Bellator MMA files lawsuit against Rampage

Bellator MMA has filed a lawsuit today in New Jersey against Quentin “Rampage” Jackson for breach of contract. The organization is also seeking an injunction to prevent Jackson from appearing in the UFC.

Jackson is scheduled to fight at UFC 186 against Fabio Maldonado on April 24^th. It appears that today’s lawsuit and request for an injunction will seek to preclude Jackson from appearing on that card unless something can be worked out between Bellator, Jackson and likely the UFC.

Bellator issued the following release:

Today, Bellator MMA was compelled to go to court to stop Quinton “Rampage” Jackson from fighting in an April 25th bout promoted by Bellator’s competitor, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).  Jackson, who has completed only three fights of his exclusive six-fight contract with Bellator, is barred by contract from fighting for any promoter other than Bellator. Our lawsuit for an injunction and related relief – filed in the Chancery Division of the Superior Court in Burlington County, New Jersey – will compel Jackson to honor his contractual agreement.   We look forward to having one of our MMA stars fighting for Bellator again.

This lawsuit had been brewing for a while after Jackson left the Viacom-owned company late last year and indicated that he had conferred with UFC lawyers and “an outside law firm” to determine if he could legitimately leave Bellator. Jackson’s story is that Bellator did not live up to his Bellator contract, Jackson gave Bellator time to cure the issues he had, but the company did not satisfy Jackson’s concerns so he decided to leave.  What may be an interesting detail here is that Jackson’s management views the contract he signed with Bellator (under Bjorn Rebney) as an entertainment contract rather than a pure sports contract.  This may come into play, as well as the fact that the contract was signed in California.  But that is speculation at this point.

Although Bellator MMA is headquartered in Irvine, California and Jackson lives in Irvine, the lawsuit is filed in New Jersey.

As you recall, Bellator prevailed against Eddie Alvarez when Alvarez sought an injunction against the organization in their contractual dispute. The lawsuit was venued in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey.

Payout Perspective:

Timing is everything when filing lawsuits as we recently wrote about. It was clear that there was going to be a legal issue when Jackson left Bellator to sign with the UFC. The timing of the filing and injunction comes close to UFC 186 and might mean that Jackson will be pulled from the card. The interesting issue here is that the UFC will be implicated here and its clear based on its actions that it thinks it had solid legal grounds to sign Rampage and actively promote him for his fight.

MMA Payout will keep you posted.