Add Nate Quarry to the growing chorus of former UFC fighters who are taking aim at the company on a number of fronts. Quarry has been out in force with criticisms of his former employer recently, authoring a post on the UG and giving wide-ranging interviews to Bloody Elbow and MMA Junkie on the topics […]
Add Nate Quarry to the growing chorus of former UFC fighters who are taking aim at the company on a number of fronts. Quarry has been out in force with criticisms of his former employer recently, authoring a post on the UG and giving wide-ranging interviews to Bloody Elbow and MMA Junkie on the topics […]
(One day, you’re putting on one of the greatest fights in UFC History. The next, you’re fighting Ben Askren at a catchweight in One FC. *cries into whiskey glass* Photo via Getty.)
You guys remember Gilbert Melendez, right? You know, the Gilbert Melendez who was the final Strikeforce lightweight champion and one half of an amazing trilogy of fights with Josh Thomson? The Gilbert Melendez who came over to the UFC and beat then lightweight champ Ben Henderson but lost anyway because Ben Henderson? The Gilbert Melendez who put on a Fight of the Century performance against Diego Sanchez at UFC 166? Thought so.
Well hold onto those memories, Nation, because it looks like we should already start asking what could’ve been in regards to Melendez’s UFC career, young as it was. On last night’s edition of UFC Tonight, it was reported that, after months of attempting to negotiate a new contract with the promotion, Melendez’s management and Dana White have all but reached a stalemate. Said White:
I’m done. It’s not going well and I couldn’t care less at this point. I like Gilbert Melendez very much. I just don’t like his management. If Gilbert Melendez wants to fight in the UFC he better call Lorenzo Fertitta quickly, but he should also probably start looking elsewhere.
Two thoughts:
-At least DW managed to avoid calling anyone a “f*cking scumbag” or something of the like.
(One day, you’re putting on one of the greatest fights in UFC History. The next, you’re fighting Ben Askren at a catchweight in One FC. *cries into whiskey glass* Photo via Getty.)
You guys remember Gilbert Melendez, right? You know, the Gilbert Melendez who was the final Strikeforce lightweight champion and one half of an amazing trilogy of fights with Josh Thomson? The Gilbert Melendez who came over to the UFC and beat then lightweight champ Ben Henderson but lost anyway because Ben Henderson? The Gilbert Melendez who put on a Fight of the Century performance against Diego Sanchez at UFC 166? Thought so.
Well hold onto those memories, Nation, because it looks like we should already start asking what could’ve been in regards to Melendez’s UFC career, young as it was. On last night’s edition of UFC Tonight, it was reported that, after months of attempting to negotiate a new contract with the promotion, Melendez’s management and Dana White have all but reached a stalemate. Said White:
I’m done. It’s not going well and I couldn’t care less at this point. I like Gilbert Melendez very much. I just don’t like his management. If Gilbert Melendez wants to fight in the UFC he better call Lorenzo Fertitta quickly, but he should also probably start looking elsewhere.
Two thoughts:
-At least DW managed to avoid calling anyone a “f*cking scumbag” or something of the like.
And now, a couple facts. Melendez was making $175K to show for his first two UFC fights, a figure that had carried over from his Strikeforce contract. He’s gone 1-1 in the UFC, with a controversial decision loss to Henderson at UFC on FOX 7 and the aforementioned FOTC against Sanchez at UFC 166. A fight, by the way, that Dana White lauded at the 166 post-fight press conference, stating “In the 13 years of being in this company, we’ve seen some amazing fights. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a fight like that. That fight was insane.”
It should also be noted that Melendez is currently ranked 2nd at lightweight and 14th pound-for-pound on the UFC’s website. If you’re into that sort of thing (in which case, take it away Nelson).
While details are scarce on the figure Melendez was offered, you could probably guesstimate the UFC’s offer through simple compare and contrast. Let’s see…1-1…Strikeforce champ…how about Luke Rockhold? The final Strikeforce middleweight champion was making nearly $100K a fight until signing with the UFC, where his value was immediately downgraded to a $40K/$40K split.
It’s a significant pay cut for sure, and Rockhold is in arguably the same position as Melendez. Both are better known, marketable Strikeforce champs batting .500 in the UFC, so one would expect that they would be treated similarly in terms of salary. Even if Melendez was valued at $60K/$60K, that would still be over a 30% cut from his norm. Dan Henderson may have had to swallow his pride and accept such a deal, but Melendez is arguably in the prime of his career and might not be so willing to do the same.
It’s speculation at this point, I know. And personally, I say Melendez is worth whatever he’s asking regardless of the figure. But for now, let’s just hope that Melendez and the UFC are able to reach some sort of agreement, because you just know that if Bellator gets ahold of “El Nino” they will find some way to fuck it up.
