Junior dos Santos announced via twitter that he has left Ed Soares and has hired new representation. The change came as a surprise to Soares as dos Santos has been on a roll this year.
Soares talked about the separation via Tatame (h/t 5th Round):
“He wants to go a different way. If that’s how he feels, God bless him on his journey.”
“To tell you the truth, he hasn’t said why. I asked him, but he wasn’t much specific,” Soares added.” The only thing he told me was that the decision has been made. What am I supposed to say? If the guy wants to go another direction, who am I to tell him otherwise? I was his manager, not his father.”
Soares also represents many of the fighters under Team Black House including Lyoto Machida and Anderson Silva.
Payout Perspective:
An interesting move by dos Santos who is on a roll in the UFC. Not only is he scheduled to challenge for the UFC Heavyweight title this fall, but he was the featured coach on The Ultimate Fighter. With this much momentum, a change in management seems unusual. It seems unlikely that he was neglected by Soares or that he was not receiving enough sponsorship opportunities. While Soares continues to have a venerable stable, losing dos Santos is a blow. It will be interesting to see how this management change affects his relationship with Team Blackhouse.
We have seen GSP and Frankie Edgar terminate their agent after much success. Here, dos Santos is doing the same. While nothing particular was mentioned for the reason for the change, it will be interesting to see what new management means for dos Santos.
If he’s not with Ed Soares would that mean that he also stopped training at Ed Soares’ Blackhouse Gym? I looked up their website, and Junior is not listed as one of their fighters, I don’t know if he was on the website before, though.
Michael,
A good question. This will be JDS’ most important training camp and I would think you’d want to continue doing what’s been successful. I know he’s worked with Mark Munoz too. But he also works with Blackhouse as well.
On twitter JDS says he’s still a part of Team NOG.
‘Blackhouse’ is not a training ‘team’ per se. They all make their own training arrangements. Machida trains with his family, Aldo trains at Nova Uniao, and Anderson, Junior and the Nogs all train at the Nogs gym. The only time they train at the official ‘Blackhouse gym’ is when they are in the United States, which is not all that often.
I doubt Junior has severed his ties with the Nogs. He’s still probably training with them just like he has always done.
I think Jr. has made a huge mistake.Team Black House is without a doubt the most influential management team out there.
“Soares also represents many of the fighters under Team Black House including Lyoto Machida and Anderson Silva.”
You have to fix this ASAP. Soares and his partner represents EVERY fighter under Black House because blackhouse is not a team, it’s the name of the gym’s owned by Soares/Joinha in the US, most specific in Los Angeles and San Diego.
Read this: http://www.blackhousemma.com/about
“More than a group of fighters, Black House is a private facility where the Tough Media family can converge and train. The individuals that make up the Tough Media family have their own teams, but Black House provides a place for those teams to meet when in Los Angeles.”
JDS’s team is “Minotauro Team”. As knowledgeable as you’re you shouldn’t make such mistake.