Think you’ve had a bad day recently? Try dealing with Jon Fitch’s past 24 hours.
The top 3 welterweight went from being contracted to fighting Akihiro Gono at UFC 94, to having the bout contract cancelled and having himself dropped from the UFC, dealing directly with Lorenzo Fertitta, to being back in the UFC and back into his fight with Gono.
This whole debacle between Dana White and the guys at the American Kickboxing Academy gym bring several interesting points to the surface.
Jon Fitch has confirmed that he has worked out his differences with the UFC and will return to the promotion.
Fitch stated he still has not spoken with Dana White but dealt with UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertita instead. Fitch will sign the controversial video game licensing agreement and return to action at UFC 94 against Akihiro Gono as originally planned.
This is not the last we will hear of this story, I’m sure. It will also be interesting to hear Dana White’s reaction as his decisions have been reversed by Fertita.
I will have much more info on this a bit later, but I’m currently at the Celtics-Pistons game and not near a computer.
I’m just going to post a few links to other sites with good coverage of today’s news concerning Jon Fitch and other AKA fighters being dropped from the UFC roster.
Yesterday the MMA world was all abuzz with the confirmation that the UFC had dropped former WEC middleweight champion Paulo Filho from his contract and fellow Brazilian Marcus Aurelio from UFC contract. That news is extremely mild compared to the news exploding on the scene today.
In an apparent fit of rage and complete lunacy, UFC President Dana White has dropped Jon Fitch and potentially all other American Kickboxing Academy fighters from the UFC roster. Jon Fitch confirmed that he had been cut from his contract in an interview with MMAWeekly.com.
“This is like over the course of two days, three days,” Fitch explained about the release. “It had to do with Dana (White) calling my managers and immediately saying, ‘we need to get him to sign this contract’ and ‘it’s a big favor to me.’ Then we asked him, ‘Why do you need this contract signed?’
“Then we finally asked, after reading through the contract, why can’t we negotiate for different terms? Because it asked me for a lifetime contract for the video games, so they would have exclusive rights to use our likeness for these video games and we couldn’t go and do any other video games ever again in our lifetime.”
Before anything was decided, Fitch says his managers tried to re-negotiate a different deal from the lifetime contract, but an ultimatum was soon made.
“So basically we said we weren’t cool with that deal and why can’t we do it for five or 10 years? Why does it have to be a lifetime deal? Their next response was, ‘either you guys are in or you’re out’ and ’sign this or you’re going to get dropped from the UFC,’” said Fitch. “So we hear that and we didn’t even think they were serious. Why would you want to release fighters at our level over something like that? Doesn’t make any sense.
“Within two phone calls, it got to ’sign this or you guys are out.’”
“We were already promised to THQ by the UFC, even though none of us were under contract (for that), in order to save face, they had to force us to sign this thing,” he explained.
He also states that the new video game contract was partially due to the fact that competitors in the UFC were originally given a “merchandising” contract that was shot down after many fighters did not want to sign that either.
“It started with the merchandising agreement,” Fitch stated. “The original merchandising agreement they sent out, it encompassed all avenues of all this stuff and everything that falls under merchandise, and they wanted to force us to sign that a while ago. (They wanted) all the guys in the UFC to sign these contracts blindly that gave them all of our rights, image, everything that they could find anyway to market or sell us.”
“This is seriously how they’re trying to treat fighters? Especially me? ” Fitch questioned. “I’ve never complained about them. I’ve always done my best for the UFC in a positive way. I’ve fought my ass off. I’m arguably the second best welterweight in the world. Yet they are still willing to release me, especially after my last fight?
Dana White, of course, has his own take on why he cut Fitch.
The outspoken UFC president said shortly after landing in Hawaii on Wednesday that he no longer wants to work with AKA fighters or those represented by DeWayne Zinkin and Bob Cook.
White said he excepted AKA welterweight Mike Swick from that group because he said Swick called him and told him he wants to fight for the UFC. But Fitch and heavyweight Christian Wellisch were cut on Wednesday, and heavyweight prospect Cain Velasquez and welterweight Josh Koscheck could be next.
“We’re looking for guys who want to work with us and not against us, and frankly I’m just so [expletive] sick of this [expletive] it’s not even funny,” White said from Honolulu, where he flew Wednesday from Toronto to hold a news conference to announce the B.J. Penn-Georges St. Pierre fight for UFC 94 on Jan. 31 in Las Vegas.
“Affliction is still out there trying to build its company. Let [Fitch] go work with them. Let him see what he thinks of those [expletives]. [Expletive] him. These guys aren’t partners with us. [Expletive] them. All of them, every last [expletive] one of them.”
White said the AKA fighters “aren’t partners with us” and said they don’t understand what the UFC is trying to do for the sport. White said the UFC’s current success was because of long hours he and partner Lorenzo Fertitta have put in trying to build the company and the sport of mixed martial arts.
