Just a few days after Strikeforce HW champ Alistair Overeem was released by Strikeforce’s parent company Zuffa, MMA legend Fedor Emelianenko and three additional teammates of Overeem from the famed Golden Glory camp (Marloes Coenen, Valentijn Overeem, & John Olav Einemo) were all released.
Zuffa released Fedor Emelianenko after losing three fights in a row during his short stint under the Strikeforce banner. Fedor Emelianenko and Alistair Overeem were the two heavy favorites by both the media and fans before the Strikeforce HW Grand Prix commenced earlier this year. A few months later after Zuffa purchased Strikeforce, both fighters have been released from the promotion. After Emelianenko made his Strikeforce debut on CBS against Brett Rogers and won in exciting fashion, he lost his next three fights to Fabricio Werdum (Triangle Armbar), Antonio Silva (TKO Doctor Stoppage), and most recently against Dan Henderson (TKO Punches). Fedor went 1-3 in Strikeforce while earning a reported $1.5M per bout ($300,000 publically reported to Fedor, $1.2M to M-1 as a consulting fee).
The release was expected by many in the industry, considering the high price tag Fedor brought to the table and considering that his participation in the event forced Zuffa to co-promote the event with M-1 Global, who Zuffa has grown tiresome of after years of several failed negotiations to get Fedor into the UFC. Although the UFC claims that they have released Fedor from Strikeforce, M-1 Global’s Evgeni Kogan claims that Fedor’s contract “is with Showtime” and “doesn’t need Strikeforce to fight on Showtime”.
Fedor’s counterpart that evening also has a reported hefty price tag. Dan Henderson’s fight against Fedor was the last on his Strikeforce contract, and sources reported that he was making nearly $800,000 per bout, which meant that between Fedor and Henderson, they raked in nearly $2.3M in salary that evening. After the event that night, Strikeforce only had three champs under contract – Middleweight champ Jacare, Lightweight champ Gilbert Melendez, and Female Bantamweight Champ Miesha Tate. Heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem, Light Heavyweight champ Dan Henderson, Welterweight champ Nick Diaz, and female 145lbs champ Cris Cyborg Santos have all either left Strikeforce for the UFC or are currently free agents. After Dan Henderson’s big victory, it is expected that the UFC will be in negotiations to get the former Strikeforce LHW champ in the UFC roster as soon as possible, where he is rumored to take on an upper tier LHW where he could be one win away from a title shot or possibly take an immediate title shot. Jon Jones, Lyoto Machida, Rashad Evans, and Phil Davis have recently come up in dialog as potential opponents if Henderson rejoins the company he walked away from last year. Henderson’s Clinch Gear brand was banned from the UFC before he signed with Strikeforce. Talks between both parties went on for months, trying to agree on a new contract and settle the sponsor fee imposed by the UFC, forcing the aging MMA legend to sign the lucrative contract with Strikeforce. The move allowed Clinch Gear to sponsor Fedor and fighters from several promotions outside of the UFC.
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Marloes Coenen (19-5) – the former Strikeforce 135lbs champion – was cut after losing her title on Saturday night’s Strikeforce: Fedor vs Henderson’s co-main event to current champ Miesha Tate via Arm-Triangle-Choke in the 4th round. After fighting Cyborg Santos and then defeating Sarah Kaufman in a dramatic come-from-behind bout to become the champ, Coenen became one of the bigger names in the Strikeforce female roster. Her release was considered by most in the MMA industry as shocking considering that she was the champ, though Dana White’s negative remarks towards women’s MMA paints a grim future for the division. Coenen accumulated a 3-2 record in Strikeforce before being released.
Alistair Overeem’s older brother – Valentijn Overeem (29-26) – was part of the Strikeforce HW GP reserve bouts, where he first took on K-1 veteran Ray Sefo and easily defeated him via Neck Crank during the Strikeforce: Fedor vs Silva event, which was televised on Showtime. In the next round, he was defeated by Chad Griggs via submission (punches) in the first round during the undercard of the Strikeforce: Overeem vs Werdum bout just a few weeks ago. He had a 1-1 record in Strikeforce before he was released.
John Olav Einemo ( 6-2) was on a 5 year hiatus before being signed by the UFC to take on Shane Carwin at UFC 131. Due to an injury to Shane Carwin, Einemo instead fought HW prospect Dave Herman, which he lost by TKO (punches) in the second round. Einemo had a record of 0-1 in the UFC before being released.
Zuffa was able to cut Coenen, Valentijn, and Einemo because the standard fighter contract gives Zuffa the ability to cut any fighter coming off a loss. The only remaining member of Golden Glory left in Zuffa is Sergei Kharitonov, who is already schedule to fight in September against Josh Barnett as part of the Strikeforce HW Grandprix. Kharitonov is coming off an impressive win over Andrei Arlovski in the first round so he is still contracted to fight, though sources tell MMAPayout that if Kharitonov participates in the Ultimate Glory event scheduled for October in Moscow or if he loses, he will also be cut.
