M-1 lied to Mousasi

[agentsmith]

BloodyElbow has a story linking a thread on the Sherdog forums posted by Carmichael Dave. Joe Silva has apparently said that the UFC never even made an offer to Mousasi.

“Gegard called me about a week ago. He asked if it was true that the UFC offered 40/40 (40k to show, 40k bonus to win), Silva said. “I told him no, because we never actually made an offer.”

Wait, what?

“When Affliction folded, we obviously looked at a lot of their talent available. Mousasi was interesting, but he had also just signed a deal to appear in the EA Sports video game,” Silva stated. “We had gotten word from above to stay away from anyone involved in the EA game process.

So the 40/40 figure was obviously erroneous, right?

“Not only did we not make an offer, but we would’ve assumed his Affliction contract and its terms. So whatever Affliction was paying him, that’s what we would’ve honored, and it was considerably more than 40/40,” Silva continued.

Several sources say Mousasi was in the neighborhood of $125,000 per fight plus a smaller bonus tied in as well.

“So not only did we not offer 40/40, but HAD we made an offer it would’ve been more than that, and that’s what I explained to Gegard.”

Obviously this wasn’t a closed subject back in Camp Mousasi, as a few days later, M-1’s Apy Echteld called Silva to clarify events. What resulted though, was even more ambiguity, according to Silva.

“Apy called me about a week later, wanting to clarify things. He said that there was some miscommunication between his fighter and management. The tone of the call was very polite,” Silva explained.

But when Silva inquired as to how all of this started, that’s when things got a little murky.

“Apy told me that he had a UFC source tell him that we were going to offer 40/40, and it was relayed to Mousasi. I asked Apy who the source was, and he declined to tell me. I explained that we never offered any sort of deal, and things sort of ended there,” Silva continued.

As to reports that Silva was on the phone with all parties during much of the negotiations, he quickly shot those down.

“I’ve never been on the phone with Gegard and his management simultaneously. In fact, the only time I’ve been on the phone with Gegard during all of this was when he called me a week ago.”

You know what though, I kinda think this is for the best. Let Mousasi fight in Strikeforce a couple times and build himself up a little more. His fight against Babalu will tell us a lot about exactly how good he really is. Presuming he wins and keeps winning, by the time his contract with Strikeforce is up he should have built up a decent amount of star-power and top-level experience... then hopefully he can pry himself loose from M-1, and come over to the UFC with a resume solid enough to put him straight into the top end of the UFC's 205lb division.