(John Einemo, the only man to ever truly smell what The Rock was cookin’.)
Norwegian news site VG.no is reporting that former UFC heavyweight John Olav Einemo has decided to call it a career after being cut from the promotion following his loss to Mike Russow at UFC on Fox 2.
Although Einemo told reporters that the UFC had left the proverbial door open for his return if he was able to put a couple wins together in smaller promotions, Einemo felt that the time he had to spend away from his family during the training process was simply too much to handle. Apparently his wife and kids didn’t drive him crazy. For those of you who are suddenly overwhelmed with panic as to when you’ll see J.O.E again, fret not, for he plans to help build upon Norway’s ever-growing MMA scene as a coach somewhere down the line.
(John Einemo, the only man to ever truly smell what The Rock was cookin’.)
Norwegian news site VG.no is reporting that former UFC heavyweight John Olav Einemo has decided to call it a career after being cut from the promotion following his loss to Mike Russow at UFC on Fox 2.
Although Einemo told reporters that the UFC had left the proverbial door open for his return if he was able to put a couple wins together in smaller promotions, Einemo felt that the time he had to spend away from his family during the training process was simply too much to handle. Apparently his wife and kids didn’t drive him crazy. For those of you who are suddenly overwhelmed with panic as to when you’ll see J.O.E again, fret not, for he plans to help build upon Norway’s ever-growing MMA scene as a coach somewhere down the line.
“The Viking” started off his MMA career in October of 2000, amassing five straight wins under the Shooto, Finnfight, and Focus Fight banners, with none of those wins making it out of the first round. In 2003, Einemo became the first and last man to defeat Roger Gracie in ADCC competition at the finals of the ADCC trials (88-98 kg weight class). He also holds notable grappling victories over Alexandre Ferreira, Bellator vet Vitor Vianna, and Rolles Gracie.
Einemo would suffer his first professional defeat to Farbicio Werdum at Pride 31 in 2006, which was quickly overshadowed by an in ring riot between the Chute Box camp, Mark Coleman, and Phil Baroni in which Wanderlei Silva had his head stepped on. Ah, the good old days. After claiming his place alongside the approximately 200 men to have beaten James Thompson later that year, Einemo would take a five year hiatus from the sport, likely to help hunt the aforementioned trolls that plague Norway’s mountainous regions.
Einemo emerged from hiding in 2011 when he signed with the UFC and put in a Fight of the Night earning performance against Dave Herman at UFC 131. Despite Einemo’s extensive BJJ background, the fight was contested mostly on the feet, with both men rocking the other on more than one occasion. Herman would have the last laugh, however, finishing Einemo off midway through the second round. Shortly thereafter, Einemo was axed along with several other fighters signed under Golden Glory management due to ongoing contract disputes.
It wasn’t long until an agreement was reached between the two and Einemo, along with Alistair and Valentijn Overeem, were allowed to come back to their Zuffa-financed jobs. Marloes Coenen, on the other hand, was shipped off to a deserted island and forced to feed on Dutch celebrities whilst searching for buried treasure. And they say chivalry is dead in the world.
Einemo would try to bounce back at UFC on FOX 2, where he faced off against the deceivingly talented Mike Russow, who was riding a ten fight win streak at the time. Things would not go Einemo’s way, as he would find himself trapped beneath Russow’s amorphous figure for three rounds en route to a unanimous decision loss.
We here at CP would just like to wish John (can we call you John?) the best of luck in all of his future endeavors. Do the same in the comments section, Potato Nation.
By now, you know the deal when it comes to Dana White’s videoblogs, and today’s “episode” is no different. Taking a behind-the-scenes look at the aftermath of the UFC’s second Fox event, the UFC 143 videoblog contains the familiar mix of upper and downer moments, with an emphasis on the downer. Especially tough to watch is Joey Beltran’s realization that his Zuffa career may have reached a temporary standstill in the wake of his first round KO loss to Lavar Johnson. Keep your chin up, “Mexicutioner.”
Let’s get right to the highlights.
(0:45) –Jon Jones, seen here for the last time before disappearing into a thicket of notes from which he has yet to emerge.
(1:40) – Eric Wisely, still in awe of the calf-slicer Charles Oliveira was able to pull on him. The pain was apparently so incredible that Wisely has trouble explaining to the backstage physician where exactly the strain was.
