Fighters express growing frustration with WSoF
In an detailed piece for BloodyElbow, John S. Nash alleges there is growing fighter and manager discontent with World Series of Fighting.
There is precious little real journalism in mixed martial arts, but one sterling exception is John S. Nash. In a detailed piece for Bloody Elbow, Nash alleges that a number of fighters, most notably Josh Burkman and the controversial Jacob Volkmann, have complained that the organization has not fulfilled contracted obligations. Nash alleges further that there are others, who wish to remain anonymous.
“It’s something you see small, rinky-dink shows doing,” quotes Nash from an anonymous source. “Promise a guy the moon and then once he’s signed tell him you don’t have the space or money to pay him what you said you’d pay him. They know the fighters aren’t going to fight them. None of them are rich enough to hire a lawyer and take it to court. They have bills to pay so they’re going to swallow their pride and take what they offer. And the promoters know this.”
“Ali and them can pretend they’re bending over backward to help these guys out by saying, ‘hey the fighters signed an agreement for the new amount so they must have been OK with it.’ The truth is they’re telling people one thing to get them to sign and then not delivering on their end of the deal.”
WSoF president Ray Sefo offered a statement.
“World Series of Fighting has unfortunately at times not been able to get all of our athletes fights at the due in part to scheduling windows from NBC Sports,” wrote Sefo. “Also, on a few occasions when a fighter has been injured, we’ve been unable to find an opponent at the last minute, so the non-injured fighter – again unfortunately – must wait. All promotions have these issues.
“As far as fighters agreeing to fight for less money, when we have a budget – as all companies must have – and we tell a fighter they are not scheduled on a card and must wait until a future event as the card is full and budget is met, certain fighters have agreed and asked to fight anyway, even if it’s for less money, and we have accommodated these requests. For this to happen, a fighter must sign an amendment to his agreement. Fighters always have the option to wait, or if World Series of Fighting has not given a fighter a fight in the time specified in their agreement, then the fighter may cancel the agreement and go compete for another promotion.”
Volkmann said he is so frustrated with the process that he believes it is impossible to make a living in the sport. Burkman wants to fulfill the three fights on his contract, and return to the UFC.
