Lorenzo Fertitta's "Threat" Against Todd Beard
by Michael Rome on Oct 30, 2008 8:11 PM EDT
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Todd Beard has made quite the name for himself in the past week by threatening Lorenzo and Dana, predicting the demise of Station casinos, and burning his bridge with Randy Couture. Todd Beard went on the Scott Ferrall show and made vague statements about Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta threatening him personally:
“They are not just threatening it (Affliction’s business model), they threaten us personally, which is hysterical,” Beard told host Scott Ferrall. “Dana White, Lorenzo Fertita, they are tough guys — old school mafia guys, or wanna-be old school mafia guys that their grandfather built their business and they are nothing. They’re nothing.”
This makes it sound like Dana and Lorenzo threatened to take a hit out on his family, but of course that is not what happened. Sources indicate to Bloody Elbow that the "threat" is a threat of a lawsuit. One of the biggest unreported stories out of the year long Randy Couture saga is Randy Couture's deposition. Randy's new contract gives him immunity, but there is supposedly some damning information that came out for other parties. I suspect that we will eventually see the UFC file a suit against Affliction for tampering with Randy Couture's contract. Regardless of whether they did it, it's hardly something Affliction needs right now.
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Maybe Beard...
thinks acting like a tough guy will make his promotion flourish.
See: Dana White
I kid of course.
Beard is like the bad cop to Atencio’s good cop routine. Affliction doesn’t look like much of a competitor at this point.
Are you saying Randy’s year long absence stemmed from Affliction attempting to court Randy with the promise of a bout with Fedor and a lucrative purse? Is UFC insinuating this is the reason for the previous dispute with Randy?
by The Bronzeville Bully on Oct 30, 2008 8:30 PM EDT reply actions
So this is the reason why Randy is returning to the UFC? I never really bought the whole “randy tired of fighting in court and spending money on lawyers in a case thats going nowhere” excuse. Randy is a smart guy and could have saw this coming before it even started.
if Randy (or Kim) was that smart
he wouldn’t have wasted a year of his life in court trying to get out of a legally binding contract based on the promises of these fools.
i’m afraid Randy at 45 could be a ghost of himself. When age hits it hits hard.
So basically
Im guessing the meeting between Affliction and UFC had more to do with UFC telling Affliction “Hey, we got a case against you guys for tampering with our guys, you have a an opportunity to avoid serious expensive repercussion. All you have to do is get out of the fight business, let us buy some of your fighter contracts, and in return, we will let you promote your Clothing in the octagon and we won’t sue.” And as for Randy, let’s face it, you are not winning this case, no court is going grant you favorable ruling and on top of that, you breached you contract by appearing on another competitor’s show. So here is an option, return to the Octagon, under a new deal, give you a fight that will guarantee you a bigger pay day, if not, the same as you would of made fighting Fedor. In return, we will not file a suit and drop this whole court bullshit."
by The Bronzeville Bully on Oct 30, 2008 9:03 PM EDT up reply actions
exactly
but isn’t that “blackmail” or “extortion” like a reader just suggested?
It’s not extortion if they have an actual reason to sue them.
It would be blackmail if they were going to file a frivolous lawsuit, which would cost Zuffa a bunch of money and get them into trouble. Zuffa is just exercising their rights.
If you stop paying your car loan, the bank can say, “pay us or we’ll take your car.” That’s not blackmail, that’s the bank doing what they have to do.
If you do something that allows someone to sue you, they can propose to you anything to make themnot sue.
honestly
I think Kim was barking in his ear filling his head up with all these crazy ideas.
Kim did make some noise about Gina Carano’s pay more than Gina. I remember her saying something like “we need to get that fixed.” I agree but if Gina has a problem with her purse she and her agent should handle it.
by The Bronzeville Bully on Oct 30, 2008 10:51 PM EDT up reply actions
Yeah, they had a problem with Gina only making 25k/fight. A lot of people think Dana should put a woman’s division in the UFC or WEC. Only problem, the majority of those fighters don’t even make 25k/fight. So why would Gina want to fight for the WEC/UFC and make less money.
much higher sponsorships and visibility. The vast majority of the money Gina made was in sponsorship.
by Michael Rome on Oct 30, 2008 10:58 PM EDT up reply actions
agreed
she’d probably bank in at least 100k/fight in the UFC including sponsorship. Sure, she is a draw on FREE t.v. I’m not sure if she would have too much impact on a PPV event. I think that’s why Dana doesn’t have too much interest. I wouldn’t either.
