Bellator Is a Gilded Cage and a Waste of Time for Hector Lombard

Lombard is legit. I was thinking this same thing when I was watching this. Get him into the big leagues.

Bellator seems a lot more interested in those co-promotional matchups than Strikeforce.

I have said it many times. Co-promotion will always fail because of the self-interest of promoters. Strikeforce has no problem co-promoting with foreign promoters who have no presence in the North American market, but they want no part of co-promotion with a true competitor. Much like the UFC does not want to help build the brand of the #2 promoter in North America, Strikeforce has no interest in building the brand of the #3 promoter.

A Strikeforce-Bellator co-promotion is never going to happen. Lombard is stuck in his gilded cage until such time as he chooses to challenge their champion’s clause in the courts.

Also, could one of our legal experts answer a question… If the UFC suit against Pavia/Bellator is successful, could that void the Bellator contracts?

I’m not a legal expert, but I think I can safely field this one.

The Pavia document dump happened quiet recently, much more recent than Lombard’s contract. Even if Bellator did use those documents (which they deny), they got them too late for them to be incorporated in the Lombard contract.

If the UFC suit against Pavia/Bellator is successful, could that void the Bellator contracts? Since the allegation seems to be that the UFC contracts were trade secrets and that Bellator stole and utilized those contracts in their own contracts, it’s easy for a non-lawyer like me to think the contracts could be voided. Can’t profit off of stolen property, right?

Although anything can happen, it’s highly unlikely that their contracts will be deemed “trade secrets.” A legal contract isn’t at all similar to the formula of Coca Cola, for instance. The sorts of clauses the UFC is sticking in its contracts (such as a Champion’s clause) is not a closely guarded secret. People who work in MMA have for some time known about it and as of now everyone knows about it, or at least could readily ascertain its content. As a result it’s unlikely to be deemed a “trade secret.”

While no one knows for sure and I haven’t read the complaint, my guess is that the worst case scenario is that Bellator has to pay damages, return any “stolen” materials and agree not to do this sort of thing again. Tearing up the contracts could potentially disadvantage some fighters and potentially cripple Bellator. The remedy doesn’t seem proportionate to the crime and courts generally have a lot of discretion in determining remedies.

Unless Barnett has fallen off a cliff performance wise, he is too much bigger and stronger I’m afraid. He would likely out-weigh him by 20-25%.

If the champion’s clause is really written as an infinite extension, it is highly illegal. I have never seen the Bellator clause, so I can’t say for sure, but I am fairly certain that the common assertion that those clauses extended indefinitely is false. They would be thrown out in the courts almost immediately if they were written that way.

No promoter is going to write a clause that is so easily defeated in a court of law. Because the first guy who challenges it is basically going to make all of their champions immediate free agents.

I haven’t thought of it before, but that does make it a whole different, and much more equitable animal, while still leaving the ball in the promoter’s court.

I’m sure that would be used an argument.

However, mma_critic is right that none of this legal wrangling matters until a fighter actually decides to challenge the clause in court.

Are you sure about your info?

I believe the English-Lombard part, but to the best of my knowledge Pavia is NOT their matchmaker.

1. It depends on whether it is written into the contract.

2. Even if they could, that presumes the UFC has any interest in buying contracts. I highly doubt that Zuffa is interested in filling Bellator’s coffers in order to acquire the services of a complete non-draw like Hector Lombard. He’s a great fighter, but Zuffa doesn’t NEED him. Fedor is probably the only guy out there who is high profile enough that Zuffa would consider buying out his contract from a previous employer.

I agree. In terms of maximizing its self-interest, Bellator needs to do what it can to survive. Whether that’s best for MMA as a whole is anyone’s guess. But it would be silly for a promotion to sacrifice a star for the greater good of MMA. That would amount to “corporate waste” and if I had a big enough slug of Bellator stock, I’d sue the Board and Bjorn for breach of their fidcuciary duties if they actually cut Lombard loose for such a reason.

That said, I would much rather see Lombard in the UFC or Strikeforce (whose MW division is pretty stacked, at least as much as a MW division can be stacked in MMA). I also worry about Askren’s future once he beats Good:) I think Good (who’s a young promising fighter like Askren) has fought just once since winning the tournament last year. That’s a shame and waste of talent.

the 100s of minor league professional sport teams in the US and Canada disagree.

If they lose, a bunch of money is gone. If they win, they just created legal precedent for everyone else to do the same thing to them. That’s one reason I never expect to see Zuffa challenge some other promotion’s champion clause.

As such it’s non-compete agreement would most likely be decided under Delaware law. Delaware is a very, very business friendly.

Actually state of incorporation doesn’t determine which law governs a contract; contracting parties decide this and their decision will generally be upheld. Companies frequently decide to incorporate in DE because it has a very well-developed body of corporate law (which regards matters like what the duty of loyalty comprises, when you need a shareholder vote, etc.), which reduces the risk of the unknown. DE is also very efficient in terms of turn around time for things like good standing certificates, etc., which is relevant if you need to quickly close a capital raise. Delaware is actually very “management” friendly, in that a board can insulate management by installing takeover prevention devices that make it more or less impossible to do a hostile deal. Most sophisticated US parties pick NY law for contracts because, like DE law for corporations, it’s fairly well-developed relative to other jurisdictions.

Generally a non-compete clause is good for a maximum of two years

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It really depends on the circumstances surrounding the non-compete. I would imagine though that in the employment law context, which is probably the closest analog, that this is probably a good rule of thumb. It’s not clear that the geographic scope of the clause would need to be limited given that Bellator could probably make a good argument that it loses if Lombard, for instance, fights anywhere in the world for another organization, without Bellator’s blessing, but who knows? Unless you know of a case involving a similar set of facts, it’s going to be very uncertain what the outcome would be if Lombard challenged the clause. As an alternative, the UFC might try itself lodging a complaint with antitrust authorities arguing that the clause is anticompetitive, to see whether they might invalidate it. That assumes they want Lombard badly enough to spend the money to do this. They probably don’t. Also there’s a risk that they have the same clause in their contracts and that therefore they’d thrown into doubt if antitrust authorities agreed.

… everyone just assumed things would get Filho’d.

Nobody expected that fight to actually happen.

 Do some research on Bjorn Rebney, Patrick English, Sam Caplan, and Ken Pavia. They certainly are the villians! They all have long shady pasts. They are like the Joker, Riddler, and Penquin. Lol