Joe Silva Speaks Out On Mousasi And M-1
Earlier this week when MMAFrenzy.com reported on Gegard Mousasi honoring his new Strikeforce contract, we included in that report that there were “rumors that Mousasi was misled by his M-1 Global management about the UFC’s contract offer.” We also included that Mousasi had been diplomatic in his response stating, “I am fighting in Strikeforce now and Scott has always been honest to me. I have a contract with Strikeforce and I am going to honor that.” We later confirmed that as a result of circumstances surrounding Mousasi’s signing with Strikeforce that the UFC did take action to prevent Gegard Mousasi vs. Renato “Babalu” Sobral from taking place at Strikeforce’s August 15 event in the form of a cease and desist order, but the fight will go on as scheduled.
Since that time more light as been shed on the subject, by the oft-neglected vice president of talent relations for the UFC, Joe Silva. Silva usually prefers to stay out of the limelight, happy to set most of the matchups with relative anonymity. However, CBS Radio host Carmichael Dave was given the rare opportunity to speak to Silva on the subject of Mousasi and M-1, and later posted a transcript of that conversation to the Sherdog Forums:
When I approached him regarding Mousasi, Silva elaborated.
“Gegard called me about a week ago. He asked if it was true that the UFC offered 40/40 (40k to show, 40k bonus to win), Silva said. “I told him no, because we never actually made an offer.”
Wait, what?
“When Affliction folded, we obviously looked at a lot of their talent available. Mousasi was interesting, but he had also just signed a deal to appear in the EA Sports video game,” Silva stated. “We had gotten word from above to stay away from anyone involved in the EA game process.
So the 40/40 figure was obviously erroneous, right?
“Not only did we not make an offer, but we would’ve assumed his Affliction contract and its terms. So whatever Affliction was paying him, that’s what we would’ve honored, and it was considerably more than 40/40,” Silva continued.
Several sources say Mousasi was in the neighborhood of $125,000 per fight plus a smaller bonus tied in as well.
“So not only did we not offer 40/40, but HAD we made an offer it would’ve been more than that, and that’s what I explained to Gegard.”
Obviously this wasn’t a closed subject back in Camp Mousasi, as a few days later, M-1’s Apy Echteld called Silva to clarify events. What resulted though, was even more ambiguity, according to Silva.
“Apy called me about a week later, wanting to clarify things. He said that there was some miscommunication between his fighter and management. The tone of the call was very polite,” Silva explained.
But when Silva inquired as to how all of this started, that’s when things got a little murky.
“Apy told me that he had a UFC source tell him that we were going to offer 40/40, and it was relayed to Mousasi. I asked Apy who the source was, and he declined to tell me. I explained that we never offered any sort of deal, and things sort of ended there,” Silva continued.
As to reports that Silva was on the phone with all parties during much of the negotiations, he quickly shot those down.
“I’ve never been on the phone with Gegard and his management simultaneously. In fact, the only time I’ve been on the phone with Gegard during all of this was when he called me a week ago.”
Whether there is some spin coming from Silva in this or not is hard to tell, but the fact that Mousasi later called Silva to confirm what was offered to him shows that even he thinks that M-1 lied to him. If the Silva’s claims that the UFC did not in fact even make an offer to Mousasi are true, then the fact that M-1 told him they had, and that it was such a low number indicates that they had no interest in him signing with the UFC and were actively seeking to block such a deal. This also further serves to call into question just how honest M-1 has been with Fedor throughout his negotiations with the UFC.
One other thing of note, however, is that from Silva’s quotes there doesn’t seem to be any indication that the UFC was going to make an offer anyways. With the fact that Mousasi has now signed with Strikeforce, we will have to wait at least until the end of his contract to find out if the UFC are willing to overlook his EA contract.
Pictured: Gegard Mousasi
Tags: Gegard Mousasi, Joe Silva
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I don’t know what to say. If this is true, expect more of this type of negotiations involving M1. I have the feeling that if there is going to be a way to really break the UFC “monopoly” of top-tier talent, it will be through tying up perceived current top tier talent and then heavily invest in the young, up and coming talent that the UFC lets other organizations develop and then picks up when they’re close to ready. It is really the only way. Of course, M1 needs to figure out how to get into the giant markets (Las Vegas, California, Florida), or else they’ll just be a real annoyance to negotiations.
actually it sounds like the old “O we would have paid you way more , too bad ” routine .Who cares about the ‘what could have been” number …….. its old business BS . gegard can do his 3 fights for Strikeforce in a year and then if the UFC wants him I’m sure he will go and they will be happy to take him in .
The part about staying away from fighters who are in other video games is CRAZY!!!! Talk about control issues ……
Or talk about signed contracts already in place… Imagine if Mousasi came to the UFC and won a belt…then not being able to put him in the UFC game. Bit of an issue, wouldn’t you say?
Yes it is an issue, since the EA contract is a lifetime contract, just like the THQ contract for the UFC game.
Its just video games ……..
What if one of these guys took up golf or auto racing and could be on the Tiger Woods games or a NASCAR game….does that individual lose the right to appear because of the use of his likeness ?
I mean it is cool for the athlete to give his permission to be on the game but when its demanded and it will cost you your job it’s going that extra step into WTF ?!!!
It came from THQ that it had to be lifetime, I tried to point this out back with the John Fitch thing. Also, you have to believe that the UFC and THQ knew about the EA game (which also had a lifetime contract attached), when the John Fitch thing went down. Why would they let him be, only to have him sign with EA, and having made his fame in the UFC make his money with his likeness in the competing game? I see that the same way I see/saw the whole thing with Affliction having Dana and UFC fighters wearing Affliction shirts, which gave Affliction business, and then they went into competition with the UFC.
Oh yeah, Randy was already under a lifetime contract with EA because he had signed on with them for “Red Alert” which wasn’t even an MMA game. It’s a thing with the industry I suppose.
i see no problem with the ufc’s video game policy i mean look at it this way……..mma is a sport, the nfl, mlb and nba…do they have any players that arent in there leaagues in there games????…no……i mean why should the ufc let its fighters who fight in there league be in other games???…..you dont see nfl playuers in blitz games do you??? no because the nfl doesnt want nfl players in none nfl games…just like the ufc doesnt want ufc fighters in any other orgs games…..i mean i work at a dominos pizza , it would be like me working at dominos but at the same time working at a papa johns or something …thats just not how it works in business
On a side note on that subject ……. i worked for Pizza Hut While also holding a second job at a Domino’s ..hahahaha I did it for 6 months delivering and no one was the wiser heheeh good money back when I was 17 …….but yeah they would have blown a spaz if they both knew .
Not that I have any issues with Mousasi, but this entire affair, just like everything else associated with M-1 Global, Affliction, and all the rest of that steaming pile, is tedious in the extreme.
I wish the guy well in Strikeforce, but this sort of “he said, she said” crap is M-1 Global’s stock in trade, and I for one have had enough.
Originally I was fine with the UFC letting them go on their way, but now its looking more and more like they might have to take more direct measures to prevent M-1 Global from ever achieving anything resembling success in our sport.
Again M-1 is a cancer the sport can do without.