White complained that he has to make frequent sacrifices in his personal life and is away from his family for long stretches because of his commitment to growing the UFC. He said the AKA fighters don’t understand the things UFC management is trying to do and said they’ll learn how tough things are in the poor economy.
“There are a lot of guys who help us and work with us and are great partners with us, and they’re the ones we’re going to remember and take care of,” White said. “Do these guys understand what is going on in this world? I’ll tell you, this economy is [expletive] up. It’s totally [expletive] up. It’s bad, real, real bad. The [television] networks are in trouble and don’t have money. The sponsors are in trouble, and they have no money. If they don’t have money, they go out of business.
“It’s a whole other world out there, believe me, and let these guys go out there and see what they find.”
White said he took great care of Fitch and said with bonuses and purse, Fitch made $169,000 for his welterweight title fight loss to St. Pierre at UFC 87 in Minneapolis in August. Fitch (17-3 with 1 no-contest) did not dispute that salary figure. He said the UFC “has taken care of me and you’ve never heard me complain about money. This is a respect thing.”
[Source: MMAJunkie.com]
Jon Fitch contends that his management offered to negotiate a 5-10 year exclusivity deal for the merchandising and video games rights, but the UFC would hear none of it.
“He wanted us to sign that merchandising agreement, and it was not a very good agreement,” Fitch said. “There was not really a reason for us to sign it. The first thing they brought to us was for us to sign all of our rights away for everything forever. It was for very small compensation, and there was no compensation for family members if we were to die.
“We could die and they could make memorial figurines and stuff and make thousands, millions of dollars, and our families wouldn’t see a penny of it. The way they bring the contracts and stuff to us, I don’t know, it’s just not how business is done.”
Here is the most telling line of all from Dana White, truly revealing his “God-complex” regarding his place in the MMA-world.
“I’m not a douche bag and I do a lot for these guys, a lot more than any of you will ever know. We’re in a horrible time in the economy now, and every guy with two nickels to rub together is making a run at us. We’ve worked too hard, given too much, to let certain guys come in and [expletive] with that.”
Uh Dana… Reality check here. You are a “douche bag” and everyone knows it, including yourself.
It will be very interesting to see how this continues to play out as AKA has many top fighters working out of their gym. In addition to Fitch, heavyweight Christian Wellisch was cut last night as well. Cain Velasquez and Josh Koscheck are most likely next in line, which is interesting considering Koscheck is headlining next months UFC Fight Night: Fight for the Troops event. Velasquez won his last fight in the UFC, so I don’t think the UFC can drop him outright, but all other fighters listed lost their last UFC fight which left them open to the “loss drop” clause in their contract.
According to White, however, Mike Swick will be spared that AKA axe because “he called [White] and told him he wants to fight for the UFC.” Well, that’s just great Dana. Did you give Jon Fitch or Christian Wellisch a chance to call you before you unceremoniously cut them?
Once again, this sounds like a battle between Dana White and MMA managers, in this case DeWayne Zinkin and Bob Cook who represent most of the AKA gym. White has battled with Zinkin in the past, as he manages Chuck Liddell.
White is notorious for hating fighter managers and loves to bad-mouth and belittle them every chance he gets, which is humorous considering how Dana always loves to remind us all that “this is all a business.” Because it is a business, the fighters need to seek representation to look out for their best interest’s Dana - to protect themselves from vicious promoters like you!
Anthony Johnson will get a chance to avenge his loss to Kevin Burns next month, as the two fighters will headline the finale of The Ultimate Fighter: Season 8.
SpikeTV formally announced the matchup today as the main event for the December 13th fight card in Las Vegas, NV.
Johnson and Burns fought back in July at UFC Fight Night 14 where Burns won a rather controversial victory via TKO in the third round. Burns had poked Johnson in the eye several times during the first two rounds, and landed another eye-gouge in the final round that sent Johnson to the mat, unable to see. Burns pounced on the downed opponent and referee Steve Mazzagatti stopped the fight.
Surprisngly, Burns was still awarded the TKO victory even after the illegal eye-gouge. Johnson was on his way to an easy victory over Burns prior to the incident. Johnson ended up with a detached retina and large laceration on his eye that required laser surgery following the fight.
Also officially announced for the TUF 8 Finale is a middleweight fight between Wilson Gouveia and Jason MacDonald. The finale will also feature the lightweight and light heavyweight fights that will crown winners for season 8.
Here are the official fighter salary numbers from Saturday night’s UFC 91: Couture vs Lesnar event.
The UFC also awarded $60,000 superlative bonuses. Jeremy Stephens won “Knockout of the Night”, Dustin Hazelett won “Submission of the Night”, and Aaron Riley and Jorge Gurgel won “Fight of the Night.”
The total disclosed fighter payout for UFC 81 was $1,099,000. Zuffa reported a total attendance of 14,272 for a live gate of $4,800,000.
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