MMA Universe

Yahoo! Sports is reporting that an arbitrator has ruled in favor of Top Rank Boxing in its fight to keep boxing star Nonito Donaire under contract. Donaire is currently the WBC and WBO Bantamweight champ.

Via Kevin Iole at Yahoo!:

Golden Boy signed Donaire after Donaire had declared that he was a free agent and available to sign with the promoter of his choice. Donaire filed suit in a Nevada court alleging that he is free of Top Rank, but Top Rank contends that is not the case. Petrocelli said Top Rank has yet to be served with Donaire’s Nevada lawsuit.

Top Rank signed Donaire to a three-year contract with a one-year option on June 26, 2008. But Donaire was on medical suspension for more than 300 days in the first year of the contract. Top Rank says there is a clause in its contract with Donaire that adds time onto the contract whenever a fighter is unable to perform because of suspension. That time clause is common in many fighters’ contracts.

As a result, Top Rank claims that its three-year contract thus runs into early June 2012 and that the one-year option, which it exercised, takes Donaire into June 2013.

The Fight Lawyer has a write-up on the breakup and a link to the legal papers.

Payout Perspective:

Nonito Donaire is the best Filipino fighter in the world not named Manny Pacquiao. He is a budding superstar in the lighter weight divisions of boxing and is a hot commodity. Golden Boy is in need of a young, fresh star and Donaire could be the next Filipino sensation to hit it big.

Taking a look at the Complaint, the issue deals with the Promotional Rights Agreement. Donaire asserts that the contract guaranteed that he would be offered three fights a year but he was only offered two, two years in a row. Top Rank claims that Donaire was injured for 300 days which extends the contract. However, Donaire claims that his medical records will show he was not hurt.

If the arbitration decision holds up, it will be interesting to see if Donaire will abide by the terms of the contract and how Top Rank will use Donaire.

Zuffa v. Bellator/Pavia Litigation: Bellator Asserts Claim Against Julian Gregorio for Defamation & Some Theory of Misappropriation Based on Alleged Leak to Zuffa

Following up on my coverage of Zuffa’s lawsuit against Bellator and Pavia — – a post with earlier links is here and here is my most recent post on the Court’s denial of Bellator’s motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction — on March 17, 2011, Bellator filed its answer to Zuffa’s complaint and asserted a third-party claim, i.e. a claim against a non-party, against Julian Gregorio who is allegedly a citizen of the State of California and allegedly may have been a former employee of MMA Associates, of which Ken Pavia is the alleged “Principal.”

At the outset, in its third-party complaint Bellator describes why its CEO, Bjorn Rebney, “requested from Pavia certain documents used by the UFC in connection with fighters.”

Specifically, Bellator alleges as follows:

In the summer of 2010 Bjorn Rebney determined to review the sufficiency of documents used by Bellator.  As part of that process he requested from Pavia certain documents used by the UFC in connection with fighters. At no time did Rebney request any document anticipated to contain trade secrets or information proprietary to Zuffa, LLC. Mr. Pavia requested confidentiality due to, as he put it, fear of retaliation by Zuffa for cooperating with Bellator. In any case, communications between the parties would be presumptively confidential.  Zuffa has a reputation for ruthlessly attempting to block competitors in the MMA field.

(emphasis added).

Bellator next alleges that Pavia did send the documents but that it never used the documents:

Pavia did, on a confidential basis, send certain documents to Bellator. However, those documents were not confidential and contained no proprietary information belonging to Zuffa.  The documents in question were sent on a confidential basis but were not confidential documents.  The format of the documents in question was changed from a PDF format to a Word format, but no Bellator representative substantively reviewed those documents as of the time of filing of the Complaint to which this Third Party Complaint is directed.  The documents supplied by MMA Associates were never utilized by Bellator in any way and in fact were not substantively reviewed by Bellator’s staff or by Mr. Rebney.

With respect to Mr. Gregorio, Bellator alleges (upon information and belief) that he was an employee of MMA Associates and that he allegedly “took privileged communications between the CEO of Bellator and the President of MMA Associates and, with the knowledge that he was not entitled to do so, transmitted same to representatives of Zuffa, LLC.”

