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M-1 Global Sues Bellator Middleweight Vyacheslav Vasilvsky over Breach of Contract

Which means whoever made this picture just wasted a bunch of time.

If you were impressed with Vyacheslav Vasilvsky’s performance at Bellator 61, out gunning Victor O’Donnell en route to a unanimous decision victory, don’t get used to seeing him in Bellator just yet.

MMAJunkie.com is reporting that M-1 Global has been awarded damages from a breach of contract by former M-1 Light Heavyweight Champion Vyacheslav Vasilvsky by a Dutch court, and is planning on pursuing Vasilvsky- who wasn’t present in court, nor were any of his representatives, mind you- in the United States. Okay, that sounds pretty rough, but at least M-1 is being reasonable in their demands and not trying to bury the guy, right? Um, have you heard of M-1 Global?

The promotion has been granted €1,000 for each day he’s been in breach of contract (which, according to M-1, is exactly one year today), €5,000 for each fight he’s had in another promotion (five since 2010), and court fees. I’m not exactly a mathematician, but I think that adds up to 1,000x more money than M-1 Global could have possibly made off of Vyacheslav Vasilvsky. Ken Shamrock could not be reached for comment.

Which means whoever made this picture just wasted a bunch of time.

Naturally, Vasilvsky’s manager, Sam Kardan, denies that M-1 Global has any type of enforceable contract with the fighter. As Kardan says:

“When Bellator signed him back in November, I know at that point, the fighter requested – and I believe Bellator has done the same – requested a copy of the (M-1) contract…If he was presented a contract, I’m pretty sure Bellator would not have signed him. I’m pretty positive of that. So for almost six months, [M-1 hasn’t] presented any kind of contract that would state they do have an existing agreement with him.”

For what it’s worth, when Bellator first signed Vasilvsky in November, CEO Bjorn Rebney denied any knowledge of a contract with M-1 Global but agreed that if one existed Bellator would respect it.

A lot of stuff to digest here. Is this a case of M-1 Global, who recently allowed Yasubey Enomoto to fight with an open wound infection that bled throughout the bout, showing it doesn’t care about it’s non-Emelianenko fighters? Or is this a case of a naive young man recklessly disregarding his prior commitments? Your thoughts, comments section.

Josh Koscheck Cites Exclusive Apparel Contract, Not Stick Up His Ass, as the Reason for His Lawsuit Against NGAUGE

Smug © (Pic: Zimbio.com)

Perhaps we were all a little quick to bag on Josh Koscheck for taking a legal dump on “Trash Talkin’ Kids“, Stephan Bonnar’s new irreverent line of MMA shirts. True, he does have a track record of being kind of a dick, but this wouldn’t be the first time that we’ve jumped to conclusions about the UFC Welterweight only to back track a little. Lesson learned. From now on, we’ll reserve judgment until all of the facts are in and give Kos the benefit of the doubt. Nah, not really, but here’s the latest on this story.

Koscheck sat down with the folks at BleacherReport.com to give his side of the tale. According to Kos, his problem with the shirt in question has nothing to do with being the butt of a joke, but rather stems from a preexisting exclusive contract.

Smug © (Pic: Zimbio.com)

“This situation is very black and white,” (Koscheck who is 14-4 in the UFC said). There’s a side of right and a side of wrong and I’m on the side of right. Stephan Bonnar and his company are on the side of wrong. I have an exclusive deal that is a conflict to use my image, to use my likeness, and to use my name.”

“I spoke to Stephan Bonnar about a year ago and I’ve had my existing contract for about two years now and I spoke to him about a year ago at AKA (American Kickboxing Academy), regarding this situation and he was understanding of the fact that there is an existing agreement with a prior apparel company with myself.”

“He spoke with myself and my manager Bob Cook at AKA when he was filming something for SpikeTV, he was in agreement and in an understanding that they would stop producing and making the shirt. Because I was about to get sued from my preexisting exclusive deal that I’ve had signed for two-years.”