By now, you know the deal when it comes to Dana White’s videoblogs, and today’s “episode” is no different. Taking a behind-the-scenes look at the aftermath of the UFC’s second Fox event, the UFC 143 videoblog contains the familiar mix of upper and downer moments, with an emphasis on the downer. Especially tough to watch is Joey Beltran’s realization that his Zuffa career may have reached a temporary standstill in the wake of his first round KO loss to Lavar Johnson. Keep your chin up, “Mexicutioner.”
Let’s get right to the highlights.
(0:45) –Jon Jones, seen here for the last time before disappearing into a thicket of notes from which he has yet to emerge.
(1:40) – Eric Wisely, still in awe of the calf-slicer Charles Oliveira was able to pull on him. The pain was apparently so incredible that Wisely has trouble explaining to the backstage physician where exactly the strain was.
(3:30) – “Shit man, he take some knees, huh?” – John Olav Einemo, who seems a little more pissed about the clusterfuck of a plane ride he had to take from Norway in retrospect. He still manages to congratulate Mike Russow on his win, however. Stay classy, J.O.E.
(4:45) – Another look at the gash under Nick Lentz’s left eye that “cut” *snicker* his bout with Evan Dunham short.
(5:10) – Does anyone know who the older gentleman responsible for hyping up Michael Bisping is? He could give Flavor Flav a run for his money is all we’re saying.
(5:50) – The agony of defeat, paired here with the thrill of victory. And it’s honestly hard to tell which one is which.
(6:08) – Example #327 of why you never let it go to the judges. It’s like jumping off an air hockey table; it only opens the door for bitter disappointment.
(6:27) – After mirroring the above sentiment, Bisping says that Chael Sonnen “punches like a woman,” before congratulating him on the win. Oh, the ironing.
(6:50) – Bisping, now claiming that Sonnen agreed “The Count” may have taken the first two rounds of their middleweight clash. Man, Bisping just doesn’t have it in him to give a straight compliment to someone, does he? Though we agree, 30-27 was bullshit.
(8:19) – We’d be more grossed out by Phil Davis‘ shin wound if we hadn’t recently come across this.
(9:07) – Perhaps it’s due to my limited knowledge of the Hip hop genre, but it took me like 10 rewinds to figure out that the gentlemen asking DW for an autograph wasn’t T.I. It isn’t, right?
According to Golden Glory head Bas Boon, fences have been mended between the UFC and his management group and fight team — so much so that the promotion is bringing back heavyweight John Olav Einemo and is in discussions to sign K-1 standout Siyar Bahadurzada as well.
“John Olaf Einemo is now back with the UFC and Siyar Bahadurzada just got offered a UFC contract,” Boon wrote in an email received by CagePotato earlier today.
The email went on to state that Golden Glory’s relationship with the UFC is good and that contrary to media speculation, neither side is guilty of any wrongdoing during the recent negotiations to sign former Golden Glory star Alistair Overeem to a contract with the Las Vegas-based promotion.
“I want to make the following statement to clear up any speculation.The UFC did nothing wrong and neither did Golden Glory management – when signing up Alistair Overeem with the UFC. It is public knowledge how the UFC does business,” Boon explained. “ALL correspondence between the UFC and Golden Glory was also shared/CC’d to Alistair Overeem who finally made a decision to sign the agreements. There will be a lot of rumors like in thet recent past when 4 Golden Glory fighters were released from the UFC and Strikeforce and that was the so-called end of GG’s relationship with the UFC. Not long after this rumor Golden Glory made a mega deal with Alistair Overeem signing with the UFC.”
(The team during easier times.)
According to Golden Glory head Bas Boon, fences have been mended between the UFC and his management group and fight team — so much so that the promotion is bringing back heavyweight John Olav Einemo and is in discussions to sign K-1 standout Siyar Bahadurzada as well.
“John Olaf Einemo is now back with the UFC and Siyar Bahadurzada just got offered a UFC contract,” Boon wrote in an email received by CagePotato earlier today.
The email went on to state that Golden Glory’s relationship with the UFC is good and that contrary to media speculation, neither side is guilty of any wrongdoing during the recent negotiations to sign former Golden Glory star Alistair Overeem to a contract with the Las Vegas-based promotion.
“I want to make the following statement to clear up any speculation.The UFC did nothing wrong and neither did Golden Glory management – when signing up Alistair Overeem with the UFC. It is public knowledge how the UFC does business,” Boon explained. “ALL correspondence between the UFC and Golden Glory was also shared/CC’d to Alistair Overeem who finally made a decision to sign the agreements. There will be a lot of rumors like in thet recent past when 4 Golden Glory fighters were released from the UFC and Strikeforce and that was the so-called end of GG’s relationship with the UFC. Not long after this rumor Golden Glory made a mega deal with Alistair Overeem signing with the UFC.”
