MMA agent Malki Kawa believes a lack of communication led to an unfortunate public scene involving his former client, UFC heavyweight Matt Mitrione.
Mitrione defeated Joey Beltran by unanimous decision at this past Saturday's UFC 119 event and then made the highly unusual move of firing Kawa during his post-fight interview, which aired live on Spike TV.
And while Kawa is unhappy with his own performance leading up to the event, he today told MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com) that the deck was stacked against him and that he'd like to clear the air with Mitrione.
"He's a great guy," Kawa said. "He just doesn't understand how it should get done, and I didn't get the chance to sit down and operate with him the way I normally would with anybody else."
Backstage after the fight, Mitrione told MMAFighting.com that Kawa had written his own pink slip by securing a mere $5,000 in sponsorships for the Sept. 25 fight. To boot, he claimed Kawa disrespected his wife in communications about how much money he would receive.
"We were asking him, 'Who did you get? Who do I need to get on my shorts?'" Mitrione said. "The answers I get are, 'Your wife's bothering me about stuff that's not her business.' Really? My wife? It's not her business about my money? He was out of line in a lot of ways."
Kawa, however, said Mitrione already was sponsored by Hitman Fight Gear and made more sponsorship money than the figure he disclosed.
"The number is accurate as far as the actual sponsors on his shorts," Kawa told MMAjunkie.com. "But he made more than $5,000 for this fight. If I'm not mistaken, the number is $7,500, or even more with Hitman as a shirt and shorts sponsor."
Kawa said Mitrione hired him to negotiate fight contracts and sponsorships four weeks prior to UFC 119. But there was also an agreement that a member of Mitrione's family would be in charge of sponsorships for the fight. That changed not long after the ink dried on the new deal.
"His family member calls me three weeks out from the fight and says, 'Dude, I've got absolutely nothing going on,' and he asked me if I had anything going on," Kawa said. "I said, 'I've got it.'"
But efforts to secure other money hit a snag with Mitrione's existing sponsorship.
"The issue is when he did that deal with [Hitman], they restricted him on doing certain things, and it handcuffed me at first," Kawa said. "[Hitman] turned down sponsorships that I've done before and gotten permission to do. Sponsors started shying away. No big deal. I still found other things and still got some things done, and I got him $5,000."
The agent also confirmed he was in close contact with Mitrione's wife in the weeks prior to the event but was not specifically authorized to discuss the fighter's finances.
"I never told his wife that anything was none of her business," he said. "I would never speak that way to anybody's wife. I might tell the fighter it's none of their business because it really isn't if they don't want it to be.
"If a wife calls me or a father calls me and asks me how much [the fighter] is making, I'm not allowed to say that unless the fighter tells me it's OK to say that. I was never told that I was allowed to say that to his wife."
"[Mitrione] said, 'Keep her in the loop, and let her know what's going on.' I did that to my best ability."
Kawa believes the rift deepened when there was another snag in getting Mitrione's fight-night clothing. It took Kawa a week to receive Mitrione's fight shorts and shirt, he said, because the clothing company's warehouse was moving after its recent buyout. Instead of Hitman apparel, he sent TapouT gear, which prompted a back and forth about who was sponsoring Mitrione. (Toronto-based merchandiser Authentic Brands Group purchased Hitman along with Silver Star Casting Company and TapouT earlier this month.)
"TapouT can choose who to put him with," said Kawa of a text to Mitrione's wife. "Don't worry about it. 'This is my business,' is what I said. There's nothing that you would have been able to do if the circumstances were as such. I think she took the fact that I said, 'This is my business,' as saying it's none of her business.
"I think that's where the miscommunication came because I've never once disrespected that lady, ever. I never would. I never have. I never will."
To complicate matters, Kawa said Mitrione was recovering from stomach flu during the mix-ups. Still, the two had a final exchange just prior to the fight.
"He asked me straight what he was making," Kawa said. "A few hours later, I got a [Blackberry instant message] saying, 'Are you happy with what you did?' I said, 'Considering all the circumstances and everything you have around you, this is the best I could do.' I didn't want to get into details because he was getting ready for a fight. He just got off being sick."
Kawa has not communicated with Mitrione since then, though he's open to dialogue with the fighter.
Mitrione did not respond to a request for comment today.
"If he's willing to take the call and talk it out like two men, I'd be more than happy to do so," Kawa said. "I like Matt. I just don't think he understood what was going on. Unfortunately for me, I should have called him before the fight and talked about it.
"I think that's why I'm disappointed in all of this. ... It's not like I had three months to sit down and work on a deal for him, the way I do for Jon Jones, Thiago Alves, Carlos Condit and my other guys. He can call any of my fighters, and they'll all tell him they made the most money with me. I look forward to working with them again if the opportunity arises."
Originally Posted by SPX
Reply With Quote
