Bellator and MMA Agent Sued By UFC

[ITurnGirlsGay]

LAS VEGAS – Zuffa LLC, the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and World Extreme Cagefighting, has filed suit against Ken Pavia, one of the sport’s most prominent fighter agents, alleging Pavia passed along trade secrets and confidential Zuffa documents to rival mixed martial arts promotion Bellator.

The suit alleges that Bellator used the documents to help run its business.

Pavia is the founder of MMA Agents and represents in excess of 50 fighters, more than 40 of whom are now or have been in the past under contract to Zuffa.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news;_ylt=Au8iFJLC.buExluk20h8SeA9Eo14?slug=ki-ufcsuit072910

I'm not sure what to make of this for Bellator, but it doesn't seem to bode well. They're a fledgling company as it is, and they're struggling to put asses in the seat. I love their product, but this isn't good for moving business forward.

What do you guys think?

 

[Ferbian]

All in all I think it's warranted. I mean you're pretty much asking for it when you're passing along secret and confidential documents. No matter how little meaning it might have (Even though it's confidential, then it's probably meaningful), then you just don't pass on this kind of material.

This might eventually prove to be critical, at least for the career of Ken Pavia, it wouldn't exactly mark him as trust worthy in the future.

I think however it probably shouldn't be as much of a blame on Bellator. At least not as much as Ken, Ken is after all the one that delivered the documents. Bellator just took use of what they were given. Both should be punished, but Ken more than Bellator.

 

[ITurnGirlsGay]

I would completely agree with you, Ferb. I want to know the who situation, however. This is what's being reported. As we both know, the UFC (especially Dana White), doesn't have the history of purporting the truth.

That being said, if this does come down on Bellator, they'll have nobody to blame but themselves. It's appearing, at least from what's being reported, that Bellator knowingly and, willingly, asked for the same contracts from Pavia.

What, actually, baffles me, is that an agent would release documents to another company. I mean, for fucks sake, at least have the wherewithal to delete the names from those documents.

 

[Ferbian]

Who knows whether it's the truth or not ITGG. It could very well be the exact story. I mean, I don't know whether any of the people Ken are the agent of, works for UFC. There's quite a number of people he's an agent of, so I would guess there are people in the UFC associated with Ken. Therefore the truth would be more possible than ever.

And I agree, nobody is safe in this situation. Be it Bellator, or Ken, either one of them are completely warranted to get themselves sued in every manner. And I can see Zuffa winning this case if it goes to court.

And even if the name was deleted or not, the fact that it was spread to another company is obviously not gonna change in any manner. There would eventually have been some detection of how Bellator was running the company, you cannot run a company with the background plan of another company, without eventually realizing that "Oh fuck. How do they know how we work? That is the exact way we did it!"

 

[ITurnGirlsGay]

I totally see where you're coming from, but what I meant by "delete the names," was purely from a contractual standpoint.

It's not against the law, and believe me, I've studied this, to produce a similar contract. Matter of fact, most businesses will do this. Within the music industry they will use what's called a "standard rider."

This is a simple contractual obligation to ensure that the venue meets all demands supplied by the band a priori their concert. It's not so much a leakage of information, as much as, a template for how to deal with musicians/artists/groups, and the likes.

 

[Ferbian]

Of course it's not against the law to produce a similar product. But in the end, the company eventually would've suspected that they probably got some business ideas here and there from Zuffa if they're putting forth the same essential product or business idea.

But either way, it will be interesting to follow what happens with this lawsuit. We can only hope that it goes to the right results. But no matter what, it will have a damaging result on the reputation of Ken, as well as Bellator.

 

[ITurnGirlsGay]

Of course it's not against the law to produce a similar product. But in the end, the company eventually would've suspected that they probably got some business ideas here and there from Zuffa if they're putting forth the same essential product or business idea.

But either way, it will be interesting to follow what happens with this lawsuit. We can only hope that it goes to the right results. But no matter what, it will have a damaging result on the reputation of Ken, as well as Bellator.

I guess this is where I am confused. If you can clear it up, please do...


What business ideas would they have gained from Zuffa? Pavia, as an agent, would need to be a licensed agent/lawyer. Zuffa tends to offer standard contracts to the fighters that Bellator would be able to sign, deal with, negotiate with, etc...I doubt that any contract Bellator would have seen would have been much different than the contract my friend signed when he fought for the UFC.

 

[Ferbian]

I'm not necessarily saying they are getting the business ideas, but I would say, since there's nothing exactly standing out that says what specific type of documents that has been passed on. It could very well be business documents to how the company runs, it could be payroll documents, it could be contact information. It could literally be anything and everything that Ken Pavia has given on to Bellator.

Therefore there's no saying that Zuffa did not loose some business information that Bellator could very well find an advantage in taking usage of. Any of the above mentioned things could be used, in a business related manner, to benefit Bellator. You could know "Oh, so ... is earning .. per fight. Well we got the money to top that".

In that manner, everything is potentially damaging to the company, no matter the documents that are given out, given the fact that they're said to be secret and confidential, I seriously doubt it's a document of what they ordered through take-out on a celebration night.

 

[ITurnGirlsGay]

Haha, I completely follow what you're saying. There's more to a contract rider than how you wish your M&M's to be separated. This includes everything from pay scale to demands that the band is making. It's essentially the same thing. I've had to deal with these things time and time again.

More often than not, the bullshit part of the rider, is just a band's way of asserting their position within the line-up. Which is, what I would assume, to be what was leaked by Pavia to Bellator.

Most of what I have dealt with, has been, their initial pay scale, followed by their demands to play in our town.