Boon says that the current dismal state of MMA in Japan and Golden Glory’s home base in Holland is making it difficult for fighters to carve out a living outside of North America, which is likely why they decided to forgo the addition of a clause in Overeem’s UFC contract to ensure that he could continue to compete for K-1. Another fact that likely played into that decision was that “The Demolition Man” still hasn’t been paid for winning the K-1 World Heavyweight Grand Prix last year.
“These are difficult times in the fighting industry; we are still waiting for payment of FEG as Alistair said in the press and the future of FEG is still unclear. There is a Dutch law called bibop in the Netherlands which makes promoting events there extremely difficult.”
Boon, who revealed after the sudden firings of his fighters from Strikeforce and the UFC,that he was working with Strikeforce, K-1 and DREAM to form a partnership between the three promotions prior to the purchase of SF by Zuffa says that there is progress in Japan, but points out that he can’t say what just yet.
“There is also some really good news coming soon about the situation in Japan and I really want to let everybody know the details, but I have signed multiple non-disclosure agreements and I have to wait,” Boon explained.
Hopefully it’s that they have a suitable financial backer to revive JMMA, which has been on life support the past few years. Fighters and fans need another viable MMA option outside of the UFC umbrella.
Dana White broke Ariel Helwani off a few minutes of his precious time to talk about a myriad of subjects, most interesting of which was his reaction to Golden Glory manager Bas Boon‘s public desire to meet all of Zuffa’s concerns, including direct payments to fighters and an exclusive contract with Alistair Overeem: “Well that’s awesome. If that’s the true story and that’s what he said, sounds like we can make a deal then…If Bas Boon is saying that this is the way we can do it, then we can absolutely, positively make a deal and we can get this ball rolling again.”
Though he appeared willing to move beyond whatever was behind the mass-firing, Dana didn’t relent from his position that the cuts were simply a matter of different business practices between the parties and nothing more: “I don’t give a shit what they tweet, what they take pictures of, or what they say, they fucking know exactly how it worked and we would not do it that way.”
After the jump, it turns out that Overeem has not been officially released by Strikeforce after all.
Dana White broke Ariel Helwani off a few minutes of his precious time to talk about a myriad of subjects, most interesting of which was his reaction to Golden Glory manager Bas Boon‘s public desire to meet all of Zuffa’s concerns, including direct payments to fighters and an exclusive contract with Alistair Overeem: “Well that’s awesome. If that’s the true story and that’s what he said, sounds like we can make a deal then…If Bas Boon is saying that this is the way we can do it, then we can absolutely, positively make a deal and we can get this ball rolling again.”
Though he appeared willing to move beyond whatever was behind the mass-firing, Dana didn’t relent from his position that the cuts were simply a matter of different business practices between the parties and nothing more: “I don’t give a shit what they tweet, what they take pictures of, or what they say, they fucking know exactly how it worked and we would not do it that way.”
Dana does come across as candid in this interview, but he strains credulity by stating that “one thing that I don’t do, I wouldn’t go [out] there and lie to all you guys.” In case you’ve forgotten his fondness for fibs, historical revisions, and stretches of the truth, keep watching the video. Not a minute later White responds to Ariel’s question about his having been in contact with Bas Boon since the termination with a pause, a gulp, and a barely audible “Yup”, similar to how you answer your girlfriend when she asks if any of your exes were at Steve’s party last night. You want to say, “No, I hate those skanks”, but the way she asks the question it almost seems like she already knows the answer, so you can’t risk the lie. I know that “Yup”; I’ve given that “Yup”; it’s the “Yup” of a man reluctant to tell the truth.
In other Golden Glory news, ESPN’s Josh Gross reports that Alistair is technically still very much the Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion. Rather than cut Overeem directly, Zuffa exercised a clause in in his contract which essentially allowed them to deduct the last fight from his deal for turning down a September fight in the Grand Prix Tournament semi finals. The two parties have entered into a 120 day exclusive negotiation period; if they fail to come to terms, Zuffa will have another 120 days to match any potential offers from outside promotions. A “Champion’s Clause” will prevent the Dutch fighter’s participation in a bout scheduled for October. Even if Overeem stays within the Zuffa umbrella, it’s not entirely clear which organization he’d end up fighting for. Dana asked, “To be in a position where Alistar can come over and fight in the UFC- why would I not do it?” It’s a good question. Let’s hope we get the answer soon.
(Imagine getting into a bar fight with these guys?)
