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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief There's been a lot of discussion over the last few days about Gegard Mousasi's signing with Strikeforce following the Affliction collapse. Multiple reports this week stated that the UFC had sent a cease and desist letter to M-1 about the fact that he had been misinformed on an offer the UFC had supposedly made before Mousasi signed with Strikeforce.
Speculation was fueled more this week when Mousasi responded to a question about it by saying, "I am fighting in Strikeforce now and Scott [Coker] has always been honest to me. I have a contract with Strikeforce and I am going to honor that." He also gave a simple "no comment" when asked directly whether his management had misled him.
At today's pre-fight press conference for UFC 101, Dana White flat out said Gegard had been "lied to," but he denied knowing anything about a cease and desist letter being sent.
Now, the UFC's side of the ordeal has come out in comments from UFC matchmaker Joe Silva. Carmichael Dave posted Silva's on the record clarification on the Sherdog message boards, and multiple sources have heard the same comments posted by Dave.
First off, the UFC didn't offer Gegard Mousasi any deal. Mousasi's manager Apy Echteld told him the UFC was going to offer him a 40/40 deal, that's $40,000 to show, $40,000 to win. That deal was much less than his reported rate with Affliction of around $125,000 plus a small win bonus. With an obviously perceived lowball offer in front of him, Mousasi then signed with Strikeforce.
Now, Mousasi wasn't entirely convinced the supposed UFC offer was correct, and a friend of his knew Silva and gave him Joe's number. As Silva said, "Gegard called me about a week ago. He asked if it was true that the UFC offered 40/40. I told him no, because we never actually made an offer." He continued, "When Affliction folded, we obviously looked at a lot of their talent available. Mousasi was interesting, but he had also just signed a deal to appear in the EA Sports video game. We had gotten word from above to stay away from anyone involved in the EA game process."
So here the 40/40 figure was completely false, as they weren't going to be assuming his contract due to the EA video game and their new mandate not to sign fighters under a deal with them. That said, had they brought him into the UFC, it would have been at his Affliction rate, as they would have assumed his contract. Silva said, "So not only did we not offer 40/40, but HAD we made an offer it would've been more than that, and that's what I explained to Gegard."
The next part in this situation was that Silva received a call from Apy Echteld, who wanted to clarify the 'misunderstanding,' as he put it. "Apy told me that he had a UFC source tell him that we were going to offer 40/40, and it was relayed to Mousasi. I asked Apy who the source was, and he declined to tell me. I explained that we never offered any sort of deal, and things sort of ended there."
There have been some reports stating Silva was on the phone with all parties while the negotiations were ongoing, and Silva stated that it was false, saying "I've never been on the phone with Gegard and his management simultaneously. In fact, the only time I've been on the phone with Gegard during all of this was when he called me a week ago."
Clearly, the UFC was not set to make an offer to Mousasi, but that's mainly because he had signed his Strikeforce contract before Silva or anyone else at Zuffa had negotiated with him or M-1. The fact here is he signed that Strikeforce contract on fraudulent information given him by his management, effectively stopping any chance of seeing the former DREAM Middleweight Champion in the Octagon before it even began.
Penick's Analysis: This type of shady and underhanded dealing between M-1 and one of their highest profile fighters is precisely why so many have turned against them in the whole situation with Fedor and the UFC. It's not a pro-UFC bias, it's being incensed by the ridiculous and unprofessional conduct of M-1, including their desire to "co-promote" as well as play manager and promoter all in one to the detriment of their fighters. This is simply the latest case. The fact that there was no basis for the 40/40 "offer" that Mousasi was told, as they had not negotiated with anyone that would be able to make that offer, shows that he was flat out lied to. Regardless of whether the UFC had the intent of going after Mousasi at all with the EA deal in place, the fact is they did not get to the negotiation stage because Mousasi was fed flat out wrong information about an offer that was never made. He's said he'll honor his current contract, but what happens from there will be the next continuation in this story.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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