in this lawsuit hasn't even started.

You don't have any information about any potential early hearing dates yet?

Nope. No, nothing on the early hearing dates. Lawsuits take an inordinate amount of time. That's why we tried so desperately to stay out of them. And they take an extremely large amount of time. They require a lot of money.

They never have a great result for either party. Nobody ever walks out of a lawsuit and says, "Wow, that's awesome. Glad I did that." It's one of those things where you both walk away going, "That kinda sucked."

The reality is that there's a bigger issue at stake here and at this point, Ed has made it almost impossible for us to be willing to sit down at the table with him any longer and talk about settlement until such time as he acknowledges that he's made false statements, acknowledges that they're untrue. At which point, we're completely willing to consider sitting down with him and talking about it again. Up until that point, we're not going to sit down with him. We're just going to anticipate that this thing will go to trial. We'll see what happens at trial.

What happens at trial and what the results of that will be and what would happen or wouldn't happen, I don't know. That's a long, long way off. I couldn't even begin to tell you. We'll see if and when that occurs.

I'm not here to comment on whether it's a true perception or a fair perception or one rooted in fact, but as somebody who's reading the tea leaves, there is the perception that other organizations outside of UFC like WSOF are fighter friendly and that Bellator is not.
Mo Lawal is out there, Brian Rogers is out there, and Pat Curran, they all seem very happy at Bellator, but you do have these other folks that seem to be, at a minimum, malcontents and unhappy with their situation. Speak to the mixed martial arts fan base and make your case about why Bellator is fighter friendly.

I don't think we do have that many guys that are unhappy. I think if you look at the situation, you look at Eddie Alvarez is unhappy. Eddie Alvarez is a long, protracted, ugly lawsuit with Bellator. And Ed's unhappy. Cosmo Alexndre is managed by Ed's manager and whether he's unhappy or not, he keeps turning down fights. I don't know how to remedy that situation to make him happy other than just keep offering him fights and an opportunity to make $20,000 in a single night.

I don't know of that many other fighters that are fighting for us that are unhappy. I actually have had an overwhelming amount of calls from our fighters saying "Man, keep your head up. This is awesome. You're building something for us. You're giving us an opportunity to fight and make money. You're giving an option to the UFC so that we're all not just beholden to the UFC. This is great."

I've had amazing positive response from our fighters and there's about 170 of them. The calls that I've gotten, the emails that I've gotten, the texts that I've gotten, they're hugely positive.

We are very fighter friendly. If you look at what we do with our guys, the whole cornerstone of this organization, the whole cornerstone of how I built this thing out was to put the fighter first. To put the fighter on the cover of the magazine, to put the fighter on the TV show, to give the coverage to the fighter, to put the fighter on the red carpet, to make the fighter front and center. That's what this whole thing's about. That's what the tournament's about.

There's no Chael Sonnen here. Nobody loses two fights straight and then talks their way into a world title fight at Bellator. It's all about fighters, it's all about fighters having an opportunity to control their destiny. I've gotten overwhelming support from our guys. And that's who I care about. I care about our fighters. I care about what they think. Guys have been literally calling up and emailing and texting in droves saying, "Man, we've got your back. Can I say something? Can I voice my opinion?" Et cetera, et cetera.

So, I think we're very, very fighter friendly. I think we're actually more fighter friendly than any organization out there, but I will say this: being the first organization in the history of mixed martial arts to have the potential to challenge the UFC; being the first organization to have the kind of backing we do from incredible mixed martial arts fans that we have at Spike and from guys who truly love this sport and love the fighters who participate in it, puts us in a very interesting space. And it puts us in a space that nobody yet in the mixed martial arts space has had to be in and has had to deal with. Now we're having to deal with it.

It's a very interesting spot for us to be in. But you know what? We're going to be in it for the next two decades, so let's see what happens in a year and two years and three years because I think some very, very interesting things are going to occur in this space. I'm very comfortable we're going to make a lot of fighters a lot of money. We're going to give a lot of guys the opportunity to become stars. We're going to keep pushing this sport that I love so much forward.

I don't have those concerns and I know what our fighters think or at least the vast, vast majority of them other than Ed Alvarez and one of his teammates. I'm confident with where we are.

http://www.mmafighting.com/2013/5/10...ers-statements ]]> Bellator/DREAM/Strikeforce Kickass32 http://mmacrypt.com/forum/showthread.php?31624-Bjorn-Rebney-fires-back-at-Eddie-Alvarez-calls-fighter-s-statements-completely-false King Mo Weighs In On Eddie Alvarez vs. Bellator: “Contract Disputes Are Part of Sports” http://mmacrypt.com/forum/showthread.php?31614-King-Mo-Weighs-In-On-Eddie-Alvarez-vs-Bellator-“Contract-Disputes-Are-Part-of-Sports”&goto=newpost Fri, 10 May 2013 14:54:14 GMT *Image: http://admin.mmaweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/King-Mo-Lawal-Strikeforce-911-4735.jpg ...


