UFC
Alistair Overeem willing to sign exclusive contract with UFC; Golden Glory head comments on recent releases from Zuffa
Aug 11, 2011 - 10:15:04 AM Alistair Overeem willing to sign exclusive contract with UFC; Golden Glory head comments on recent releases from Zuffa

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

While last week's mass-release of fighters in the Golden Glory camp may suggest some bad blood boiling between the Dutch contingent and Zuffa, Golden Glory head Bas Boon says that's not the case.

UFC President Dana White came out last week told reporters that the issue in doing business with Golden Glory was their insistence on having payments go to them instead of directly to fighters, a method of business Zuffa had no intention of playing along with. This difference in business practices, according to White, led to the release of Marloes Coenen, Jon Olav Einemo and Valentijn Overeem.

Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion Alistair Overeem had been released the week before, though that release has still not been made exactly clear. It has been reported that there was some leveraging on Golden Glory's part being attempted, including willingness to fight on the Sept. 10 Strikeforce event if certain concessions were made, despite his public talk of injury. Ultimately, the public blame has gone to the issue of paying fighters directly or through management, but Boon has now released a statement saying that issue had been resolved.

"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," Boon wrote. "There was a contract in place and Golden Glory and Einemo honored the UFC rules including getting the check on the fighters name...

"The Zuffa lawyer explained that the fighters could open an account at a bank were the UFC did their banking and the check would clear in only two days instead of 6 weeks till 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 at their choice. They were thankful and did this."

Boon said that after Einemo's fight in Vancouver, the payment issue had been resolved, and they went along with it for the fights in June as well as for Coenen's fight, and believes White hadn't been fully informed of that resolution.

"We just wanted the things as they were before, but it was far from what it was before," he continued. "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 Dana 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)."

Boon turns the blame to Scott Coker and the business deals they had worked out previously that now have caused problems with the new ownership.

"The problems with Strikeforce was that we made some agreements with Scott which were creating headaches now Zuffa took over," Boon said. "Behind the scene I was preparing a great deal for corporation between Strikeforce, Dream, K-1 and Glory to do something great together with Scott (this included a tv channel and footage deal). I introduced Scott thru a partner of mine in LA to some powerful people in the US (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.

"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," Boon continued. "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."

Ultimately, Golden Glory is disappointed in the mass releases on Zuffa's part, but Boon wants to make it clear the the payment issue wasn't at the heart of it. As well, Boon dropped an interesting finishing note about Alistair Overeem to close out the statement.

"Anyway we regret the response from Zuffa and the releases, but it is their company and they can do what they want," Boon said. "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."

Penick's Analysis: If the reports of their attempted strong-arming in negotiations and attempting to use Overeem's status as the Champion as leverage to delay his tournament fight or get higher compensation are correct, then this is a case of those issues screwing the other fighters in the gym. Really, the only surprising release - and the least defensible in this situation - was that of Coenen. Coming off of one loss after having defended the title once anyway did not deserve a release, and it's unfortunate that she was cut as a result of these behind-the-scenes issues. That said, regardless of what caused the rift in the first place, Boon is trying to turn the attention to their deals with Coker that caused problems, and is trying to open the line of communication for future negotiations to bring Overeem to the UFC. This is a very interesting development, and it's not out of the realm of possibility for that to happen. I'm not sure what "terms" would need to be met, but if the UFC wanted Overeem in the organization instead of in Strikeforce, they've already released him from the Strikeforce deal, and would be able to bring him in if they wanted to. It's now just dependent on whether or not they begin talks again.