Managers express concerns over Bellator contracts
“Thus the original 6-fights agreement could turn into one for 17-fights or even more, lasting for years,” says John S. Nash in a detailed piece on fighter contracts.
During the fight between the UFC and Bellator over Gil Melendez earlier this year, UFC president Dana White offered some pointed words about Bellator contracts.
“If Melendez f—ing signs a deal with those guys, he ain’t going anywhere,” said White at the UFC 170 pre fight media scrum as transcribed by B/R. “Nobody can get out of those f—ing deals they have, and Viacom will sue you until you f—ing bleed. That’s a whole other ballgame over there.”
Fighting’s exciting, but contract law is not. However, not everything exciting is important, and not everything important is exciting.
Contracts in boxing became so onerous that a Federal law, The Muhammad Ali Act, was passed by Sen. John McCain, who called the contracts typically in effect in the industry “nothing more than a sophisticated version of indentured servitude.” Boxing contracts were typically for two to four years, but would extend automatically.
John S. Nash did a detailed analysis of Bellator contracts for BloodyElbow. If you really care about fighters in this sport, go to the bottom and use the link to read the entire thing, rather than just the excerpt below.
According to some fighters and managers Bellator contracts are the stickiest they’ve seen.
The most objectionable part of the contract, according to a consensus from my sources, was found in what many refer to as the “champion clause.” Back in September of 2009, MMAPayout posted the text for this clause, which read:
“If, at any time during the term, FIGHTER is declared the champion of his weight class, a Tournament winner, or a Tournament runner-up, the Term shall be automatically extended for a period commencing on the Termination Date and ending on the earlier of (i) eighteen (18) months from the Termination Date, or (ii) the date in which FIGHTER has participated in three (3) bouts promoted by PROMOTER following the Termination Date (“Extension Term”). Any reference to the Term herein shall be deemed to include a reference to the extension term where applicable.”
Fighting under these terms, Eddie Alvarez, Hector Lombard, and Ben Askren – all of whom were tournament winners and a champion in their weight class – saw three additional fights added to their agreement as part of the extension detailed above. Once these additional bouts were completed though each was free to contact and negotiate with other promoters (although Bellator did retain matching rights). While the tournament wins and time as champions obviously increased Lombard and Alvarez’s value, as evidenced by the rather lucrative (by MMA standards) deals they ended up receiving, current and future Bellator champions are unlikely to have the same opportunity to cash in on their in-cage success.
According to our sources, Bellator has informed the fighters and managers that this extension can be enacted each time a fighter is declared “the champion of his weight class, a Tournament winner, or a Tournament runner-up” and that the extensions accumulate. What this means is that a tournament winner who then fought and won a Bellator title would have two extensions added to his contract, one for being declared a Tournament winner and one for being declared a champion of his weight class. There also does not seem to be a limit to the number of extensions that can accumulate, so that a fighter who wins or reaches the finals of multiple tournaments or who wins the championship on separate occasions or in different weight classes could have 3, 4, or even more extensions added to his deal.
MMA promotional agreements, including those for Bellator, typical come with a guaranteed number of bouts during the contracted period. But for the “Extension Terms” in the Bellator contracts we examined there doesn’t seem to be any minimum bout requirements. The fear that one manager expressed was that Bellator would not be obligated to provide any fights for the duration of the twelve or eighteen-month extension.
In addition, Bellator has added an option clause to many of their agreements that gives them the right to continue promoting a fighter for an additional bout (“Option Bout”) if the fighter is a champion in his weight class at the end of his contact. To exercise this option Bellator only has to give written notice to the fighter and pay an option fee.
If the fighter wins this first Option Bout, or the fight ends in a draw or no decision, Bellator has the option for a second Option Bout, which they can exercise by giving the fighter written notice within a set number of business days and paying another option fee. If the fighter wins (or if it ends in a draw or no decision) this next Option Bout, they have an option for yet another bout. The total number of potential Option Bouts for a Bellator champion could be as high as 5 or more.
What does this mean for a promising fighter who signs a 6-fight, 24-month contract with Bellator and has hopes of eventually testing the open market or going to another promotion? Well, if they win their tournament and then win the title, Bellator could interpret this as extending the deal for an additional 6-fights or 24-months. And if the fighter were the champion after meeting the requirements of these extensions the promoter would possibly have the option for up to five additional bouts. Thus the original 6-fights agreement could turn into one for 17-fights or even more, lasting for years.
The opinion amongst all the managers I spoke to is that the current Bellator contracts represent, from a fighter’s perspective, the least favorable contracts of any promotion. As one manager said, “They are the worst contracts in MMA. By far the very f—ing worst.”
When asked why they would allow their fighters to sign agreements they viewed as being unfair, almost all the managers I spoke to replied that 1) they only learned that Bellator viewed the extension term as accumulating after the fact; 2) their fighters had little option. As disliked as Bellator’s contracts are (and the UFC’s were not above criticism either) they represent an opportunity for a fighter to get exposure for sponsorships and potential advancement in an MMA landscape were those are few and far between.
The situation, according to one manager, was that fighters were stuck between one promotion that has no competition and thus feels no need to make a worthwhile offer and another promotion that can’t compete and resorts to preventing its fighters from leaving via use of their contracts.