Further, Bellator alleges upon information and belief that:

Gregorio informed representatives of Zuffa that Pavia and Bellator were conspiring to misappropriate Zuffa’s confidential information when this was untrue. This information was given either with knowing falsity or with reckless disregard of the truth.  Gregorio informed representatives of Zuffa that Bellator misappropriated trade secrets of Zuffa. This information was false and was either known to be false by Gregorio or was given in reckless disregard of the truth.

Bellator asserts claims against Gregorio for defamation and some theory of alleged violation of Bellator’s right to privacy and confidentiality.

Quite frankly, I don’t understand the second claim — perhaps it is something specific to California or Nevada (or maybe Bellator is asserting a claim for misappropriation), but it is not really spelled out.

With respect to confidentiality, the apparent (to me at least) alleged basis for some kind of confidentiality or privilege is that “Bjorn Rebney, the CEO of Bellator, is an attorney-at-law[,] Ken Pavia, the principal of MMA Associates, is a law school graduate and, at the time of the matter complained of, was believed in good faith by Rebney to be an attorney-at-law[,] and MMA Agents has on its staff at least one attorney-at-law.”There is, of course, an attorney client privilege, but I don’t see how it attaches under these alleged facts.  Certainly no explanation is provided.

Even so, I don’t understand why any communication between Rebney and Pavia would be privileged just because both went to law school.

While I know nothing about the third-party defendant, if he is in fact a resident of California (as alleged) my prediction is that we may see another jurisdictional motion.

Fight Lawyer

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Justin Klein is a partner of the law firm Satterlee Stephens Burke & Burke LLP in New York City where he concentrates his practice in commercial litigation and represents clients in the fight industry. He regularly addresses current legal issues that pertain to combat sports, including efforts to legalize MMA in New York, at his Fight Lawyer website. He is a licensed boxing manager with the New York State Athletic Commission as well as the founder and Chairman of the Board of the New York Mixed Martial Arts Initiative, a non-profit organization that gives inner city youth the opportunity to experience the emotional and physical benefits of martial arts training. Justin lives in New York City where he trains in jiu jitsu and boxing.

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The Ultimate Fighting Championship has officially announced the signing of former heavyweight boxing champion James “Lights Out” Toney to a multi-fight contract.

“LIGHTS OUT” IN THE OCTAGON™ – UFC® SIGNS TONEY

 

Las Vegas, NV (USA) – He’s one of the premier boxers of the last 25 years, a future Hall of Famer who has won world titles in three weight classes while taking on a Who’s Who of the sport, including fellow champions Evander Holyfield, John Ruiz, Hasim Rahman, Vassiliy Jirov, Roy Jones Jr., Mike McCallum, Iran Barkley, and Michael Nunn. But there is one more mountain left to climb for James “Lights Out” Toney, and that’s to show if he can defeat the mixed martial arts warriors of the UFC®.

 

So later this year, UFC President Dana White is prepared to give Toney his shot, signing the boxing superstar to a multi-fight contract this week to compete in the UFC.

 

“A lot of pro boxers have made a lot of noise about how they would do in mixed martial arts, but nobody on the level of a James Toney has been willing to back up his talk,” said White. “He’s a legend whose boxing record speaks for itself, and he’s a guy who I’ve got a lot of respect for. Now he’s got every intention of matching that success in MMA, and I think he’s got the right attitude – let’s see if he can do it.”

 

Owner of an amazing 72-6-3 (2 no contests) record that includes 44 wins by knockout, 41-year old James Toney is respected throughout the boxing world for his old-school approach to the fight game. For him, that means fighting anyone at anytime, and doing so by emphasizing all aspects of the sweet science.

 

31-2 as an amateur, Toney soon turned his sights to the pro game in 1988, and in 1991 he won his first world title at middleweight by knocking out unbeaten champion Michael Nunn in the 11th round. After six successful defenses, he moved up to 168 pounds and defeated Iran Barkley for the super middleweight championship in 1993, but he wasn’t done yet. After a stay at light heavyweight, Toney won the cruiserweight world title by defeating Vassiliy Jirov in 2003’s Fight of The Year, and his success continued at heavyweight, where he defeated Evander Holyfield, Dominick Guinn, and Fres Oquendo. In his most recent bout, on September 12, 2009, Toney – a two-time winner of the Boxing Writers Association of America’s Fighter of the Year award – halted Matthew Greer in two rounds.

 

Current UFC fighters Marcus Davis, Chris Lytle and Alessio Sakara have competed as professional boxers in the past, but with today’s announcement, Toney becomes the most accomplished boxing veteran to ever compete in the Octagon™.

