http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2011/6/1/2200150/k-1-heavily-in-debt-to-fighters-its-showtime-planning-to-take-legalK-1 made news last week with the
announcement that
they would finally be returning to action on June 25. It was great
news for kickboxing fans, and seemed to momentarily erase the past 6
months of frustration and questions of mismanagement.
Enter It's Showtime.
The Dutch kickboxing organization had a very important question in
the wake of this announcement - how can K-1 announce a new show when
they haven't paid everyone from last year's shows? It's Showtime, who
also has a talent management division, pointed out that their fighters
are owed over $400,000 in back pay for previous K-1 events. After six
months, It's Showtime has had enough, and have
announced their plan to take legal action against K-1 and parent company FEG:
For more than half a year K-1 owes us more than 400.000 US dollars in
total because several fighters which we represent have not been paid.
Every time we were asked to have more patience because a potential
investor would be interested to take over K-1.
Until now, we have never contacted a lawyer to claim our credits
because we granted K-1 the time they need to financially recover.
However, we were very surprised to hear that DREAM
and K-1 want to organize a number of smaller events. In our opinion
that isn't possible before K-1 first pays its debts to fighters which
already have fought. Therefore, now is the time for us to hire a lawyer.
K-1 responded by contacting It's Showtime head Simon Rutz to apologize and try to work out a deal. On Monday, It's Showtime
eased up on their plans a bit:
[K-1 President] Mr. Tanikawa asked us if we want to delay our
juridical actions with another week because he will make us some
positive offers within a week. Given our long term relationship with
K-1, we will not make a problem out of this week. If we haven't heard
anything positive after a week, we will continue our already embarked
actions.
Given the financial state of K-1/Dream parent company FEG, I can't
possibly see them finding $400,000 to pay off these debts within one
week, and it seems as if It's Showtime is done playing the waiting game
for new investors come in. It's good that the two organizations are
trying to work things out, but things could still move into legal action
very soon.
It's Showtime's statement actually goes so far as to name the
specific fighters who have not been paid, and it's quite the list: K-1
MAX champion
Giorgio Petrosyan,
Tyrone Spong,
Hesdy Gerges,
Daniel Ghita,
Melvin Manhoef, Pajonsuk Superpro Samui,
Chahid Oulad el Hadj,
Gago Drago and Dzevad Poturak. As they point out, these are only the It's
Showtime fighters who have not been paid. Over the past year we have
heard stories from numerous others regarding similar issues from both
K-1 and Dream, including
Alistair Overeem,
Bibiano Fernandes, Gary Goodridge, and
Ben Edwards among others. In April, K-1's Tanikawa publicly stated that
all fighters had been paid, including specifically naming K-1 veterans
Ray Sefo and
Bob Sapp. Sefo
quickly responded that this was not true, and that he was personally still owed $700,000.
It's Showtime's questions are very valid. If just a month ago, FEG
owed Sefo $700,000, and if today they owe It's Showtime $400,000, how
can they be putting on new K-1 and Dream shows right now?
There has long been talk of investors stepping in, including a much
discussed deal with Chinese company PUJI Capital last year, but none of
that money has materialized. Earlier this year, Tanikawa
had this to say about the future:
The current course is that FEG will die. There are probably staff
members that will leave as well. The event name will be left but the
promotion will change. If the current structure remains as it is it will
be impossible to continue. If many investments from companies overseas
do not come in we can't survive.
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