The head of Golden Glory, Bas Boon released a press release Thursday that further explained some of the behind the scenes happenings that may have led to the recent sudden firings of Team Golden Glory fighters Alistair Overeem, Marloes Coenen, John Olav Einemo.
According to Boon, he was working hand-in-hand with Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker to form strategic partnerships with a number of organizations like K-1 and DREAM and had been involved in meetings with television networks with Coker in an effort to make the promotion a viable competitor to the UFC. Unbeknownst to Boon, while he was making connections and setting up these meetings, Coker was already in talks with Zuffa about selling the struggling promotion.
It’s not unforeseeable that when Coker informed the UFC that Boon had been instrumental in Strikeforce making a full-court press at competing with them, that they took umbrage with his effort to aid the competition.
Another interesting tidbit Boon dropped in the statement was that Golden Glory had made arrangements, with the help of the UFC, for its fighters to be paid directly by Zuffa/Forza and for them to cash their checks in the U.S. prior to returning back to Holland, where it takes between six and eight business days for their money to clear. According to UFC president Dana White, Golden Glory refused to allow its fighters to be paid directly, which was the reason he says they cut ties with the likes of Alistair Overeem, John Olav Einemo and Marloes Coenen.
Check out the full release after the jump.
(Imagine getting into a bar fight with these guys?)
The head of Golden Glory, Bas Boon released a press release Thursday that further explained some of the behind the scenes happenings that may have led to the recent sudden firings of Team Golden Glory fighters Alistair Overeem, Marloes Coenen, John Olav Einemo.
According to Boon, he was working hand-in-hand with Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker to form strategic partnerships with a number of organizations like K-1 and DREAM and had been involved in meetings with television networks with Coker in an effort to make the promotion a viable competitor to the UFC. Unbeknownst to Boon, while he was making connections and setting up these meetings, Coker was already in talks with Zuffa about selling the struggling promotion.
It’s not unforeseeable that when Coker informed the UFC that Boon had been instrumental in Strikeforce making a full-court press at competing with them, that they took umbrage with his effort to aid the competition.
Another interesting tidbit Boon dropped in the statement was that Golden Glory had made arrangements, with the help of the UFC, for its fighters to be paid directly by Zuffa/Forza and for them to cash their checks in the U.S. prior to returning back to Holland, where it takes between six and eight business days for their money to clear. According to UFC president Dana White, Golden Glory refused to allow its fighters to be paid directly, which was the reason he says they cut ties with the likes of Alistair Overeem, John Olav Einemo and Marloes Coenen.
Check out the full release below.
———-
First of all we would like to thank all the support of the fans.
The Golden Glory management discussed before coming to the US about the payment situation and it was agreed to speak with a Zuffa lawyer about this in Vancouver, to find a solution.
There was a contract in place and Golden Glory and Einemo honored the UFC rules including getting the check [in] the fighter’s name (Einemo showed his check in the gym as well which was [in] his name and Alistair and Valentijn also confirmed their payment was done by check in their name. The Zuffa lawyer explained that the fighters could open an account at a bank [where] the UFC did their banking and the check would clear in only two days instead of 6 weeks [to] 8 weeks (that’s how long it takes to clear a check in a foreign country, which was also an issue for some of the fighters) and they could then transfer the amount to the final destination [of] their choice. They were thankful and did this.
The reason that the Golden Glory management company is doing this business for the GG fighters for over 12 years with payment directly to the management company is for the benefit of the fighters, coaches and trainers are paid on time and the management company will take care of [bookkeeping] and taxes and exchange rates and legal help for the fighters.
We have many fighters from many different parts of the world and also have gyms in Berlin, Germany, Liverpool, England, Pattaya, Thailand, California, USA, Bucharest, Romania, Moscow, Russia and three gyms in Holland. Golden Glory is growing on an international level and we are working with one management company to coordinate these businesses.
Fighters only sign agreements with promoters if coaches, trainers, management and the fighter agree with the terms, regardless to whom the payment will be done.
The Strikeforce situation was different.
Behind the scenes I was preparing a great deal for corporation between Strikeforce, DREAM, K-1 and Glory to do something great together with Scott [Coker] (this included a TV channel and footage deal). I introduced Scott [through] a partner of mine in LA to some powerful people in the US (Scott was very surprised after this meeting and [texted] and [emailed] me after his meeting with these people how impressed he was). I never could have guessed that at the same moment I was talking to Scott to make a massive move for becoming a real competitor to the UFC, Scott was already talking with the same UFC for selling Strikeforce.
