Georges St. Pierre and Shari Spencer split yesterday and the fallout continues as the details of the story beyond "they had different visions of the future" is slowly pieced together. Our own Jonathan Snowden got some thoughts from others in the fighter management space. From the piece:
"It's about the fighter not the agent," one well known agent said. "Give me the right client and I will show you how easy it is to look great. Give me a client who is a loser and can't be controlled, one who complains like everything is someone else's fault, and I will show you how bad I can look. GSP is an agent's dream. Seems like many dreams in this case; when you wake up its not there any more."
Bloody Elbow has learned that money was at the heart of the dispute. St. Pierre was paying Spencer a rumored 20 percent of all the deals she brought to the table. In the end, he decided the famous firm was providing more than enough was and he didn't need an agent and a high profile manager. It was time for one to go.
For reference, agents in most mainstream sports agents take somewhere between 2.5 and 5%.
Personally, I think that GSP should be a much bigger star but I'm not sure if that is a failure on the part of Spencer as a manager and CAA as his representation or if Georges just has no real interest in being out trying to get his face in the public. MMA Payout threw some speculation in that direction:
Despite the publicity, the speculation is that the mainstream glitz was not his scene. GSP did not like selling himself to Madison Avenue and did not like the time that went into dealing with sponsors. GSP would rather dedicate himself to time in the gym rather than build his brand or become the face for the UFC. Will GSP continue to be a mainstream pitchman? If he does not want to spend time in building his brand through sponsors, his opportunities may be limited and relegated to what CAA can bring him. (h/t Robert Joyner via twitter)
We can continue to speculate all day (and I'm sure plenty of people will) but the only real thing that matters here is that Georges did not see the value in having Shari as well as CAA and likely made the right choice for his career.
Roy Nelson let loose with a TUF conspiracy theory when talking to Duane Finley. Nelson speculated that Lesnar is only doing The Ultimate Fighter so that he can eventually walk off the set and be replaced by Shane Carwin. From the interview:
So the conspiracy basically comes down to the fact that Shane Carwin has no one to fight in June. I think Brock Lesnar will walk off the TUF set and then Carwin will take his spot or Frank Mir will come in to "save the day" and fight JDS for title contention. The reason I believe Frank would be the guy is because Mir is coming off a win and I was already supposed to fight Shane so fans were already hyped to see it. Or Carwin could move in to face JDS and I could still face Frank but it doesn't really matter to me as to who fights who because all that really matters is the fans want to see me fight somebody. A lot of things could happen over the next six weeks but it seems a bit off that Carwin doesn't have an opponent right now and all of the top heavyweights are spoken for.
That's conspiracy theorizing that is worthy of the Sherdog forums. I mean, it's putting together puzzle pieces to come up with something that doesn't even slightly resemble the picture on the box. And for some reason I love it.
Quick Hits:
- I think Melvin Guillard is awesome and have no hesitation in admitting that I will be pulling for him tomorrow night. Jonathan Snowden's piece on Guillard's career rebirth under Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn is a great look at Melvin as a human being.
- Satoshi Ishii is now contemplating going to Strikeforce as a light heavyweight. Getting him away from Japan and into a promotion that will bring him along like an actual prospect can only be good for his career.
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