 

An opponent and date for Toney’s UFC debut has not been determined, and will be announced at a later date.

Payout Perspective:

What are the prospects of this deal?

The upside: The UFC is going to make big bank on this fight and it’s going to draw a lot of attention to the sport of MMA. It may give the UFC a shot to demonstrate it’s legitimacy; throwing Toney into the cage with someone, like Cain Velasquez, that will destroy him could send a significant message to the sports world. Moreover, the amount of interest his fight(s) will draw provides a great opportunity to showcase some of the UFC’s other talent.

The downside: Toney has a punchers chance and could win his first fight; at which point MMA would be universally dismissed by many people. It could also be a lose-lose situation for the UFC on the legitimacy front: even if Toney loses, most will chalk it up to him being a 41 year-old over-the-hill former champion that was run out of boxing. Lastly, one should question whether the UFC really needs Toney. They’ve done very well without this type of freak show fight. So, why start now?

Steven Marrocco of MMAWeekly sheds some interesting light on the fighting and contract status of Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion Alistair Overeem:

In January, the promotion secured Overeem to a one-year, three-fight deal, obligating him to a return in lieu of an informal talent-sharing agreement with K-1 that saw him snag the title in November 2007.

 

Overeem, who was forced to pull out of two scheduled Strikeforce events in June and August with a serious hand injury, is scheduled to appear against Kazuyuki Fujita at K-1 Dynamite on New Year’s Eve – his fifth K-1 fight in 2009 – and is planning a sixth in late March/early April 2010.

 

That was grim news to those expecting a showdown between Overeem and Fedor Emelianenko under the CBS eye in April. More confounding was that it was Overeem asking to fight the Russian after sacking James Thompson at Dream 12.

 

“Alistair Overeem wants to fight Fedor in April 2010,” the Dutchman said after the Oct. 25 fight. “So write that down.”

 

And while Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker told MMAWeekly.com he would invite the champion to participate on the promotion’s second CBS card in April, his manager said the K-1 opportunity – the final fight on his contract with the Japanese promotion – is too good to pass up.

 

“I never said he wasn’t fighting in April,” Overeem manager Bas Boon told MMAWeekly.com. “What I said was there will be a fight by the end of March or April in K-1, and actually, he did very well in K-1 and he’s got an extremely good contract. Commercial-wise, it’s better for him, and we agreed to this already on K-1, that we will do that fight. After that fight, he will fight in Strikeforce. Two, three times, whatever is available in May, June, July, we don’t care.”

 

Boon said Overeem could make a late April date if he wasn’t injured, but doubted Coker would agree to promote a fight under those circumstances. He said the hand injuries extended the time on his Strikeforce contract, but did not say for how long.

 

For now, it was time to strike when the iron was hot.

 

“(Golden Glory) has a 10-year relationship with Alistair, and we told him that this is a better way to work for him,” said Boon. “Think about it, man, he’s broadcast in 150 countries (on K-1). Right now, he’s got more sponsors than he ever had before. In his own country, he had a crazy rating during the Grand Prix, but also on EuroSport and also in Thailand. And this is where the UFC isn’t even broadcast. UFC is not even broadcast in Europe. Nobody knows about the UFC. Semmy Schilt and Alistair Overeem are gods there. You’re talking about a continent with 280 million people.

 

“(American fans) have to understand, man, to fight Badr Hari, Remy Bonjasky, Peter Aerts, Texeira, and again, Badr Hari, these are the top strikers in the world. If there would be any Americans wanting to win $400,000 or $500,000 in U.S., which is big money, why are they not there? Why are they not in K-1?”

Payout Perspective:

Herein lies the issue with non-exclusive contracts: not only does Strikeforce have to compete for fighters entering the entertainment business, but it’s also got to compete for the time and booking of its own fighters with other organizations. For as much as the contract type helps the organization secure new talent, it’s also managed to put two of Strikeforce’s divisions on hold for the better part of the last two years.

It’s tough to fault Overeem for taking the money and the exposure in Europe; the latter of which might really pay off for M-1 if and when it comes time to promote a Fedor vs. Overeem fight internationally.

However, given that Overeem only signed a one-year, three-fight contract —  and that it has already been extended — you have to wonder for how many more fights he’ll remain in the organization. Depending on the type of extension that has already been applied to his contract, it’s conceivable that he could leave Strikeforce without defending the belt against Fedor. Worse still, he could beat Fedor and then walk – leaving Strikeforce in a very bad position.

