A peak into how ridiculous this "sport" is

[penxv]

I'll keep this as brief as possible...

An agent that I'm familiar with contacted me about working w/ him on New Year's Eve. A week later he sent me an interesting message.

http://postimg.org/image/vkmge74gv/

This is the promotion... https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles ... fight-club

So, on 1/22 I ask if he'd heard back from them and he said yeah, they said your record isn't good enough.

I respond that that is BS and that one of the promotion's most successful fighters (Max Grishin) at a higher weight class had even called me out when he was living in northeast Ohio and fighting for a promoter (Greg Kalikas) that still owes me money. So I say, if they don't want me in the tournament, see if I can get a match with Grishin. He says ok... still waiting to hear back.

Mind you, this promotion gives UFC champ Werdum quite a bit of money... http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/15 ... akhmat-mma

So while this is going on, Cain Velasquez gets hurt and Stipe Miocic agrees to step in on short notice (Stipe is managed by Kalikas and was introduced to MMA by Dan Bobish and myself when we were training for a show that Dan headlined in 2005). Werdum then appears to duck Stipe.

Now, Stipe's head trainer Marcus Marinelli and manager Greg Kalikas used illegal anti-competitive practices to torpedo Dan's promotion that I was headlining in 2011. At some point after that, Grishin moved to NEO for a time and trained at my old gym. Between then and now, Kalikas got suspended by the Ohio Athletic Commission for reasons that I'm not sure about and he isn't allowed to promote in the state anymore.

So... I don't know. Maybe it's better if I don't go to Russia, but there is nowhere else good to fight where they won't lock you down to an exclusive contract.

[penxv]

This was the fight that Grishin called me out after...



http://www.tapology.com/fightcenter/bou ... er-wallace

Driven MMA was a rebrand that Kalikas did to the NAAFS because he was running out of money. Him and Marcus had been getting money from John P. Lennon for years before his heirs demanded an ownership stake... which was Driven. They put on 1 show.

Last I heard, Kalikas was using Stipe as an investor to do NAAFS shows in Croatia. Stipe is getting robbed and I feel bad for him, but what can you do? A lot of these gyms use cult-like tactics to secure devotion from the participants. It's a really weird thing to be around.

[Edge Guerrero]

This was the fight that Grishin called me out after...



http://www.tapology.com/fightcenter/bou ... er-wallace

Driven MMA was a rebrand that Kalikas did to the NAAFS because he was running out of money. Him and Marcus had been getting money from John P. Lennon for years before his heirs demanded an ownership stake... which was Driven. They put on 1 show.

Last I heard, Kalikas was using Stipe as an investor to do NAAFS shows in Croatia. Stipe is getting robbed and I feel bad for him, but what can you do? A lot of these gyms use cult-like tactics to secure devotion from the participants. It's a really weird thing to be around.

- Man thats looks worst than here.
I honestly didn`t knew that was so easy to a guy that lost his license to simply continue doing shows.
It`s fun(To not say sad) how much mma promoters remember the shad promoters from 80`s and 90`s martial-arts flicks.

They strive on another people dreams.
I wish that mma was more regulated and that should have a minimum fee that a fighter cound pay to a manager, and should be illegal paying more than that fee.
Is there something like this?

How is Dan Bobish going?
I remember him for back in the days, how is his health?

[penxv]

I'm friends with him on facebook but I haven't talked to him in a while. If he ever gets back into promoting, I'd definitely work with him again.

[Luigi]

Why dont you want to sign an exclusive contract?

[penxv]

Because then you're stuck. They can fold. They can be bought. All kinds of shit.

[penxv]

They can promote Ken Shamrock and Kimbo Slice in the main event. They can own your image and likeness in perpetuity.

Some guys are just in for the herpes.

[Luigi]

Would you be comfortable signing with orgs that seem stable, like WSOF or ONE?

[penxv]

Not exclusively. WSOF does not seem stable and I'm pretty sure it's an extension of Zuffa. I'd take fights for ONE but I really don't know very much about them and I don't see what the problem is with one fight contracts.

[penxv]

I know that Rich Franklin works for them in some capacity and he comes from the Monte Cox school of racking up wins against delusional hillbillies... which I've never been fond of. Cox is the reason why people think regional MMA is a joke.