(“Keep laughing, Eddie, because as soon as you lose that belt, your ass is mine.”)
Former President Clinton once made infamous the phrase, “It depends on what your definition of the word ‘is’ is,” while answering questions from the Independent Counsel’s office on the all-important subject of Monica Lewinsky. With former Bellator lightweight champion/UFC hopeful Eddie Alvarez and his boss, Bjorn Rebney, the discrepancy appears to depend on what one’s definition of the word “matched” is.
It has been no secret that the UFC wants Alvarez under their banner. The top lightweight fought the last fight under his Bellator contract last October but the promotion has the right to match any contract offered to Alvarez and thus keep him with them.
The UFC did indeed recently make an offer to Alvarez, but it is here where the stories from the former champ and the Bellator CEO begin to differ.
First, Alvarez sat down with The MMA Hour and claimed that Bellator had not matched the UFC’s proposed terms. Rebney then went on MMA Weekly Radio and said that his organization had, in fact, matched the UFC’s contract offer to Alvarez, point for point.
And then things got really awkward.
(“Keep laughing, Eddie, because as soon as you lose that belt, your ass is mine.”)
Former President Clinton once made infamous the phrase, “It depends on what your definition of the word ’is’ is,” while answering questions from the Independent Counsel’s office on the all-important subject of Monica Lewinsky. With former Bellator lightweight champion/UFC hopeful Eddie Alvarez and his boss, Bjorn Rebney, the discrepancy appears to depend on what one’s definition of the word “matched” is.
It has been no secret that the UFC wants Alvarez under their banner. The top lightweight fought the last fight under his Bellator contract last October but the promotion has the right to match any contract offered to Alvarez and thus keep him with them.
The UFC did indeed recently make an offer to Alvarez, but it is here where the stories from the former champ and the Bellator CEO begin to differ.
First, Alvarez sat down with The MMA Hour and claimed that Bellator had not matched the UFC’s proposed terms. Rebney then went on MMA Weekly Radio and said that his organization had, in fact, matched the UFC’s contract offer to Alvarez, point for point.
And then things got really awkward.
“Everyone’s heard that Bellator has matched and whatnot. It’s a difficult situation,” Alvarez stated. “We went to settlement a couple days ago. We had a settlement meeting where everything was supposed to get worked out. I was sued maybe 30 minutes after that. There’s a lot of tension in the air. We don’t believe it was matched at all. I wanted to give details but I can’t because we’re in the middle of a pending lawsuit. ”
Rebney denied that Bellator did not match the UFC’s contract offer to Alvarez, saying, “Ed went out and got an offer from the UFC, and we took a look at that offer, reviewed it for about eight days, and decided to match it dollar for dollar,
deal point for deal point, term for term. We matched every single element of it, word for word.”
Well, Taters, I’m no lawyer and I don’t play one on TV, but it would appear that either Rebney or Alvarez are lying their asses off here. If Bellator actually copied and pasted the UFC’s offer to Alvarez, we’re not sure how Alvarez could reasonably not see that Bellator had matched the UFC’s contract [Ed note: Based on what I’ve read, it appears that the biggest discrepancy seems to be in the PPV figures Alvarez was offered by both parties. Whereas the UFC, you know, actually hosts PPV’s which Alvarez could cash in on, Bellator’s PPV proposal seems more hypothetical than anything. -Danga]. The only good thing that could come from Bellator suing Alvarez is that the contract offers may very well become public information before a court and it might become plain to see who is in the right.
With Rebney and Bellator’s penchant for playing tough with free-agent fighters and then playing it loose and fast with the facts in the media [Ed note: For examples of this, see Tyson Namand Jay Hieron], Alvarez might be the safer bet to side with for now. One thing is certain, Michael Chandler has to be wondering what he has to do to get his own bidding war between Bellator and the UFC.
(Last warning, Hector. If you grunt like that one more time we’re going to revoke your membership.)
In a new report about Eddie Alvarez’s impending free-agency, MMAFighting.com got Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney to share details of a similar situation in which his promotion got into a bidding war with the UFC. It happened six months ago with their former middleweight champ Hector Lombard, and in that case, it didn’t exactly work out for either party:
Lombard hit the open market, where he was immediately offered a lucrative deal with the UFC. Rebney said that contract, which according to him paid Lombard a $400,000 signing bonus, a $300,000 starting purse per fight and pay-per-view participation points, was cost-prohibitive from Bellator’s standpoint.
