Bellator chief Bjorn Rebney said his promotion was trying to give Tyson Nam an opportunity when it greenlighted a fight with bantamweight champ Eduardo Dantas – despite having released the fighter two months prior.
Now that Nam has capitalized on that opportunity, Rebney said, Bellator wants its own opportunity to match other offers the fighter has received since his stunning KO of Dantas.
"If you have an agreement with someone, and ultimately you give them a great opportunity … when that agreement is over, you have the right to match," Rebney recently told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio).
Nam rep Phil Claud previously told MMAjunkie.com that the win, which took place late last month at a benefit for Brazil's special police force, had attracted offers from several competitors. But he complained that Bellator was blocking the fighter's progress by exercising a clause that allowed them to match competing offers 18 months after Nam's release, which came in June.
He said the promotion also hinted it would sit on Nam if he signed another contract comparable to that offered by others and sue the fighter if he violated the matching clause.
Rebney, however, said the matching period in Nam's contract is common in the deals cut by big promotions, though the length of that period is a chief negotiating point with talent.
"What it does is it protects the promoter, in case a guy just doesn't get an offer, and then you as the promoter can keep making that fighter offers to fight," he said. "But if he gets it from somebody else just because a certain amount of time elapses doesn't mean your rights should kind of evaporate. In ours, typically, and most agreements, are about a year. And what it basically does is say we'll keep making you offers to fight, but if somebody else comes along, we should at least have the opportunity to give you as much as they're going to give you."
Rebney said similar circumstances arose in the case of ex-middleweight champ Hector Lombard, who signed with the UFC in April after waiting out his matching term, and light heavyweight Roger Hollett, whose original deal with the UFC was blocked by his Bellator contract but later reinstated after his term expired. (Hollett now again is slated to fight Hamill at UFC 152 next week.)
"Our agreements are no different than anybody else's," Rebney said. "That's what we have with Tyson. We have the right to match, and when the offers come in from a competing promoter, if and when they do come in, we'll look at them; we'll review the contracts and we'll determine if we're going to match. I've been a little bit befuddled by the media spin that's been put on it. It's not a particularly complicated situation.
"The essence of them is that you're not asking to restrict a fighter's ability to fight. You're not looking to hold somebody back from participating. All you're asking for is, look, if we give you an incredible opportunity to fight our champion in a non-title fight, or we give you a great opportunity to be on TV, we at least want what most promoters believe is fair – the ability just to match another offer. Not to give you less, but to give you what somebody else is offering, and they're in every single agreement we have, and I think they're probably in every single agreement the UFC has, as well."
Following Nam's win, Claud balked at Bellator's offer to ink another contract that would see the fighter participate in the promotion's next bantamweight tournament. He argued that Bellator had already caused undue hardship by nixing a short-notice appearance in the Season 6 tourney and canceling the Season 7 competition, and the fighter simply wanted to move on with his career.
Claud characterized Nam's fight against Dantas as a setup to make the Bellator champ look good between title defenses. Rebney, however, said the promotion was trying to keep Nam busy.
"That was the reason (Bellator matchmaker) Sam (Caplan) suggested him when this opportunity came up," Rebney said. "He's like, 'Here's a great kid; he deserves a shot. He's been waiting for an opportunity, and this is a great opportunity for him.' And I actually questioned Sam about it. I was like, 'Tyson Nam can fight – are you sure, for this level of fight for a charitable event down in Brazil, is something you want to do?' And Sam said, 'Look, this kid has been sitting. He'd like to fight. He's ready for the fight. Let's give him the shot.'
"Tyson Nam, vis a vis that win, surely dramatically enhanced his value in the space. With all due respect to Tyson, and he's a quality fighter, I don't know that anybody would be having these conversations at this point were it not for that win. So, in typical Bellator fashion, he took a great opportunity that was presented to him, grabbed it by the throat with one big shot, announced himself, and congratulations. As a fighter, that's what you're supposed to do with an opportunity like that."
While Rebney admitted that Bellator contracts run long – he said a fighter that lost in the first round of a tournament could expect a "24-month commitment" – they give the promotion time to promote fighters and, ultimately, provide the basis for both to generate revenue. He pointed out, as well, that a fighter that performs may be locked up, but compensated handsomely.
"In order for that to happen, the fighter's got to accomplish a great deal," Rebney said. "He's got to win a $100,000 tournament. He's got to win a world title. He's got to be on what was MTV2, which will now be Spike, on a consistent basis. All of the mechanisms for success have got to be working for him for that contract to extend out to that period. It only extends when the fighter is winning and we're winning simultaneously. There's no right to unilaterally extend. We don't just say, 'Hey, I know it was a six-fight, two-year deal, but now it's a three-year or four-year deal.' We only have the right to make it longer if the fighter achieves certain benchmarks. That's pretty standard for the fight industry.
"No manager is going to allow a fighter to sign a multi-multi-year agreement unless he can look his client in the eyes and say, 'You know what, it could be four years.' But if it's four years and the promoter's got the right to extend to that level, you're going to have hit a lot of money. You're going to be on television a lot. You're going to be a world champion. I'm going to be able to generate really good sponsorship revenues for you."
Nam, of course, might argue that he never got those opportunities. The fighter and his camp were unavailable for comment at the time of this writing.
As for what's next, Rebney said the promotion will exercise its rights, and Nam will either stay in Bellator's stead or move elsewhere.
"If he's not fighting for us, he'll be fighting for somebody else because we've looked at the agreement and decided we didn't want to match the terms of the agreement that he was offered," Rebney said.
Source: Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney explains contract matching in wake of Tyson Nam ordeal