Mark Dion is an idiot
April 6, 2008 – 12:52 pm by fightlinker
You may remember Mark Dion as the guy who managed Brandon Vera right out of an immediate title shot and a base 150k/150k contract with the UFC. Legal wrangling might have cleared him of wrongdoing (well, sorta … the wording from arbitration was Vera hadn’t been able to prove any wrongdoing), but it seems like he’s busy torpedoing another client at the moment: KJ Noons.
Since UFC began championing MMA, a number of other promotional concerns have been founded. The program CBS is offering in May (with Robbie Lawler defending his version of the middleweight championship against Scott Smith) is being assembled by ProElite’s EliteXC fight division.
According to Dion, Noons (6-1) tentatively was scheduled to appear on this card, but before EliteXC would offer him a contract, it wanted him to commit to three additional matches under its stewardship. Dion would not commit.
“They’re trying to slam-dunk guys into long-term contracts in order to be on CBS,” Dion said.
You know, I can understand being reluctant to get trapped in some kind of retarded long term contract like the guys coming from the Ultimate Fighter. But three fights is not a massive commitment, especially not to get exposure on the first major network TV event. You’re often seeing guys take pay cuts to get into the UFC because they know it makes sense in the long run. While Noons might not make as much upfront money from EliteXC by locking in this deal, you have to imagine his sponsorship opportunities would go through the roof. Plus he knows he’d be well treated … Gary Shaw has a hard-on for the kid because he’s a boxer. Well, had a hard-on before these retarded contract negotiations.
We’re not the kind of people to tell someone how to handle their business. Oh wait, yes we are. In this case I’ll just let Kid Nate from BloodyElbow summarize my thoughts on this situation:
I don’t really care how one sided the deal was — if it gets Noons on CBS during primetime defending his belt, then he should be prepared to give up anything up to 18 months, his first child and his left testicle to make the deal.