If the UFC came in with a similar offer for Alvarez, who is considered by most observers to be right around the top five lightweights in the world, it is believed that would make him the highest-paid 155-pounder in the UFC. On the other hand, Lombard’s debut in the UFC was considered a disappointment, as he lost a lackluster split-decision to Tim Boetsch. That development could cause the UFC to reconsider a big-money offer for another free agent.
(Last warning, Hector. If you grunt like that one more time we’re going to revoke your membership.)
In a new report about Eddie Alvarez’s impending free-agency, MMAFighting.com got Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney to share details of a similar situation in which his promotion got into a bidding war with the UFC. It happened six months ago with their former middleweight champ Hector Lombard, and in that case, it didn’t exactly work out for either party:
Lombard hit the open market, where he was immediately offered a lucrative deal with the UFC. Rebney said that contract, which according to him paid Lombard a $400,000 signing bonus, a $300,000 starting purse per fight and pay-per-view participation points, was cost-prohibitive from Bellator’s standpoint.
If the UFC came in with a similar offer for Alvarez, who is considered by most observers to be right around the top five lightweights in the world, it is believed that would make him the highest-paid 155-pounder in the UFC. On the other hand, Lombard’s debut in the UFC was considered a disappointment, as he lost a lackluster split-decision to Tim Boetsch. That development could cause the UFC to reconsider a big-money offer for another free agent.
“Disappointment” is an understatement. Part of the thoroughly-cursedUFC 149 main card, Hector Lombard vs. Tim Boetsch was supposed to be a guaranteed slugfest, and a possible coming-out party for Lombard in the UFC. Between Lombard’s superhuman knockout power and Boetsch’s never-say-die grittiness, what could possibly go wrong? As it turned out, both fighters spent long stretches of the match just staring at each other, unwilling to commit. Boetsch ultimately claimed a split-decision victory — playing the spoiler role once again — but since the fight came directly after two main card bouts that were just as terrible (James Head vs. Brian Ebersole and Cheick Kongo vs. Shawn Jordan), it was a frustrating moment for almost everyone in the building.
After the fight, Lombard blamed his uncharacteristically dull performance on a sternum injury, but the damage to his reputation had already been done. A hyped-up champion from Bellator stepped into the Octagon and completely crashed-and-burned — and it cost the UFC more than $700,000 to make it happen. And as MMAFighting.com points out, that doesn’t bode well for Eddie Alvarez’s chances of getting a big-money offer from the UFC. (Fool me once, etc.)
(If that kick had been thrown in the UFC, there’s a 99% chance it would have knocked Santiago out.)
According to Swedish news source mmanytt, Polish middleweight phenom Mamed Khalidov has supposedly reached an agreement with Strikeforce and will make his debut in early 2013. Khalidov, whom you may recall was offered a contract with the UFC a few months ago that was plain laughable, has won his last five fights by way of stoppage, with all of those wins coming within the first three minutes of action. It appears that his desire to get, get, get, get get, get that paper has actually paid off, as he has not only been offered a much higher payrate per fight with Strikeforce, but will also be free of the contract exclusivity that UFC fighters face. As long as he does not become champion, that is.
A skilled submission fighter with equally as deadly striking, we have sang the praises of Khalidov for some time now here at CP, and it’s good to see that he may finally be getting the chance to show off his skills to a wider audience. Let’s hope he doesn’t blow it (we’re looking at you, Mr. Lombard.)
We will have more on this possible signing as it develops.
After the jump: A trio of fight videos that sees Khalidov wipe the floor with UFC veterans James Irvin, Rodney Wallace, and Jesse Taylor.
(If that kick had been thrown in the UFC, there’s a 99% chance it would have knocked Santiago out.)
According to Swedish news source mmanytt, Polish middleweight phenom Mamed Khalidov has supposedly reached an agreement with Strikeforce and will make his debut in early 2013. Khalidov, whom you may recall was offered a contract with the UFC a few months ago that was plain laughable, has won his last five fights by way of stoppage, with all of those wins coming within the first three minutes of action. It appears that his desire to get, get, get, get get, get that paper has actually paid off, as he has not only been offered a much higher payrate per fight with Strikeforce, but will also be free of the contract exclusivity that UFC fighters face. As long as he does not become champion, that is.
A skilled submission fighter with equally as deadly striking, we have sang the praises of Khalidov for some time now here at CP, and it’s good to see that he may finally be getting the chance to show off his skills to a wider audience. Let’s hope he doesn’t blow it (we’re looking at you, Mr. Lombard.)
We will have more on this possible signing as it develops.
After the jump: A trio of fight videos that sees Khalidov wipe the floor with UFC veterans James Irvin, Rodney Wallace, and Jesse Taylor.
