On Monday, MMA agent Malki Kawa explained his side of the story in response to receiving the boot from Matt Mitrione live on national television this past Saturday at UFC 119 in Indianapolis.
Mitrione made the public firing after his win over Joey Beltran during the Spike TV prelims and in a one-on-one interview with MMAFighting.com following the event clarified the dismissal by telling Ariel Helwani that earning $5,000 in sponsorship money was “highly unacceptable.” Additionally, Mitrione and his wife felt slighted by Kawa allegedly telling Mitrione’s wife that Mitrione’s business was none of her’s.
Kawa, the CEO of First Round Management, on Monday’s The MMA Hour reasoned that he was only able to rake in $5,000 due to the constraints he was working within. Kawa said he picked up Mitrione as a client four weeks ago expecting an exclusive deal only to learn that Mitrione entered their business relationship with a family member already working sponsorships.
“I’m not upset that he got mad that it was only $5,000 but there were certain things I was bringing to the table that would have gotten him at a certain number and he would have been pretty happy had I been able to handle the whole thing A to Z,” Kawa said.