{"id":603545,"date":"2023-02-01T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/01\/jorge-masvidal-claims-he-was-negotiating-own-contracts-before-split-with-longtime-manager\/"},"modified":"2023-02-01T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T16:00:00","slug":"jorge-masvidal-claims-he-was-negotiating-own-contracts-before-split-with-longtime-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/01\/jorge-masvidal-claims-he-was-negotiating-own-contracts-before-split-with-longtime-manager\/","title":{"rendered":"Jorge Masvidal claims he was negotiating own contracts before split with longtime manager"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Two-time UFC title challenger Jorge Masvidal<\/a> said he cut loose his longtime management firm when he decided he didn\u2019t need them to negotiate his deals. <\/p>\n

On Monday\u2019s edition of The MMA Hour<\/em>, Masvidal indicated he wasn\u2019t getting his money\u2019s worth and decided on a \u201c100 percent split\u201d with First Round Management this past December. Masvidal was part of a star roster that once included UFC champs Jon Jones<\/a> and Demetrious Johnson<\/a>, but he said he is now \u201cbasically\u201d self-managed. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe last three, four years, I\u2019ve been negotiating my contracts,\u201d Masvidal said. \u201cI\u2019ve been getting on the plane and going over there to Vegas and sitting down in front of [UFC COO] Hunter [Campbell], sitting down in front of [UFC President] Dana [White] and saying like, \u2018Well this is my worth, and this is why I think so.\u2019 And then they tell me to go f*** and fly a kite, and then we have another meeting next week, and then we talk, and then we come to the agreements. <\/p>\n

\u201cI told [FRM co-owner] Abe [Kawa] … \u2018If I got to get on the plane and put 10.5 hours on my back and take that off from training to go over there and talk to somebody, why am I giving you the percentage again? Because you don\u2019t set up my training. You don\u2019t pay for my training. You don\u2019t step in the cage. Like, what what am I doing? You\u2019re setting up interviews. Oh, you\u2019re talking to Ariel Helwani for me? No. You know you got to do a little bit more than that.\u2019 They were like, \u2018Well, if you want this type of money, you gotta get in front of Dana. You got to get in front of Hunter. You gotta talk to these guys.\u2019 I get that. But now do you get me? Why am I gonna pay hundreds of thousands of dollars when I\u2019m the one that\u2019s talking to the head honchos over here.\u201d<\/p>\n

FRM\u2019s Kawa declined comment on Masvidal\u2019s interview when contacted by MMA Fighting. Kawa also declined to confirm any pending lawsuits with the UFC star, which could not immediately be confirmed via online court records. The fighter and management firm launched the bare-knuckle MMA iKON Fighting Championship promotion; FRM football agent Peter Ariz currently is a corporate manager of Cosmic Funds LLC, which according to online records is a corporate manager of iKON.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t owe them any money,\u201d Masvidal said of his longtime reps. \u201cThey don\u2019t owe me any money, but there\u2019s other things that have affected the relationship severely that they could fix, or they could have fixed by now. But they haven\u2019t, you know, so I\u2019m just waiting for these things to get resolved and we\u2019ll see what happens, and hopefully, you know, they see the light and they make my life easier so I can make their life easier, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n

Masvidal is not the first MMA star to vent about the necessity of management, or even the first to complain about his former management firm. In 2017, then-UFC bantamweight contender Aljamain Sterling<\/a> said his exit from FRM came after he struggled to get sponsors for a 2014 fight with ex-champ Renan Barao<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they told me was, \u2018Look, the phone\u2019s not ringing off the hook for you,\u2019\u201d Sterling told MMAjunkie. \u201cBut if that\u2019s how they look at it, what am I paying them for? Just to pick up the phone when it rings?\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to Sterling\u2019s complaints, FRM CEO Malki Kawa said he had \u201cnothing against\u201d Sterling but severed their business relationship. <\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes personalities clash,\u201d Kawa said. \u201cIt\u2019s not the first time I\u2019ve had to let a fighter go, and it probably won\u2019t be the last.\u201d<\/p>\n

A 2020 survey of MMA fighters conducted by , 44 percent said MMA managers didn\u2019t adequately represent their interests. Dan Lambert, owner of American Top Team that Masvidal has long called home, cited long-term UFC contracts for eroding the manager\/fighter relationship.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou hear a lot of stories of the guys saying, \u2018All the manager does is take a phone call and say he\u2019ll take the fight and call me and say the fight\u2019s on this date. And for that, he\u2019s taken 10 percent,\u2019\u201d Lambert said. \u201cI think it goes both ways. Some of these guys got short memories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lambert also said before cooler heads and a working relationship developed, he once threatened to throw Kawa in a \u201cdumpster outside the back wondering what happened during the last 12 hours of his life\u201d for trying to solicit new clients at ATT. Kawa, who was once assaulted by fellow manager Ali Abdelaziz for allegedly spreading false rumors about an alleged sexual assault of a UFC employee, did not comment for The Athletic piece. <\/p>\n

Masvidal thought he would remain with FRM for the rest of his career before his change of heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike if I made $1000 with you, I\u2019m like, \u2018Well then, let\u2019s make $2000,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cAnd so I kept going and then, you know, s*** got f***** up somewhere along that I\u2019m making all this money and producing all this money, and just s*** wasn\u2019t going right, and I don\u2019t want to really like talk about it right now, because a lot of it is like legal stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the UFC implemented an outfitting policy in 2015, sponsorships were a key revenue driver in the relationship between fighter and manager. Fighters often made several multiples of their in-cage pay; numerous managers became in-house reps for brands wishing to advertise inside the octagon, increasing the incentive to sign with them. <\/p>\n

Masvidal said he\u2019s now a free agent that can work with whomever he pleases. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m working with a lot of managers, a lot of companies, there\u2019s a lot of great managers out there,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is no secret. I\u2019ll say this…everybody knows FRM doesn\u2019t have the best relations, or any relations, with any of the other managers. … A lot of sponsors, they have their own way of doing stuff and it just doesn\u2019t appeal to a lot of people. There\u2019s a lot of people that weren\u2019t talking or I had … or not talking because they got beef with them. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m talking to everybody now I\u2019m having business. Every other f****** week, somebody\u2019s trying to get me to go to lunch to pitch me on some f****** either movie script this, or sponsorship there, and it\u2019s like OK, one door closed, but 2,000 windows opened. So I\u2019m managing myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before signing on to meet Gilbert Burns<\/a> at UFC 287<\/a>, Masvidal said he needed to get his business in order, and that meant going out on his own. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m gonna make sure all my ducks in a row and get back in there,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause the last thing I want to think about is, \u2018What am I gonna wear when I go dancing on my prom night?\u2019 I just want to show up and dance, I just wanna f****** go.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Steven Marrocco<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two-time UFC title challenger Jorge Masvidal said he cut loose his longtime management firm when he decided he didn\u2019t need them to negotiate his deals. On Monday\u2019s edition of The MMA Hour, Masvidal indicated he wasn\u2019t getting his money\u2019s worth and decided on a \u201c100 percent split\u201d with First Round Management this past December. Masvidal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":603546,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[534,23288,23289],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-603545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-financial","category-jorge","category-masvidal"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}