King Mo Weighs In On Eddie Alvarez vs. Bellator: “Contract Disputes Are Part of Sports”


Posted on May 10, 2013 by Mick Hammond



In recent weeks things have become very public in the contract dispute between Eddie Alvarez and Bellator/Viacom.
Alvarez fought the final bout of his Bellator contract last October. Bellator had the right to an exclusive negotiating period, but waived it so that Alvarez could field a contract offer from the UFC.
Bellator and its majority owner, Viacom, still retained matching rights, which they enacted. And that is where the dispute lies. Bellator and Viacom say they matched the UFC’s offer, whereas Alvarez and his camp disagree.
Following lawsuits and failed attempts to come to a resolution, Alvarez has taken his fight public, leveling various complaints about his former employer via social media and in various interviews.
While much has been said by Alvarez to disparage his one-time employer, there are other fighters who feel differently than he does.

Among those who feel that Bellator/Viacom is getting a bad rap is former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal.
Lawal, who signed with Bellator and fellow Spike TV product TNA Wrestling following his release from Strikeforce, has nothing but positive things to say about his employers.

“They’re respectful and they just want you to go out there and fight,” he said. “I’m very satisfied with Bellator. I don’t ask for too much, and they treat me like a real king. I’m grateful I’m with Bellator.”
Lawal also points out that since falling under the Viacom banner, he’s had more opportunities to branch out and become known to more than just the hardcore MMA fans.

“I’ve been exposed to the fight fans for a long time, but getting the call to do things like walk the red carpet (at the MTV Movie Awards) and get exposed to new people has been great,” he said. “Even the pro wrestling piece (that aired on Spike TV), I have a lot more pro wrestling fans and people who want to help me with the pro wrestling part and that’s cool.

“I want to be able to branch out, and that’s what I feel I can do with Bellator, Spike TV and Viacom. I have the option of branching out and meeting new people. It’s great to be able to be in new environments.”
Lawal’s dealings have been positive not only with the companies themselves, he also has only good things to say about Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney.

“You’ll have a lot of guys who will go out there and do an interview and blast you, but then when they see you, they shake your hand and tell you that you’re a hell of a fighter. Bjorn isn’t like that,” said Lawal. “That’s why I respect him and like him.”
As far as the Alvarez situation goes, Lawal feels that, at the end of the day, it’s a business situation and it’s up to those involved and no one else to hash out those types of disputes.

“Contract disputes are part of sports,” said Lawal. “When you’re dealing with money, you’re going to have contract disputes here and there.

“Somebody’s going to be mad with the Eddie Alvarez thing; it’s either going to be Viacom or Eddie Alvarez. I hope they come to a good resolution.

“I hope Eddie gets the money he wants and what he deserves and I hope Viacom gets what they deserve. But I know it’s not going to happen, so I’m just going to sit back and wish them both the best.”


http://www.mmaweekly.com/king-mo-wei...part-of-sports ]]> Bellator/DREAM/Strikeforce Kickass32 http://mmacrypt.com/forum/showthread.php?31614-King-Mo-Weighs-In-On-Eddie-Alvarez-vs-Bellator-“Contract-Disputes-Are-Part-of-Sports” Paul Daley Expects Bellator Return by Year’s End, but Stopping Off in Dubai First http://mmacrypt.com/forum/showthread.php?31606-Paul-Daley-Expects-Bellator-Return-by-Year’s-End-but-Stopping-Off-in-Dubai-First&goto=newpost Fri, 10 May 2013 03:21:37 GMT

Paul Daley Expects Bellator Return by Year’s End, but Stopping Off in Dubai First

Posted on May 9, 2013 by MMAWeekly.com Staff

Paul Daley burst onto the UFC scene with back-to-back first-round stoppage wins. The Muay Thai wrecking machine from Nottingham, England, looked to be on track for a title shot until a disastrous UFC 113 appearance against Josh Koscheck.

After being outwrestled for three rounds, a frustrated Daley struck Koscheck after the bell. He was immediately released by the UFC. Instead of facing welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, he found himself looking for a new promotion to ply his trade with.

Since then Daley has put together an 8-3 streak fighting for BAMMA, Strikeforce, and Bellator, amongst others. Friday night he will be facing BJJ black belt Rodrigo Ribeiro in the Dubai FC 4 main event at the Madinat Arena.
The United Arab Emirates is a long way from Las Vegas, the traditional fight capital of the world, but Daley is happy to get to travel and compete for as long as visa issues make it impossible for him to travel to the United States to compete for Bellator, whom he is currently contracted to.