Strikeforce has announced the signing of former WWE Superstar Bobby Lashley has signed a multi-fight contract, and the heavyweight will make his debut in the New Year on a January 30th fight card.

FORMER WWE CHAMPION AND UNDEFEATED MMA HEAVYWEIGHT

BOBBY LASHLEY TO MAKE STRIKEFORCE DEBUT ON JANUARY 30

 

NEW YORK (December 10, 2009)-Former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) heavyweight champion and undefeated mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter has signed a multi-year agreement with STRIKEFORCE and will make his debut for the world championship MMA promotion at BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida on Saturday, January 30.

 

The 6 foot 3 inch, 250 pound Lashley, also a former collegiate wrestling star for Missouri Valley College and member of The United States Army, will face an opponent that has not yet been determined during the live, SHOWTIME® telecast of STRIKEFORCE: Miami, the historic, first-ever STRIKEFORCE event in the state of Florida.

Payout Perspective:

Strikeforce is making quite the power move in MMA right now; making big splashes in the free agent market with the likes of Dan Henderson, Melvin Manhoef, and Bobby Lashley all signing in recent days.

Now the question is, can the organization capitalize on all of this talent? The deals with Showtime and CBS give Strikeforce a solid distribution platform, but ultimately it’s going to be the message communicated through PR and marketing channels that determines how successful they’ll be in the future. What is the identity of Strikeforce? What will the brand come to stand for? How will it differentiate itself from the UFC and matter to the fans?

Moreover, I think the question needs to be asked, should the UFC have signed Henderson and Lashley?

The level of interest that heavyweights generate is, alone, enough to make this a valid question (not to mention the fact that Lashley brings some cross-over appeal from the WWE – albeit not nearly as much as Lesnar). In this situation it might have been wise to pay him enough that he stops with TNA, and then bring him along slowly. The risk, of course, is that public begins to confuse pro wrestling with MMA as yet another former WWE star crosses the pond.

The issue of Henderson is probably less important. He’s an excellent fighter, but competing in the middleweight and lightweight divisions where he wasn’t likely to be a title holder. In fact, he might have been more a detriment to those divisions.

Loretta Hunt of Sherdog details the current talk surrounding newly-signed Strikeforce fighter, Dan Henderson, and when he’ll step into the cage for the promotion:

Henderson could debut for Strikeforce as early as April on a tentatively planned CBS event, Sherdog.com has learned, and might face the promotion’s middleweight champion, Jake Shields, right out of the gate. Henderson, who also fights at light heavyweight, is being eyed for matchups against Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi and the world’s No. 1 heavyweight, Fedor Emelianenko, said a source with knowledge of the deal. 

Payout Perspective:

There are those that will continue to wonder whether Dan Henderson might still be the one capable of beating Anderson Silva, and it’s unfortunate that we may never know. However, from an MMA perspective, it’s probably better that he signed with Strikeforce. 

Henderson adds a lot of value to Strikeforce, because he helps to shore up some of their thiner divisions. His addition makes Strikeforce stronger and more competitive – and competition is a great thing in MMA.

Had he stayed in the UFC, he wouldn’t have made as big of an impact on the sport as w hole. Sure, he may have fought Anderson again – maybe he even wins that fight – but in all likelihood he loses. Then he simply becomes another Rich Franklin to the UFC; someone who wrecks a division because he can beat most of the contenders, but isn’t good enough to touch the champ.

Rampage Jackson has publicly admitted he will be returning to the Octagon in order to finish his contract with the UFC.

Bloodyelbow has the latest straight from Rampage’s blog:

Now, I wanted to let my fans know that I’m going to come back to the UFC & finish my contract. Not because the haters are talking shit about me being scared of Rashad or Titties or anybody else. I’m coming back for my fans & to shut Rashad’s mouth up & shut Dana’s mouth up. Then after that I’m going back to doing movies & I might do a boxing match once a year just to stay in shape. Hate on dis!

Payout Perspective:

It’s more or less what everyone expected, and certainly a piece of much needed good news for the UFC. Furthermore, if you look at the history of the UFC’s relationship with its fighters, it’s not a stretch to imagine that Dana White and Rampage could patch things to the point that Rampage decides he’d like to continue fighting beyond his current contract.

