I think people are overlooking how bad Bellator’s contracts are. I have brought up my concerns over a couple things I find just horrible in Bellator’s contract but every time I do no one seems to care.

I think over the next couple years we are going to see some fighters complaining about their contracts with Bellator.

I guess I might as well once again rehash a couple of the problems I have with Bellator’s contract here and see if anyone notices or cares.

First off this is one that really confuses me because so many people get riled up about Zuffa’s video likeness rights stuff including me to a small degree. Well Bellator has it in their contracts that they can trademark a fighter’s name but for some reason that doesn’t seem to bother anyone. Here a quote from MMA Payout: http://mmapayout.com/2009/03/inside-the-bellator-contract/

One area of the ancillary agreement that is raising the ire of fighter advocates and mangers is a clause that has Bellator reserving the right to register as a trademark the fighter’s name, stage name, or identity for the purposes of Bellator carrying out their promotional duties. This sort of arrangement hearkens almost to the type of deals prevalent in the WWE, where the company holds trademarks over the performers stagenames and likenesses. As jaded as MMA reps are at this point by the contractual grabbiness of Zuffa contracts, this clause is seen in some quarters as being beyond the pale, which takes some doing. While some of the higher profile fighters like and Eddie Alvarez likely have the pull to bargain this clause out of their final deal, it leaves the majority of Bellator’s fighters with a bad deal in respect to the trademark issue. If they hold to this clause steadfastly, they may run into problems in the future recruiting new talent into the organization, provided they continue as a going venture.

Well maybe the person writing this took some issue with the trademark clause because they said it was “beyond the pale” as compared to Zuffa’s contract. That is what confuses me though. Everybody complains about Zuffa’s contracts but ignores this about Bellator’s contract.

Then we have the famed champions clause. Here is Bellator’s version:

The standard term is 36 months or eight bouts, whichever comes first. The contract also has a clause that states that if a fighter is declared champion of his division, wins a tournament or is a tournament runner-up, the contract automatically extends by 18 months or three fights. This is almost a self-fulfilling talent retention process, with the the talent being locked in for longer terms as they achieve within the organization. While not strictly analogous to the UFC’s champion clause, it serves some of the same intents, ie binding the fighter to organization over and above the original term of the contract. The way the contracts read, the contract exclusively binds the fighter to Bellator during that time, Alvarez may be an exception owing to his other contractual ties to manager Monte Cox.

So the champions clause really isn’t enough for Bellator they also force that same clause on any tournament winner and even the tournament runner-up. That is just overreaching in my opinion but again nobody seems to care. This is actually the one clause that I see causing problems for Bellator in the near future because I think the regular tournament winners and runner-ups that are going to get their contracts extended at the same pay rate aren’t going to be happy with it. Where as the trademark clause really isn’t an issue yet because Bellator has very little need for it so far because their merchandise and ancillary markets are nil at this point. It still bothers me though that they have the ability to trademark a fighter’s name even if they haven’t done so yet.

Now to be fair that breakdown was done last year and Bellator may have changed their contracts because of some complaints but I have yet to see any corrections by MMA Payout or anyone else if they have. So I’m assuming those clauses are still in there as reported in that link to MMA Payout.