Gary Goodridge Still Not Paid for 2009 New Year’s Eve Bout

The state of Japanese MMA is not looking too good these days, with most of the bigger companies holding on with life support. FEG, financial backer of K-1 and DREAM, is slowly falling apart, with issues stemming from lack of TV deals, exposure and not paying fighters, which brings us to this piece.

Bibiano Fernandes, Andy Souwer, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza and others on and off the record have stated over the past twelve months that they have not been paid in a timely fashion for fights under the FEG banner and Gary Goodridge is also on that list, having not been paid in an unbelievably long time for his fight at Dynamite!! last New Years Eve.

“It’s been almost a year since I fought Mousasi at FEG’s NYE show in Japan” Goodridge told Daniel Herbertson of MMAFighting.com, “I want my money. I stayed quiet because I thought they were going to pay me but I still haven’t seen a penny. I have bills I have to pay. I worked for the Japanese people for over a decade, and I never thought they would treat me like this.”

“I always fought whoever they asked me to, whenever they asked me to. I was in rough shape before I took the fight against Mousasi but they needed a fighter with only a week to go before the show so I stepped up for the fans. Now they won’t answer my calls and nobody will talk to me. I have had my lawyer and my manager call them but they have not been able to get an answer.”

I wanted to attribute this to karma at first, since Goodridge dropped out of a signed on paper bout against Ron Sparks with The MMA Big Show to compete at this show with an alleged handshake being the agreement, which was a big deal last year. Goodridge’s problem with FEG is not an isolated case as fighters both native to Japan and international have been having trouble receiving their payments for fighting, which is appalling when you realize that without the fighters, you are promoting a three-hour long show where spectators stare into an empty ring.

FEG has stated that they will continue booking fights for Dynamite!! after the Dec. 11 K-1 World GP Finals, and although the promotion has stated that the reason is to simply focus on the task at hand, it is clear that FEG desperately need the final K-1 event of the year to be highly profitable, along with their final MMA show of the year.

gotta feel bad for goodridge here, he can probably kiss that pay check good bye

thats bullshit, feel bad for Gary cause he always put on a show for the fans

Damn, getting your ass kicked by Gegard and then not getting paid for it...

http://mmajunkie.com/news/21749/dream-rep-gary-goodridge-will-be-paid-sometime-this-month.mma
Veteran MMA competitor Gary Goodridge will receive his fight purse after a yearlong delay, according to the U.S. representative of Fighting and Entertainment Group.

Mike Kogan today told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that he's spoken to FEG officials, who oversee the Japanese-based DREAM promotion, and has been assured that Goodridge will be paid "sometime this month."

Goodridge fought Gegard Mousasi at FEG's "Dynamite!! 2009" and recently complained that the promotion snubbed him when payday arrived.

When contacted by MMAjunkie.com earlier this month, Kogan resolved to get an answer on the situation when he traveled to Japan for the K-1 World Grand Prix tournament, which took place this past Saturday, Dec. 11, at Ariake Coliseum in Tokyo.

"I didn't sign his contract, but I'm sure it doesn't say it takes a year to get paid," Kogan said earlier this month. "Obviously, there's something fishy going on. I feel bad for the guy."

Yeah that's wrong as hell

MMAEYES wrote:

Yeah that's wrong as hell

should charge interest.

Hell yeah he should get an extra win bonus as interest. It amazes me that other fighters know this and still sign to fight for them, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that fighter are asking for pay up front. I wonder if they've paid Relack Gracie for his fight against the gracie hunter?

LOL. I asked if he would get paid after I first heard about the new investments they'd secured.