It is no secret, Alistair Overeem had a falling out with his management team Golden Glory Gym earlier this fall and the K1 champ and former Strikeforce heavyweight champion made the decision to leave.
Overeem wasn’t open to discussing the issues he had with Golden Glory but made it known that things were not handled the way he expected them to be.
It was looking as if Overeem was simply moving on and preparing for his big fight against former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, but no, he is now taking on another fight. Overeem is taking Golden Glory to court.
Head of Golden Glory Bas Boon was expecting this to be dealt with in the courts from the get-go.
“I think the judge will decide on this issue that we have, and when that is decided, we will see who was right and who was not,” Boon told MMAjunkie.com in late September.
Gossip website TMZ.com reported the news first that Overeem is suing Golden Glory for unspecified damages and wants his contract with the Netherlands-based fighter management company dissolved.
Overeem is upset with the contract that was put in place by Golden Glory that allegedly has him giving 35 percent of his gross income for their services despite his feelings that the Golden Glory management hasn’t been putting in the leg work to earn their piece of the pie.
Overeem claims that Golden Glory owes him $151,000 in back pay and, like many K1 fighters, has had a lot of trouble getting his money from the Japanese kickboxing organization, something Golden Glory should have been responsible for taking care of.
The bottom line is that Overeem is unhappy with how he was treated by the Golden Glory management. In the coming months, the courts will tell us who was ultimately right and who was wrong.
“I think it’s the management’s duty to explain stuff to the fighter… [and] to negotiate to explain things to me, and clarify things for me, and they were not doing their job. Not only that, it was such a big disadvantage that it also caused a breach in trust. I like to work with people I can trust,” Overeem said in the most recent episode of his documentary at thereem.com.
Leon Horne is a writer for Bleacher Report and is part of the B/R MMA interview team, Follow @Leon_Horne
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