“The opportunity (to fight in Dubai) arose because my visa is being delayed to go out to Bellator to fight, so it’s a good opportunity to take advantage of,” he said.
Daley (31-12-2) will be a firm favorite against Ribeiro (9-10), but “Semtex” says he is definitely not underestimating the Brazilian.

“He’s a jiu-jitsu specialist, a jiu-jitsu black belt, so that’s something that has to be respected. He’s had 19 MMA fights, so he’s an experienced fighter and looks like he’s in good shape. It should be a good fight.”
While Daley is enjoying his newfound freedom to compete anywhere from Ireland to Dubai, and says fights in Korea and Russia are also in the works, his focus is on fighting for Bellator in the United States, which is something he is unable to do right now due to ongoing legal issues in the U.K.

It means a welterweight match-up with War Machine is currently on hold, but Daley is confident that he will eventually be able to get a visa and believes the situation could be resolved before the end of the year.
“It will be this year. September would be realistic, but definitely before the end of the year. Basically I just have to wait for some feedback from my solicitor with regards to the visa and then we’ll go from there.”

Daley says he has not given up hope of facing War Machine – who is booked to make his Bellator debut against Blas Avena on June 19 – and is confident he can beat the colorful Ultimate Fighter veteran.
“Hopefully the War Machine fight will happen; I’ll beat him. I’m pretty confident I could beat anybody that’s currently out there. The only fights I see that would be a challenge are the guys that are ranked in the top seven in the world; there’s some tough fights for me there,” he said.

The plan at present is to have a couple of feature fights for Bellator, starting with the long-awaited War Machine match-up, before entering the next welterweight tournament. Daley does not know exactly what the timeline would be, but believes that, if he wins, he has what it takes to dethrone reigning 170-pound king Ben Askren.

“I think I can beat Ben Askren,” Daley said. “He is probably the best pure wrestler in all of MMA and he presents a big problem, but I think I can beat him and I think I have the right team around me that can prepare me and get me ready for that kind of fight.”

Aside from his visa, Daley has also had some issues with the scales during his career. But he 179 pounds just four days out from his fight with Ribeiro, and is confident that he has put his weight problems behind him. This is partly due to a more disciplined approach to diet and training between fights, but he has also been busy with an MMA camp that he set up in his native Nottingham.

“I’m training at my gym, Spirit Dojo. We’re a growing gym, we’re doing well and a lot of people are hearing about us and we’re getting some good guys in to help us with training camps as well. Most of the fighters are young, up-and-coming guys and it’s not their time to be mentioned in interviews, but they know who they are and you’ll start hearing about them soon.”

Daley has used his striking to score early stoppages in his last two fights and his only recent loss was a split decision at the hands of Kazuo Misaki. In that fight, he attempted to employ a more tactical approach, taking the Japanese veteran down repeatedly, but says he has learned his lesson from that defeat and will stick to his strengths in future.

“Basically what happened with the Misaki fight was that I started to believe the media. Everyone said I needed to show some wrestling, so I go in there, I take a guy down, I beat him up, I elbow him, I cut his head open and I lose because I didn’t fight the way I normally fight. So it’s like, ‘what the (expletive); what do I have to do?’ So now I’m just sticking to knocking people out. It’s much easier.”

Daley’s next destination after Dubai could be Korea, as his manager is in talks with a promotion there and, given that Road FC are known to be looking for an international opponent for welterweight Bae Myung Ho on their June card, that is a match-up that could be in the making.

Before that, however, he has business in Dubai to attend to. He’s confident he will get to display his striking prowess against Ribeiro and secure a third successive stoppage win.

“The fans can expect an entertaining fight, they can expect a knockout and a crazy celebration, and that’s it.”

http://www.mmaweekly.com/paul-daley-...in-dubai-first ]]> Bellator/DREAM/Strikeforce Kickass32 http://mmacrypt.com/forum/showthread.php?31606-Paul-Daley-Expects-Bellator-Return-by-Year’s-End-but-Stopping-Off-in-Dubai-First Alvarez Talks Bellator.. Again http://mmacrypt.com/forum/showthread.php?31524-Alvarez-Talks-Bellator-Again&goto=newpost Mon, 06 May 2013 22:24:01 GMT ---Quote--- Alvarez discussed several issues that are currently sticking in his craw. The one that stuck out most to me was his account of the slick...
Quote:
Alvarez discussed several issues that are currently sticking in his craw. The one that stuck out most to me was his account of the slick move to change the wording in his contract. The organization went a step further by skirting his manager and sent the reworded contract directly to Eddie, in hopes that he would sign it without reading, according to his accounting of the incident. Here's an excerpt from the interview, detailing it:

That's how they made it seem. But when they sent me my early release, they changed the wording in my original contract. They changed the wording "all terms matched" to "material terms." Because they know they cannot match all the terms of the UFC offer.

