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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Bellator Fighting Championships has fired back at Zuffa, LLC, parent company of the UFC and WEC, with a lawsuit of their own.
After being named a defendant in a lawsuit from the larger organization for the alleged theft of trade secrets through MMA agent Ken Pavia, Bellator is now alleging that Zuffa, LLC signed Jonathan Brookins to a contract for the upcoming 12th season of The Ultimate Fighter while they had an exclusive deal with the fighter.
Brookins and his manager Mickey Dubberly were both named in the suit. MMAJunkie.com on Tuesday reported comments from both Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney and Dubberly showing very different sides to this story.
Brookins debuted in Bellator in April of last year, but hasn't appeared in the organization since then. Rebney contends that it's not for lack of trying.
"We've been offering the fighter fights, and hindsight being 20-20, we were lied to by his management saying he was injured and couldn't accept fights," Rebney said. "We find out afterward he was filming and fighting on 'The Ultimate Fighter' – that he made the show and was in the house."
But Dubberly vehemently denied Rebney's allegations, saying "That is a lie. Jonathan hasn't fought for Bellator since April 3, 2009, so obviously Sam [Caplan, Bellator matchmaker] hasn't been trying too hard to get Jonathan fights.
"One fight in 13 months doesn't seem trying much for a fighter that you seem so fortunate to have. I got one call for Jonathan to fight from Bellator, and that was in May 2010 and on two-weeks' notice"
Dubberly had also said that Brookins had been verbally released from his contract by Caplan, but Rebney stated that wasn't the case.
"That is a complete and total fabrication that couldn't be further from the truth," Rebney said. "Sam has been repeatedly trying to get Jonathan to accept fights. We've been told he was injured. We were lied to.
"We wouldn't release Jonathan. We count ourselves fortunate to have signed him... At Bellator, we function as a professional organization. If and when we release fighters, we do so on paper. We don't do so verbally. We follow a pretty standard form of practice in this industry. That is a ridiculous comment at it's most basic level."
That's not completely the case, however, and Dubberly lays out a very reasonable case for his statement, while also taking a jab at Rebney for his statements.
"Jonathan was injured training in Iowa in May when I received the call from Bellator," Dubberly said. "He just had stitches taken out and also had a hurt foot, so Bjorn should get his facts straight, and this can be backed up with hospital records. Bjorn should do a little more due diligence on his part before making false statements.
"When I asked Sam about a fight for Jonathan Brookins and Joey Gorczynski back at the end of January – and both had open contracts under Bellator – Sam stated, 'Oh, we released both those guys, but maybe in the future they could fight for us again.
"Joey Gorczynski, who signed a five-fight deal, never got release forms," Dubberly continued. "But Sam told me that Bellator released him, and he has fought for several different organizations since he fought for Bellator.
"Joey didn't even know he was released until I told him that Bellator released him. He never received any documents, and neither has my company."
Dubberly also stated that Bellator hadn't signed off on Brookins' two fights outside of the organization since April of 2009, contending that Brookins' was already released and they didn't step in on those fights.
Bellator is alleging that Zuffa acted maliciously in signing Brookins to The Ultimate Fighter, however, if Brookins was still under contract and believed he was free and clear because of statements made to them by Caplan, Zuffa would have had no knowledge of the contract.
"If Bellator 'counts themselves fortunate' to have Jonathan signed to an 'exclusive' deal, why would they let him fight twice in another organization and keep him inactive for over a year and have their matchmaker tell me he is released?" Dubberly asked. "We believe the only reason why Bellator is pursuing anything is because Jonathan is on the 'TUF 12' show, and they want to capitalize for their own profit."
Penick's Analysis: Bellator continues to get themselves involved in legal entanglements, and a common theme for a few of them involving fighters seems to be with this issue of contract termination. There seems to be a disconnect in communication between Rebney and whoever they have employed as the matchmaker at a certain time, and it's leading to many of these conflicts. Clearly Dubberly and Brookins thought their time with Bellator was over. They wouldn't have signed on for TUF if they thought otherwise, and the UFC wouldn't have signed them if it had been aware of some "exclusive" deal.
If the May 2010 fight is the only one they were contacted about, Rebney's stance that they had been trying to find fights for him and "count themselves fortunate" to have him under contract doesn't really hold up. However, if Bellator has a contract that shows Brookins still bound to it, they may receive compensation in the case in the form of the UFC or Spike buying the contract out.
However, because of similar evidence that not all of their fighters have gotten release papers, Dubberly and Brookins may have a case of their own. It's an interesting case, but I wonder how wise it is to go headfirst at Zuffa like this when they've already got the organization on their radar from the Pavia issue. And I don't think they have a real case against Zuffa for the alleged "tortious interference of contract," because the larger organization had no way to know this was the deal if Brookins and Dubberly contended that the fighter was no longer bound by the Bellator deal.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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