Scott told me that he had partners and that there were financial difficulties with Strikeforce and any new TV or other deal they would welcome. As I am a producer as well (produced more then 1000 hour of fighting content and also made tons of other deals for promoters like the K-1 live broadcasting on the Dutch TV Channel SBS6) I trusted Scott with some business plans as I knew Scott from the time he was a promoter for K-1 and we all wanted to move forward in the fight business.
Scott convinced me to start working with Strikeforce, we always had a better deal in Japan and Europe, but as K-1 was having a lot of difficulties and Scott giving us all the terms we wanted, we started taking steps to do more and more business with Strikeforce.
The problem with Strikeforce was that we made some agreements with Scott, which was creating headaches now [that] Zuffa took over.
The fighters were paid in the previous Strikeforce bouts to an account of the management without any problems, yet UFC claimed this was impossible. Then the fighters were [losing] sponsors as the UFC took over Strikeforce as they implemented their new rules. [Their view was that] if you can sponsor the fighter you should sponsor the organization first. I understand this from a business point of few, but some companies can’t [afford] to pay 100K or more to an organization. And some fighters getting 5 or 10K in sponsorship is [where] they actually can make some good money. We just wanted the things as they were before, but it was far from what it was before. The payment was done how the UFC wanted and again we agreed and did the same as in Vancouver, so that matter was solved so I do not understand why Danna claims we did not agree? We did not have a choice and never said we would not fight in the future or that we would refuse to work like this in the future (we worked out that problem with the Zuffa lawyer in the Vancouver and even agreed with their new sponsor policies). Maybe there is a miscommunication and [Dana] was not well informed that the direct payment issue was solved and no longer an issue as I myself have been in and out hospital for two weeks because of heath issues (the reason why this press release is so late).
Anyway we regret the response from Zuffa and the releases, but it is their company and they can do what they want. We would like to keep working in the future with the UFC and with this statement I [clearly] say that direct payment to any of our fighter was not a problem and will not be a problem in the future. We just want to be able to produce great fighters and create great fights for the fans. We have no intention for co-promotion deals and are even willing to make an exclusive deal for Alistair Overeem to fight in the UFC, if the terms are right.
Filed under: UFC, StrikeforceDespite the rancor between Golden Glory and the UFC, which resulted in several of the Dutch promotion’s fighters being released from their Zuffa contracts, top Golden Glory star Alistair Overeem is still interested in signi…
Despite the rancor between Golden Glory and the UFC, which resulted in several of the Dutch promotion’s fighters being released from their Zuffa contracts, top Golden Glory star Alistair Overeem is still interested in signing an exclusive deal with the UFC.
That is one of the revelations in a statement that Golden Glory co-owner Bas Boon released on Thursday.
“We just want to be able to produce great fighters and create great fights for the fans,” Boon said in the statement. “We have no intention for co-promotion deals and are even willing to make an exclusive deal for Alistair Overeem to fight in the UFC, if the terms are right.”
What exactly the right terms would be is not clear, but one thing Boon did make clear is that he takes issue with UFC President Dana White’s statements about Golden Glory’s payment policies. White said the UFC wanted to pay fighters directly and was uncomfortable with Golden Glory’s policy of serving as a middleman for fighter payment, but Boon said Golden Glory is fine with Zuffa paying Overeem, Marloes Coenen, John Olav Einemo and any of its other fighters directly.
“The payment was done how the UFC wanted,” Boon said in the statement. “I do not understand why Danna [sic] claims we did not agree? We did not have a choice and never said we would not fight in the future or that we would refuse to work like this in the future (we worked out that problem with the Zuffa lawyer in the Vancouver and even agreed with their new sponsor policies). Maybe there is a miscommunication and Danna [sic] was not well informed that the direct payment issue was solved and no longer an issue.”
Boon also placed some of the blame for the problems between Golden Glory and Zuffa on Strikeforce‘s Scott Coker.
“I introduced Scott through a partner of mine in L.A. to some powerful people in the U.S. (Scott was very surprised after this meeting and exited and mailed me after his meeting with these people how impressed he was). I never could have guessed that at the same moment I was talking to Scott to make a massive move for becoming a real competitor to the UFC, Scott was already talking with the same UFC for selling Strikeforce,” Boon said in the statement. “I trusted Scott with some business plans. … The problems with Strikeforce was that we made some agreements with Scott which were creating headaches now Zuffa took over.”
Those headaches, according to Boon, are a major reason that Golden Glory’s fighters are having problems with the UFC. But Boon is still hoping those problems will be resolved. And a resolution could result in Overeem inside the Octagon.
Despite the rancor between Golden Glory and the 