Alistair Overeem was coming off a win over Fabricio Werdum when he was released, though sources have informed MMAPayout that Zuffa was able to do so because they claim Overeem refused to fight on September, which would indicate a breach of contract and an immediate release. Overeem and the Golden Glory camp stated that Overeem had multiple injuries and would not be able to compete in September, though he is scheduled to appear in the same October Ultimate Glory event in Moscow with fellow camp member Kharitonov. The camp even released the latest episode of “The Reem” on the day of the release, which documents doctor visits revealing toe and rib injuries, trying to prove that a breach of contract did not take place.
Dana White told MMAFighting that the release of the Golden Glory members was due to the way the camp does business:
“This is actually a pretty simple explanation,” he said. “If you look back throughout history, we haven’t had any Golden Glory guys fight with us since Semmy Schilt, right? And the reason is we have very different business practices. It’s tough to do business with them. The bottom line is the way they do business is, you have to pay them, not the fighters. We don’t work that way. It’s not the way we do business. It’s not how it works in the United States with the athletic commissions. You don’t pay the managers and the managers pay the fighters. You pay the fighters and the fighters pay the managers.”
Regarding the pay situation, Marloes Coenen informed Josh Gross of ESPN that “she wants Golden Glory to handle payments because of tax purposes” and that “She’s paid direct and knows what she makes”. Others have stated that due to tax laws in different countries, this type of arrangement is necessary to do business.
According to our sources regarding Zuffa’s perspective, the items listed below were the reasons specified as to why the UFC cut ties with the camp and their fighters:
- Having to go through the camp as a managing group and pay them instead of the fighters directly
- Reports that Golden Glory wanted more money to be able to fight in September
- Overeem publicly stating that he was going to quit MMA and box Vitali Klitschko, not having enough fights under contract for Overeem to complete the Strikeforce HW Grandprix & potentially being able to hold the belt hostage to either get a lucrative UFC deal or get a significant bump in pay
- Appearing on a United Glory poster for the October Moscow event after turning down the September event due to injury along with an intent of United Glory to hold events here in the States within the next year
The other factor in all this is that Strikeforce’s deal with Showtime is up around February of 2012, so both the UFC and Showtime are trying to finish the GP by that time. October was the original date for the next event, but due to scheduling conflicts between Showtime and Zuffa, the event had to be moved to September. There is a strong possibility that Showtime will not renew the Strikeforce contract when it’s up next year in February/March. At that point Showtime can either replace the promotion with another or put their full effort into boxing. It is also expected that around that time Strikeforce could be be absorbed by the UFC, as most of their higher profile fighters are already making their way into the UFC.
The longest sentence ever:
According to our sources regarding Zuffa’s perspective, having to go through the camp as managers and paying them instead of the fighters directly, reports that Golden Glory wanted more money to be able to fight in September, Overeem publicly stating that he was going to quit MMA and box Vitali Klitschko, not having enough fights under contract for Overeem to complete the Strikeforce HW Grandprix & potentially being able to hold the belt hostage to either get a lucrative UFC deal or get a significant bump in pay, and appearing on a United Glory poster for the October Moscow event after turning down the September event due to injury along with an intent of United Glory to hold events here in the States within the next year were more than enough reasons for the UFC to cut ties with the camp and the fighter’s that it manages.
Mils:
I agree!!! I meant to put that in a list. Thanks for the heads up.
All things considered, these moves make the most possible sense for Zuffa. They simply are not in the business of bleeding money especially if there is no potential payback. Dana’s gravestone is a reminder to any potential business entrants into the MMA space.
Zuffa’s hopes of getting the “coveted” network deal in my opinion is pretty much dead on the water. As evident by the drop in PPV sales (regardless of star caliber cards) and the drop in gates (Toronto being the exception this year), I think it is safe to say that 2010 was the ceiling for MMA for the foreseeable future. Dismal ratings on Spike, Versus, etc, has put to rest the rumor that MMA would somehow transpose into a major league sport.
In the short term, we should see Zuffa continue to trim the fat. Those that wish to do business with them can do so but under Zuffa guidelines. Gone are the days of 500K contracts for overweight boxers.
What now? I think we either have to a) wait for a new star to emerge ala Brock Lesnar, b) wait for the next peak cycle c) watch closely as the UFC continue to diversify their business model to see where untapped revenues are going to be sourced.
mmaguru:
I think what you will see is that promotions like ProElite, Bellator, and others (if they can find a way to make some money and not go under) will get bigger. The UFC has always grown after they absorbed a new promotion with talent and stars ready to promote. Now that Strikeforce is gone, there is no promotion out there they can do that, but it could be the case again down the line.
I think the scenario you mention is why the UFC is focusing so much on the international markets. If they can establish another Canada somewhere else, it would be huge for them. The problem is that it hasn’t happened yet. It will also be interesting to see how Canada will reach to the UFC when GSP decides not to fight anymore.