The news is pretty fresh, and we don’t really know a lot at this point, but it’s conceivable that Rampage vs. Evans could help to co-headline the GSP fight in March (which would essentially give the organization it’s first solid, top-end card in the span of 6 months.

MMAPayout previously discussed the basic facts surrounding the Emelianenko v. Affliction litigation and has now learned that Affliction filed what is known in federal court as a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss the case on the ground that Emelianenko and M-1 (hereinafter Fedor) have failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, basically arguing that even if the court looks at all the facts in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs, Fedor has still not made a legitimate case. 

Affliction’s motion to dismiss in essence argues that the lawsuit is frivolous.   In the words of Affliction’s Tom Atencio: 

“Affliction landed a serious blow to the Fedor and M-1 lawsuit by filing a motion to dismiss in federal court in response to the Russians’ complaint only eight days after being served. . . . The counter by Affliction goes to show Affliction does not intend to rollover and be extorted by the Russian visitors and how frivolous and meritless Affliction considers the allegations of their complaint.”

Before examining the nature of Affliction’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, it’s worth providing a basic analysis of Fedor’s allegations.

Although the complaint itself is quite complex, it actually can be easily summarized in lay terms.  Fedor had a three-fight contract with Affliction, and fought two of the three fights, and agreed to fight Josh Barnett to close the contract.  Barnett failed a steroids test, Affliction had discussions with prospective replacements for Barnett (e.g., Vitor Belfort and Brett Rogers) but ultimately reached an agreement with UFC that would permit Affliction to once again sponsor UFC fighters so long as it agreed to exit the promotion game.

All contracts have what is called an implied covenant of good faith, and Fedor argues that Affliction, instead of satisfying its obligation of booking a third fight for Fedor by finding a suitable replacement for Barnett, chose the path of least resistance by returning to UFC and cancelling the third show altogether, leaving the contracts with Fedor unsatisfied.

The substantive issues in the lawsuit are interesting: in contract law there is what’s known as the excuse of impossibility, and here the argument would be that Barnett’s failing the steroids test rendered impossible the satisfaction of Affliction’s obligations on the Fedor contracts, with Fedor arguing that Barnett’s negative drug test was used as a mere pretext to allow Affliction to exit the promotion end of MMA and stiff Fedor.

But then we come to Affliction’s motion to dismiss, which throws a monkey wrench into the entire substantive analysis.  You see, Fedor argues that Affliction breached its contracts by cancelling Affliction: Trilogy and reaching agreement with UFC in July 2009. 

Affliction’s motion to dismiss, however, points to the language of the contracts, which calls for termination of the agreements on either (i) March 31, 2009; or (ii) the conclusion of the third fight, with the contracts specifically stating that they terminate upon the earlier of the two dates.  Since there was no third fight, the earlier date was March 31, 2009, and Affliction argues in its motion to dismiss that it cannot be alleged to have breached a contract in July 2009 that had expired four months earlier.

Although this is an attractive argument, there are many complexities to the suit, including issues of equity (i.e., fairness) in which Fedor could conceivably recover foreseeable damages suffered by his reasonably relying upon promises made by Affliction, so I do not expect this motion to dismiss to entirely end the matter.

Moreover, the language Afflcition points to in its motion to dismiss has wriggle room that could be favorable to Fedor: the contract cancels on the eariler of the two dates “unless the term of the promotion agreement or any extension thereto is . . . extended further pursuant to this Agreement or pursuant to a separate writing . . . .”  I would expect some — perhaps very creative — arguments from Fedor that indeed the contract term had extended either through explicit writing, oral agreement, or even something known in contract law as course of conduct of the parties.

Stay tuned for an examination of Fedor’s upcoming response to Affliction’s motion to dismiss Emelianenko v. Affliction.

So MMAJunkie reported that Dana White claimed negotiations with Dan Henderson had reached a standstill due to Henderson’s wanting to be the highest paid fighter in the UFC:

“We’re at a stalemate right now,” White said. “The money that [Henderson] is asking for would make him by far the highest-paid guy in the UFC.”

White initially told Yahoo! Sports less than a week ago that his negotiations with Henderson had failed and that “Hollywood” was close to signing with Strikeforce. Henderson then refuted those claims with several media outlets, insisting his contact with Strikeforce had simply been introductory in nature.