So I sent the contract to my manager, Glen Robinson. Glen and the attorneys right away told me, "Wait a minute." Viacom sent the contract for the release to my house. They sent it to my house, when they were supposed to go through my attorneys and my management. But they sent a different copy, a copy to my house, thinking that I would sign it and send it back.

I informed my management that I got the contract at my house. And I'll show you guys. We have it. And this is the whole case, to be honest with you. This is what the whole case is about. It's about matching. And what they did when they realized that this is going to be very tough, that they weren't going to be able to match it. They only way they were going to be able to match it was if they gave me an early release and changed the wording on the contract, and I would sign it.
Source - http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2013/5/6/...l-contract-ufc

That sucks for Alvarez If this is true, but then again like it says in the link there's two sides to every story. ]]> Bellator/DREAM/Strikeforce Hired_Merc http://mmacrypt.com/forum/showthread.php?31524-Alvarez-Talks-Bellator-Again Bellator Fight Master Cast revealed.....includes Joe Riggs http://mmacrypt.com/forum/showthread.php?31520-Bellator-Fight-Master-Cast-revealed-includes-Joe-Riggs&goto=newpost Mon, 06 May 2013 17:02:24 GMT Image: http://www.graciemag.com/pt/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/fight-master-bellator-mma.jpg Bellator Fight Master begins on June 19th on Spike TV...

Bellator Fight Master begins on June 19th on Spike TV with coaches Randy Couture, Greg Jackson, Joe Warren and Frank Shamrock.

The winner of the reality show gets a prize of $100,000 and a spot in a future Welterweight tournament.

There is 32 fighters in the show and they have the opportuninty to choose their own coach, the cast list in full is as follows.....

Marcus Aurelio
Age: 26
Record: 6-2
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Nick Barnes
Age: 22
Record: 5-0
San Diego

Eric Bradley
Age: 31
Record: 5-1
Las Vegas

Mike Bronzoulis
Age: 34
Record: 15-5-1
Houston

Frank Carrillo
Age: 29
Record: 6-3
Miami

Darryl Cobb
Age: 32
Record: 6-6
East St. Louis

Christopher Curtis
Age: 25
Record: 7-2
Cincinnati

Evan Cutts
Age: 22
Record: 5-1
Dallas

Mike Dubois
Age: 30
Record: 3-0
Thomasville, Ga.

Tom Gallicchio
Age: 26
Record: 16-8
Howell, N.J.

Ismael Gonzalez
Age: 32
Record: 11-10
Los Angeles

Gareth Joseph
Age: 28
Record: 9-5
San Diego

Chris Lozano
Age: 30
Record: 9-3
Cleveland

AJ Matthews
Age: 24
Record: 5-2
Carlsbad, Calif.

Rob Mills
Age: 35
Record: 8-2
Newcastle, United Kingdom

Steve Montgomery
Age: 22
Record: 3-1
Florence, S.C.

Chip Moraza-Pollard
Age: 24
Record: 7-4
Plymouth, Mass.

Brett Nakamura
Age: 30
Record: 6-1
Maui, Hawaii

Jason Norwood
Age: 28
Record: 12-3
Fort Hood, Texas

Dom O'Grady
Age: 31
Record: 15-5-1
Detroit

Jacob Ortiz
Age: 31
Record: 8-4
San Manuel, Ariz.

Josh Quayhagen
Age: 26
Record: 6-1
Lake Charles, La.

Joe Riggs
Age: 30
Record: 39-14
Phoenix

Eric Scallan
Age: 27
Record: 11-4
Lafayette, La.

Cristiano Souza
Age: 30
Record: 5-0
Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

Brendan Tierney
Age: 37
Record: 10-5
Queens, N.Y.

Bryan Travers
Age: 29
Record: 13-3
Bakersfield, Calif.

Andy Uhrich
Age: 27
Record: 8-3
Gering, Neb.

Tim Welch
Age: 22
Record: 8-4
Great Falls, Mont.

Cole Williams
Age: 30
Record: 5-1
Darian, Wisc.

Joe Williams
Age: 27
Record: 7-1
Tustin, Calif.

Artenas Young
Age: 32
Record: 9-5
Houston

BluenoseGreig
MMA Crypt Moderator ]]> Bellator/DREAM/Strikeforce BluenoseGreig http://mmacrypt.com/forum/showthread.php?31520-Bellator-Fight-Master-Cast-revealed-includes-Joe-Riggs