Who says she would make less money in the WEC? She’s not “the majority of fighters” she is one of the big name stars, she would be towards the top of the payscale not where the majority of fighters are. If they can pay Rob McCullough 30k+ a fight surely they could come up with $25k for Carano.
Well go ahead and pay “big name stars” more than your fighters that make your organization and watch the backlash. She has no division and next to no competition ahead of her. People can’t even name her last three opponents let alone name five other female fighters outside Carano, Santos and LaRosa. So IMO, she shouldn’t be worth 25k/fight in the UFC/WEC when a majority of the fighters don’t make that.
Fighters get paid as much for their drawing power as anything else and Gina Carano is more famous and has been seen by more people than the whole WEC organization combined. More eyes watching means more money for everyone in the long run and I doubt there would be that much of an uproar for Gina Carano signing on making less than every other headliner in the company.
Some fighters get paid as much as their drawing power. In the UFC/WEC, Lesnar is the only guy to come in with little or no experience or wins over experienced opponents to get paid like he has compared to the rest of fighters. Kimbo got paid like he was a superstar and look what happened.
Carano is famous as she got to fight on Network TV. It was free. She has no PPV draw. I talk to a lot of MMA/UFC fans and I can’t remember once when someone brought up her name. WEC is free on VS right now, but it looks like the WEC will be throwing on PPV’s next year which is a mistake IMO.
Brock Lesnar is one of the top 5 paid guys in the UFC, hell Brock makes more than a lot of whole UFC cards when he fights. Tito Ortiz isn’t a top ten talent anymore, he negotiates his contracts based on the fact that he is the biggest ppv draw in the history of the sport, Chuck Liddell is fading as his payrate is going up, Brock’s drawing ability has gotten him his huge payday. Brock’s base pay is a quarter million dollars where Gina Carano currently makes $25,000 a fight, it’s not even comparable. Do you honestly think that there would be a huge back lash if Gina Carano signed with the WEC making as much per fight as Brock Larson or Richard Crunkilton?
As far as you talking to a bunch of MMA?UFC fans and her name not being brought up, great but then the vast majority of people who buy PPVs are casual fans, the same ones that tuned in like crazy to watch her fight on CBS. Five and half million people watched her fights on CBS and both times she fought the number of viewers shot up by a large amount, don’t tell me that she wouldn’t be worth 25k (or even double that).
and thats not true..
fighters do not get paid as much as their drawing power… You have plenty of big name fighters out there that draw huge ratings that don’t even get a PPV percentage…
When age hits it hits hard.
but not as hard as Lesnar.
It’s rare when someone gets their orbital bone smashed by age.
by Richard Wade on Oct 31, 2008 2:18 AM EDT up reply actions
uh...that's illegal.
the suggestion is either 1. Blackmail or 2. Extortion…depending if there is a criminal act involved.
Wags
WHat are you talking about? Informing a party you intend to sue them is illegal? It is neither of the above.
by Michael Rome on Oct 30, 2008 9:52 PM EDT up reply actions
No, it’s not. This is done thousands of times every day across the country by law firms, and they ask for cash settlements. The threat of a lawsuit is not illegal.
Blackmail is the threat to release private information followed by an extortionary threat to do so if certain actions aren’t taken. See: extorting an actress with a sex video.
by Michael Rome on Oct 30, 2008 10:05 PM EDT up reply actions
What if the demand is so crazy it could financially break a company? Whether or not the company is financially stable or not is not the point. Especially if the other company knows the instability of the company and knows they can’t afford a long trial, it would be an easy target to get what you want, wouldn’t it? I don’t know, I’m just asking. But you do prove a could point with your example. But surely, something did crazy happen in the meeting with Zuffa and Beard for Beard to make his absurd comments.
Yeah, there are companies who do that. But thats used when the company doesn’t have a leg to stand on: they can’t win the trial, but they can bankrupt the other guy with the trial.
Doesn’t apply here: Zuffa probably has the upper hand in any trial.
by Michaelthebox on Oct 30, 2008 10:23 PM EDT up reply actions
And if a stronger company does it to a weaker company, that’s one possible component of a hostile takeover, also totally legal. Sometimes a strong company will buy up the debt of a weaker company, then call it in to force them to terms. Also legal. Remember that in a capitalist economic system, there’s no laws about fair play.
Zuffa is offering a settlement in order not to sue over what they consider contract tampering. Its not blackmail because if Affliction thinks there is no case, they can tell Zuffa they will see them in court, if they know they will lose a court case they can cut their losses and work out a deal.
by Dropkick434 on Oct 31, 2008 12:33 AM EDT up reply actions
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