Former women’s bantamweight champion Marloes Coenen, Valentijn Overeem and John Olav Einemo have bene released from their contracts by MMA promotion Zuffa.
The decision comes in the wake of heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem’s removal from the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix and release from the organisation.
A dispute arose between between Zuffa and Overeem about the date for the next round of the grand prix. Overeem insisted he was injured and could not compete by the September 10 date presented to him. In his online documentary The Reem, the DREAM heavyweight champion had his injuries confirmed by a doctor, showing that he had fractured two ribs.
During Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, Overeem implied that Zuffa had threatened him if he did not compete at the date they wished, despite Dan White insisting this was not the case.
However, in light of the release of these fighters, Einemo being in the UFC and not Strikeforce like his team-mates, UFC president Dana White claimed that real issue was Golden Glory itself.
Speaking to MMAFighting: “This is actually a pretty simple explanation. If you look back throughout history, we haven’t had any Golden Glory guys fight with us since Semmy Schilt, right? And the reason is we have very different business practices. It’s tough to do business with them. The bottom line is the way they do business is, you have to pay them, not the fighters.
“We don’t work that way. It’s not the way we do business. It’s not how it works in the United States with the athletic commissions. You don’t pay the managers and the managers pay the fighters. You pay the fighters and the fighters pay the managers.”
Former champion Coenen disputed these claims via her Twitter account, tweeting, ‘hurts me 2 hear things about my management that are not true.’
She then posted a picture of a cheque from Strikeforce made out to her, and not to her management Golden Glory. The tweet can be viewed here.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ podcast – listen to the latest episode now!