Loretta Hunt of Sherdog.com then reported that Henderson’s camp denied that Henderson was demanding that kind of money during negotiations:

Aaron Crecy, Henderson’s business partner and manager who has been privy to all offers circulated between the two parties, reiterated similar sentiments regarding White’s contract claims.

“Contracts are confidential, so that statement’s impossible to prove or disprove,” said Crecy. “However, we have done our due diligence. We certainly don’t believe that to be the case. Dan understands and we have a certain belief on where he stands in the hierarchy. Certainly there are champions and former UFC champions that deserve to be paid more than Dan.”

Payout Perspective:

MMAPayout has discussed why Dan Henderson’s negotiating tactics were unlikely to lead to a lucrative new contract with UFC, despite his being at least temporarily the hottest free agent in Mixed Martial Arts.

Now we’re receiving seemingly contradictory reports relating to the contract negotiations themselves: Dana White makes the claim that Henderson wants to be “by far” the highest paid fighter in UFC, and Henderson’s camp dismisses it as the absurdity it would seem to be.

I’m not certain that the claims are entirely inconsistent.  What we’re hearing is that the sticking point in the negotiations is Henderson’s demand for a seven figure signing bonus, as Henderson seems to believe (reasonably) that this is his last chance to make big money in the business.

I believe it’s possible that Henderson is requesting the largest signing bonus in UFC, which, in combination with his base pay, could from one perspective make him the highest paid fighter in UFC.  This point of view, however, discounts the millions of dollars made by fighters whose contracts are structured to provide them shares of ppv revenue (providing the ppv reaches a certain number of buys).

Even if Henderson were to be given a share of ppv revenue, he’s never proven to be a huge draw, and I’d say it’s impossible that, if granted, his demands would make him UFC’s highest paid fighter.  I’m not even going to research this one, I’ll tell you who it is in 2009 (and probably going forward into the future): Brock Lesnar.

Unfortunately by stating early in negotiations that he had no desire to work for Strikeforce, Henderson gave away all leverage in his negotiations with UFC, and Dana White seems to believe Henderson will eventually come around and will agree to what the UFC is offering him, with maybe a small concession from the promotional juggernaut to let Dan save face.

And I’d bet more money than I’d be willing to place — with even odds – on Lyoto Machida at UFC 104 that Dana White is 100% correct.

First came the news that Dan Henderson is a free agent.

Then Dan Henderson let it be known he didn’t want to fight for anyone but the UFC.

That negotiating tactic left many scratching their heads, but now FightersOnlyMagazine.co.uk is reporting that Henderson associate Aaron Crecy wishes to make clear that Henderson is nowhere close to a deal with Strikerforce.

I’m not sure how this is supposed to get Henderson a better offer from UFC, which I still assume is his goal, although I guess if he really is Strikeforce bound, it makes for hardball negotiating.

I just don’t see Dan Henderson ever going to Strikeforce, just as Tito Ortiz never had any intention of fighting for (remember them?) EliteXC.

Loretta Hunt of Sherdog.com is reporting that Strikeforce has signed light heavyweight prospect “King” Mo Lawal to a multi-fight deal with the anticipation that he could fight as early as December:

The deal allows the undefeated Lawal, a NCAA Div. 1 All-American wrestling champion for Oklahoma State in 2003 and decorated international competitor, to continue competing on the Japanese circuit. There, the 28-year-old heavyweight has made a name for himself with four straight victories in the Sengoku Raiden Championship (formerly Sengoku) over the last year. Three of those wins have come by stoppage from strikes, while Lawal’s only decision came after he tore his ACL in the first round of his match with Ryo Kawamura at Sengoku “Seventh Battle” last March.

Payout Perspective:

Lawal is a great prospect: he’s got the wrestling pedigree, fighting instincts, athleticism, and charisma to be a successful fighter sometime into the future.

However, the deal is most interesting in the context of the battle that Strikeforce and the UFC are currently waging for talent. Not only is Lawal a possible star in the making, but he’s already got a name in Japan. That bodes well for the Strikeforce-Dream partnership, and hurts the UFC as they look to capture some of the floundering Japanese market.

Why did Lawal choose Strikeforce? I suspect because of the non-exclusivity of the contract. The deal gives him the flexibility to make more money in Japan than he’d probably get from either of the big promotions in North America, while still fighting in North America, on occassion, in order to build his name there.