Robbie Lawler manager Monte Cox thinks he's got an escape hatch for his fighter, from Sherdog:
Cox filed a breach of contract notice last Wednesday with Pro Elite -- parent company to EliteXC, Icon Sport and Cage Rage -- prior to the company’s pending bankruptcy filing and the closing of its Los Angeles offices on Friday. Cox said the letter was received by Jeremy Lappen, head of fighter operations for EliteXC, and passed on to the appropriate parties.
"There’s a warranty clause in the contract that you can challenge if they have enough money to fulfill the contract," Cox said. "Obviously, right now, they do not. I notified them of what I considered to be breach of contract and they have 30 days to respond. They have to prove they can fulfill it or we’re a free agent."
Some comments on Lawler's blog have some thinking the middleweight might be headed back to the UFC (HT MMA Mania):
"As everyone knows Elite XC is no longer around. I enjoyed my time working for them and I was treated really well. Thank you to everyone at Proelite for the opportunity to fight in front of millions of fans. Last week I spent at the UFC with Matt Hughes. The atmosphere was awesome as usual. I spent time talking to Monte Cox about what my options are. I also had a brief conversation with the very busy prez of the UFC. All that said I think I will be just fine. I will blog when i sign with an organization. Until then I will keep my self in good shape."
But manager Monte Cox spills some cold water on that:
But before visions of Lawler and yet-to-be-tested UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva trading leather-wrapped gifts between each other start to dance through fans’ heads, Cox said he had no talks, informal or otherwise, with UFC matchmaker Joe Silva over the weekend due to time restrictions. Though the pair have a strong working relationship, Cox is mindful that the UFC might not want to pay Lawler’s price tag, which was $100,000 for his July win over Scott Smith, not including the $80,000 Lawler received in sponsorship monies.
"Unfortunately -- and I don’t know if this is the case or not -- the UFC has tons of stars," said Cox. "There are a lot of organizations that don’t have any stars. A guy like Lawler might be worth a lot more money to someone else other than the UFC. It’s supply and demand."
Cox said a Japanese associate has reached out to the nation’s two upper-echelon promotions –- Fighting and Entertainment Group’s Dream and World Victory Road’s Sengoku. Stateside, Affliction Entertainment was also named as a possibility. Cox said salary numbers wouldn’t be discussed until EliteXC gets its 30 days to reply.
Honestly, I'd like to see Lawler in DREAM or WVR just as much as the UFC. Lawler vs Gegard Mousasi, Jacare or a rematch with Mayhem Miller would be fine. So would Lawler vs Kazuo Misaki, Kazuhiro Nakamura, Jorge Santiago, Siyar Bahadurzada, or even a rematch with Frank Trigg.
Strikeforce could be fun too. Would be fun to see if Lawler's aggressive boxing/wrestling style could handle Cung Le or Frank Shamrock.
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