In my post here I addressed one of the legal aspects of a lawsuit between Bellator Fighting Championships and Dave Herman based on an article at Sherdog that provided great detail about the lawsuit.
According to Loretta Hunt's piece today (and despite the litigation):
Herman said the promotion [Bellator] had offered him a slot in its upcoming heavyweight tournament up until June 16, but only under the debated contract’s terms. Herman said he turned that offer down.Herman turned down the fight for reasons set forth in the article.
Last week, Herman said Bellator offered him a single bout to face former UFC heavyweight champion Ricco Rodriguez on Sept. 9 or 16, for an $8,0000 purse and an $8,000 win bonus. That purse reflects what Herman would get for the third contracted fight of his contract.
For my purposes, the interesting part of the article is Shark Fights' downplay of any potential legal exposure that could arise from signing Herman.
Loretta Hunt's article notes that "Herman’s complaint includes a Jan. 25 letter sent from Bellator’s attorney to Shine Fights, threatening legal action within 48 hours if it didn’t withdraw a written offer it had made to Herman. Herman claims interference from Bellator into late March, when the suit was filed."
In fact, I checked the docket in New Jersey and not only did Bellator send Shine a cease and desist letter, but it appears that Bellator also filed a complaint against Shine on February 9, 2010 (Case No. C-000040-10).
Given that Bellator has obviously threatened (and then commenced) litigation against a promotion in 2010 for trying to sign Herman after Herman purported to terminate his contract with Bellator in November 2009, Loretta Hunt asked the correct question to Shark Fights, i.e. aren't you a little worried that you are going to end up in litigation?
According to Loretta Hunt:
After speaking with his own attorney, Brent Medley [Sharks' matchmaker] was not worried about any legal action Bellator might take against the Texas-based promotion to prevent Herman from fighting for him.First, it is not whether the cease and desist will hold, but whether Bellator will get an injunction (if and when) it has sued you -- or even if it doesn't get the injunction, whether you will be on the hook for damages for tortiously interfering with its contract with Herman.
'Contractually, with all the smokes [sic] and mirrors gone, I’m not sure Bellator will be able to issue a cease and desist letter that will hold,' said Medley.
Medley also questioned why Bellator would want to take such action.'My number-one question to (Bellator) would be why would they want to issue (a cease and desist letter) when the fighter doesn’t want to fight for them?' asked Medley. 'I don’t see why you’d prevent a fighter from making a living. If they decide to take legal action, in my eyes, it shows Bellator isn’t as fighter-friendly as it presents itself to the public.'
I will not guess which way a court will go here because I got it wrong with Shine -- that said, Shine is a scary example of what can go wrong.
Second, as to why Bellator would send Shark Fights a cease and desist (or sue for that matter) and not let Herman fight for whatever promotion he wants, it will argue that it contracted for an exclusive promotion agreement and it wants to hold Herman to his end of the deal.
Don't get me wrong, I am all for Herman fighting and making a living and perhaps he is right and will prevail on his claims against Bellator. However, Shark Fights probably doesn't know what really went down between the two-sides and its opinion is irrelevant at least as far as I am concerned.
As they say, caveat emptor.
Fight Lawyer
