Earlier this week, Bellator Fighting Championship filed a lawsuit against the Ultimate Fighting Championship for alleged use of one of its contracted fighters. Bellator claims that Jonathan Brookins was under contract with Bellator when Brookins accepted a slot on Spike TV’s reality series The Ultimate Fighter. Brookins is a cast member of this fall’s Team GSP v. Team Koscheck season.
In addition to the UFC, Bellator has sued Brookins and his manager in the lawsuit. According to Bellator’s CEO, Brookins’ management team hid the fact that Brookins was going to be on The Ultimate Fighter.
Via MMA Junkie:
“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,” Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney today told MMAjunkie.com. “We find out afterward he was filming and fighting on ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ – that he made the show and was in the house.”
Prior to The Ultimate Fighter, Brookins was allowed to fight for another organization on two occasions. However, Bellator approved the fights outside of Bellator.
Payout Perspective:
Bellator claims that the UFC interfered with the contractual relationship Brookins had with Bellator by offering Brookins a spot in The Ultimate Fighter. In addition, Bellator claims that Brookins and his manager misrepresented that Brookins was hurt or unavailable to fight for Bellator in order to preserve himself for The Ultimate Fighter.
Brookins’ management states that Bellator verbally told Brookins that he was released from his contract.
This lawsuit is similar to the Tennesee Titans suing USC and Lane Kiffin when Kiffin hired Titans assistant coach Kennedy Pola. In that case, Titans head coach Jeff Fisher claims that he was not notified by Kiffin that Kiffin was pursuing Pola. It is unlikely that the UFC sought approval from Bellator to pursue Brookins once he made the show.
Bellator’s lawsuit comes just weeks after Zuffa, the parent company of the UFC sued Bellator. Coincidence? Bellator’s lawsuit will depend on whether it can be show that the UFC caused Brookins to break its contract with Bellator. Brookins’ contract with Bellator will be a key issue in this case. If this lawsuit proceeds, we might be able to learn more about the nature of fighter contracts. How long are fighter contracts? Is it a set number of fights or an annual contract? If Brookins was released from his contract, did it have to be in writing or was a verbal release sufficient? Are there penalties for breach specifically included in the contract? If so, does the fighter have to pay?
Ironically, Zuffa’s lawsuit against Bellator was based in part on the alleged taking of propriety information included in UFC fighter contracts.
Jason Cruz is a freelance writer and attorney licensed in Washington state and California (currently inactive). He holds a BA in History and JD from the University of Washington and a Masters in Journalism from the University of Southern California. A longtime MMA fan, he has written about the sport for various publications.
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and predict that Zuffa will not be liable, as they clearly ask in the standard TUF contract if a fighter is currently under contract with another professional MMA organization. If he had written “yes,” I highly doubt Zuffa would let him onto the show. If he wrote “no” and signed the contract, then fault lies with Brookins and possibly his management. It’s not like Zuffa can reasonably be expected to seek out every TUF contestant’s contract status, that onus should be on the contestants themselves. Looks like Bellator is trying to cause Zuffa a little headache, but they should realize this will be more of a waste of their own resources than Zuffa’s. We’ll see how both lawsuits pan out, but the reality is that Zuffa has better lawyers, more money to spend and can therefore fight it out in court far longer than Bellator.
A few other good reads about this:
http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/Bellator/article_6418.shtml
http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news?slug=ki-bellatorsuit081010
It does look pretty bad that two of Bellator’s fighters have fought multiple times outside the organization (Brookins hasn’t fought for Bellator since April 2009) without so much as a peep from Bellator, and then when a situation involves Zuffa they suddenly decide to sue.
Machiel Van: Thing is, that fighters from Bellator (not ones bound into tourneys) are often allowed to compete elsewhere, with key word being “ALLOWED”. So, fighters ask Bellator: Hey, I get this proposition to fight there and there and Bellator says: Yeah, you are free to go, we won’t use you in that term OR nah, we wanted you to fight for us that month.
There was no mention of Bellator granting permission for Brookins to fight in the “outside” bouts he took, and his manager states that Bellator did not oppose those bouts, as they hadn’t given Brookins a bout since April 2009. I agree that what you described SHOULD be how things work between fighter/promoter, but it doesn’t sound like the case here. Bellator will either be able to prove that their contract should’ve prevented Brookins from participating in TUF, or Brookins and his manager will be able to convince the court they were free and clear. We’ll see, I just think that Zuffa will not be liable, as they very clearly ask all potential TUF contestants about their contract status on the application. Onus on fighter.