Bellator is releasing Gegard Mousasi from his existing agreement,” reads the official press release from the PFL and Bellator.
“Woke up today and saw the news that Gegard Mousasi has some kind of contract issues – it’s expired, or they didn’t renew it, or some other issues that I have little interest in,” “Storm” said in a video posted on social media. “I’m more interested in the fact that now the possibility of our rematch is coming up.”
“The first thing I wrote to Nikolai Klimenko, because I know that the RCC has long wanted to organize a Bellator tournament in Russia, wanted to be its co-organizers and make my rematch with Gegard Mousasi. So now the RCC has a unique opportunity. Nikolai Klimenko said he would give it a try.”
“I believe it would be a bomb! A bomb that would tear apart not only the Russian mma community, but the entire world mma community. This rematch would be the perfect way to end the year. Let’s hope that the RCC succeeds. They have every opportunity to do so.”
The reason for Gegard’s dismissal was an interview where he complained to Bellator and the PFL that they refused to pay him a $2,000,000 fee and threatened to sue.
“They said that my contractual fee is unaffordable for them, and the amount they are willing to pay me, they are even ashamed to say, so it is ridiculous. So they hinted to me that it would be better for me to look for a job elsewhere,” Gegard told The MMA Hour program.
“In the moment, I decided: ‘They don’t want to deal with me and don’t, screw them, let’s move on.’ But my team told me, ‘Fuck them bald, we’re going to sue them.’ If it was just me, I would have left a long time ago, but I’m thinking about it. We’ll see. My team is not happy with what’s going on, so we’ll probably get the lawyers involved.”
“It’s blatant disrespect because they won’t even pick up the phone and talk to us. It’s not funny anymore. I’ve fought in many organizations, so far this is the worst promotion I’ve had to deal with.”
“My contract is worth about $2,000,000. They are obligated to give me at least one more fight, and after that they can just start counting down and cancel the contract after some time. But until I fight once, the timer doesn’t start, something like that. The problem is you can never say with certainty who will win in court. So I hope it doesn’t come to that in the end.”