Gegard Mousasi is a free man.
At some point after the previous Bellator middleweight champion slammed the PFL, calling it “the worst group” and threatening them with authorized motion, the promotion’s head of fighter operations, Mike Kogan, confirmed that Mousasi has been launched from his contract.
“Bellator has launched Gegard Mousasi from his settlement,” Kogan wrote. “We want him all the perfect combating in his subsequent chapter.”
Whereas Mousasi has not but commented on the state of affairs, his supervisor, Nima Safapour of Moments Administration, referred to the discharge as “alleged” and known as out the promotion for not standing by their “fighter first” mantra.
“We is not going to touch upon the deserves of the alleged launch presently for apparent causes,” Safapour mentioned in a written assertion offered to MMA Junkie. “Nonetheless, we consider there’s a larger lesson right here that our group ought to pay shut consideration to. For a corporation that repeatedly claims to be ‘fighter first,’ we now actually see how PFL treats their fighters, particularly their legends.”
Gegard Mousasi’s Threats of Authorized motion draw a response from pFL founder Donn Davis
Gegard Mousasi has not competed since a unanimous resolution loss to Fabian Edwards in Could 2023. 11 months prior, he surrendered his Bellator belt to Johnny Eblen. Following the PFL’s acquisition of the promotion late final 12 months, Mousasi has vented his frustration over being shelved, accusing the PFL of refusing to honor his contract by asking him to take a pay minimize.
“They mentioned that the quantity [of money I get paid], we don’t need to minimize you, it’s a lot, that it’s higher for you, I don’t know, look some other place or do one thing else,” Mousasi mentioned Wednesday on The MMA Hour.
“At this second, I’m like, hear, if somebody doesn’t need me, I’m like, ‘F*ck it. Let’s go.’ However my crew round me is like, ‘F*ck it, we’ll sue them.’ If it was as much as me, I’d simply go, however I don’t know. We’ll see. The crew round me isn’t that completely happy. So I feel there may be going to be authorized motion towards them.“
Throughout a current look on the Weighing In podcast with ‘Massive’ John McCarthy and Josh Thomson, PFL founder Donn Davis disputed Mousasi’s declare, suggesting that whereas they plan to honor each Bellator contract, they will’t assure each fighter will get precisely what they’re asking for.
“Often we’ll have a fighter grumble,” Davis mentioned. “It’s one among 205 (fighters we acquired from Bellator). You count on 5 to 10 p.c points on any deal. You possibly can’t be good. You might be 90 to 95 p.c. We’ve had a handful of individuals say, ‘Oh, I want it went this fashion, I want it went that method.’ I’m delighted. I’m very, very pleased with how we handled our fighters.
“How we deal with our workers. Most of all, the product. We simply accomplished our second (Bellator present) in Paris, which was superior. We didn’t sit on this for six months. We didn’t take a 12 months off. We didn’t lay off 100 fighters. All of the stuff that at all times occurs in all acquisitions. So I simply couldn’t be extra proud.
“I’ll say two issues: One, what I’m tremendous pleased with is the market, and anybody you speak to – fighters, enterprise companions, media, mangers – we’re direct, truthful and cheap. one hundred pc. That’s my 35 years in enterprise. That’s the tradition we’ve constructed right here. So I’ll say, with out commenting out of respect on particular person negotiations and specifics conditions – we’re direct, truthful and cheap with everyone that we cope with.
“Will everyone’s contract be honored? In fact. Do some folks have completely different concepts of what works and what doesn’t work? Certain. However we’re truthful and cheap with everyone. Will all 205 fighters (from Bellator) have the whole lot fall the way in which they need? No.”
