“(Mitrione) is a great guy,” Kawa said. “He just doesn’t understand how it should get done, and I didn’t get the chance to sit down and operate with him the way I normally would with anybody else.”

Kawa said Mitrione hired him to negotiate fight contracts and sponsorships four weeks prior to UFC 119. But there was also an agreement that a member of Mitrione’s family would be in charge of sponsorships for the fight. That changed not long after the ink dried on the new deal.

“His family member calls me three weeks out from the fight and says, ‘Dude, I’ve got absolutely nothing going on,’ and he asked me if I had anything going on. I said, ‘I’ve got it.’”

“The issue is when he did a deal with [Hitman], they restricted him on doing certain things, and it handcuffed me at first. [Hitman] turned down sponsorships that I’ve done before and gotten permission to do. Sponsors started shying away. No big deal. I still found other things and still got some things done, and I got him $5,000.”

“I never told his wife that anything was none of her business. I would never speak that way to anybody’s wife. I might tell the fighter it’s none of their business because it really isn’t if they don’t want it to be.”

“If a wife calls me or a father calls me and asks me how much is making, I’m not allowed to say that unless the fighter tells me it’s OK to say that. I was never told that I was allowed to say that to his wife.”

“[Mitrione] said, ‘Keep her in the loop, and let her know what’s going on.’ I did that to my best ability.”

“Don’t worry about it. ‘This is my business,’ is what I said. There’s nothing that you would have been able to do if the circumstances were as such. I think she took the fact that I said, ‘This is my business,’ as saying it’s none of her business.

“I think that’s where the miscommunication came because I’ve never once disrespected that lady, ever. I never would. I never have. I never will.”

“He asked me straight what he was making. A few hours later, I got a [Blackberry instant message] saying, ‘Are you happy with what you did?’ I said, ‘Considering all the circumstances and everything you have around you, this is the best I could do.’ I didn’t want to get into details because he was getting ready for a fight. He just got off being sick.”

“If he’s willing to take the call and talk it out like two men, I’d be more than happy to do so. I like Matt. I just don’t think he understood what was going on. Unfortunately for me, I should have called him before the fight and talked about it.”

“I think that’s why I’m disappointed in all of this. … It’s not like I had three months to sit down and work on a deal for him, the way I do for Jon Jones, Thiago Alves, Carlos Condit and my other guys. He can call any of my fighters, and they’ll all tell him they made the most money with me. I look forward to working with them again if the opportunity arises.”

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