“So, he was putting me in breach of this contract by producing this shirt. Now, with that being said, he was fine with that and was fine with everything after meeting at AKA and he continued to produce the shirt.”

“He basically gave me no other choice, but to go after him legally because of the fact that I’m about to be sued from another company because of Stephan Bonnar and his antics.”

Assuming that all of this information is accurate, and we’ll take it at face value here, the NGAUGE shirt basically forced Kos into a “sue or be sued” scenario, and rather than lose out on a long-term sponsorship deal so Bonnar can sell some t-shirts, he filed suit. Seems fair enough. The whole situation raises some legal questions that I don’t have the answers to: Is NGUAGE protected by parody or satire laws? Can Koscheck be sued by his sponsor for the unauthorized actions of a third party? Though these cases may never actually make it to trial, Koscheck and Bonnar may take the law into their own hands rather than take it to court.

Bonnar stated that he’s willing to cut weight to face Koscheck in the cage. And Koscheck? Yeah, he’s down too:

“Now, Stephan Bonnar is calling me out and it’s absurd, that p***y really needs to think about who he’s calling out because when he becomes a B level fighter, then I’ll take him serious. But right now, he’s not even a B level fighter so I’m not taking him serious.”

“If he does want to fight me and run his mouth and continue to run his mouth personally, then we can settle this. I’ll fight him at 185 for the fans, because I know there’s a lot of people out there right now that this is a big deal and I’ll make that my comeback fight hopefully in October.”

“All day long, that’d be a nice, easy comeback fight. I’d like to have a nice warmup fight and Stephan Bonnar would be that fight.”

Now that’s some quality trash talkin’, kid! Joe Silva, make it rain.

Josh Koscheck Suing NGAUGE Over “Trash Talkin’ Kids” T-Shirt

(The ‘Josh Kosh M’Gosh’: Taken from us too soon. Props: facebook.com/TrashTalkinKids)

Due to his unauthorized depiction in the “Trash Talkin’ Kids” t-shirt line, UFC star Josh Koscheck is suing NGAUGE, the MMA artwork and apparel company co-founded by Stephan Bonnar. NGAUGE was officially served with notice of the lawsuit yesterday morning.

Though a source at NGAUGE told us that reaction from the other fighters depicted in the shirt series (including Georges St. Pierre and Brock Lesnar) has been uniformly positive, Koscheck apparently didn’t see the humor in being associated with a brand of children’s overalls. Which is too bad, because that shit is kind of hilarious.

(The ‘Josh Kosh M’Gosh’: Taken from us too soon. Props: facebook.com/TrashTalkinKids)

In an odd side-note to the story, Koshcheck’s legal representation in the case will be Christian Wellisch, a retired heavyweight fighter who you might remember as Shane Carwin’s first knockout victim in the UFC, back in May 2008. Following that fight, Wellisch was briefly fired during the mass-bloodletting over AKA’s refusal to sign away their likenesses for UFC Undisputed, then fired for real when he dropped a split-decision to Jake O’Brien in his next outing. These days, he runs a law practice near San Jose.

Unsurprisingly, Koscheck’s lawsuit has raised the ire of Stephan Bonnar himself, who now lists Koscheck as the person he’d like to fight most in the UFC. As he explained in an interview published yesterday on FiveKnuckles:

“He actually inspired the [Trash Talkin’ Kids] idea, he [talked] so much shit in the Daley fight and after the fight…I thought it was the funniest thing, like he is just a trash talking kid at heart….He got wind of it and he didn’t like it and I tried to explain it to him firsthand. ‘Like, look we’re doing them for all the fighters. It’s kind of a joke, just cartoon versions of the fighters.’…Anyway, so he didn’t like it. Turns out we won’t be able to sell his but we will be able to sell the other ones. I didn’t think his was gonna sell too much anyway. We’re getting hit up [by] his lawyers at the moment, it’s been a pain in the ass…I would drop a lot of weight to fight him.”