Bellator signs Aussie kickboxing icon Peter Graham

[Glen Smith]

Sounds like an exciting addition to bellators fairly weak HW division.

July 16, 2013 | CCSanderson | 0 Comments
Australian Kickboxing Icon Peter Graham Signs with Bellator*FC


Earlier today, Australian Peter Graham announced that he had officially been signed to the roster of Bellator Fighting Championships.

Graham, a veteran of professional boxing, kickboxing, and mixed martial arts, might be best known for his trademarked kick “Rolling Thunder,” which he used to beautifully KO Badr Hari back in 2006.

While Graham is a legend amongst the kickboxing community, over the past few years he has established an impressive MMA resume`, holding wins over Konstantin Gluhov, Donny Lester, and Alexander Emelianenko. After a rocky 2-5 start to his mixed martial arts, Graham has gone undefeated in his last eight fights, winning all 8 by stoppage.

[Glen Smith]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvndacAU7WU

[Anthony342]

Cool. I just hope he doesn't have some sort of matching offer clause in his contract. After the Eddie Alvarez debacle, in which he has to wait until next September to even go to court, nobody who signs with Bellator should ever have that in their contract again.

[Glen Smith]

Cool. I just hope he doesn't have some sort of matching offer clause in his contract. After the Eddie Alvarez debacle, in which he has to wait until next September to even go to court, nobody who signs with Bellator should ever have that in their contract again.

Lol. If the UFC wanted Eddie alvarez that bad, they could have blown any offer that bellator could make out of the water...with ease. The "mystery back room bonus" stuff didn't fly in court and bellator was able to match. UFC fighters are making $2000-$50,000 to fight according to the numbers released but are supposedly paying guys $1,000,000+ behind the scenes secretly and I don't believe that. If you're paying guys that much, why not just offer Eddie a contract that says they will pay him $500,000 flat and put bellator in a position where they are not capable of matching? No, instead they'll give him 2% of a ppv on a gsp-silva super-duper card (lol) which could sell up to ______ ppvs, plus a secret "backroom bonus", plus $25,000 or some lowball number. I read that couture, rampage and others have complained that when they've gotten their ppv cut cheques, they were nowhere near what they expected and that the official numbers advertised by the media and what the company said they were supposedly didn't add up. Guys are prolly getting $5000 bonuses in the back if they fight a war and lose, not a million and Gsp and those guys get paid the bigger $ by their sponsors which their agents get for them, their cheque from the ufc isnt that much. And as far bellator screwing Eddie, all bellator did was match the ufc offer and the UFC didn't want to up their offer or give him a specific, committed number that bellator couldn't afford like when they plucked hector Lombard for $600,000 a fight.

[Glen Smith]

I have a confession to make...I used to LOVE watching boxing. I grew up in a small town with no boxing gym but I would record fights on vhs and get psyched up and hammer my punching bag hung in the shed and practice crappy slipping and countering on my slip bag I made out of a ball and a string like how I saw iron mike do it. But then somehow I got sidetracked and started watching the UFC all the time. At the time it seemed like they stopped showing boxing as much on tsn while all the guys like Oscar, Trinidad, mayorga and so on were getting old and retiring. This combined with there was always some kinda ufc going on and every once in a while I'd hear stuff like "boxing is dead" had a big influence on me fading away from watching boxing. Recently I saw a few friday night fights and the intensity, skill, and raw warrior spirit of boxing completely puts the UFC to shame. I literally feel hot flashes of SHAME when I think about how Traded in boxing for lay and pray, Dana white, and socializing with probably the most ignorant sports fans in the world. I've had enough and it's time to come back home...to boxing. That being said, I'm rooting for bellator on the side. They have a great product and I hope they can clean up mma.

[Anthony342]

Either way, Alvarez got screwed and if he ends up having a pretty good career, people will be left wondering how much better it could have been had this not happened. If I was an MMA fighter, no way would I have that in my contract with Bellator or anyone else.

[Glen Smith]

Either way, Alvarez got screwed and if he ends up having a pretty good career, people will be left wondering how much better it could have been had this not happened. If I was an MMA fighter, no way would I have that in my contract with Bellator or anyone else.

Bellator had a clause in his contract where they can match any other promotors offers and keep his rights. So once his contract expired the UFC made an offer and Bellator matched it. If you think about it, is it that bad of a clause? If someone comes along and makes you a better offer bellator has the right to match it and keep you...it's almost like they open themselves up to a bidding war for your services and your value gets determined in an open market, how is that so bad? And if the ore guys offer is something bellator can't pay, then you are free to go fight for that other guy. I think this idea that bellator is "screwing" Eddie is coming from media that the UFC has in their back pocket trying to spin this thing in order to make bellator look bad or evil. If The UFC really wanted Eddie, they could just offer him $500,000 a fight in writing and Eddie would have been fighting for them already without this court case.

As big as the UFC is, Viacom has serious money and is slowly using sp1ke tv to saturate the market with free, high quality mma and fighting and thats going to mess with the ufcs business model of watered down, expensive mma. They are also going to start showing Glory kickboxing cards 1X a month starting in September on top of free bellator cards every week, fight master, bellator 360 (shows old fights like UFC unleashed) and I'm assuming they've got other stuff too. For example, next Wednesday they are doing some Russian invasion show that looked like they went out to Russia to document how their russkie fighters are training and living out there from the commercial last night.

[Anthony342]

Yeah, but match is a relative term. Bellator can match the upfront money, but that doesn't take into account how much more Alvarez can make with other opportunities if he does well, like magazine ads, bigger sponsors and bonuses for winning, fight of the night, knockout of the night, sub of the night. After seeing this and how it crashed and burned, I still wouldn't have this in my contract. I don't see what's wrong with wanting to learn from the mistakes of others. Sounds like a good idea on paper, but didn't work out for Alvarez. No matter how you spin it, Eddie wanted to go to the UFC and now he's stuck and that has to make them look a little bad. And if Bellator wins, they'll have a guy working for them that doesn't want to be there. That can't possibly be good for a promotion's image.

[Glen Smith]

Yeah, but match is a relative term. Bellator can match the upfront money, but that doesn't take into account how much more Alvarez can make with other opportunities if he does well, like magazine ads, bigger sponsors and bonuses for winning, fight of the night, knockout of the night, sub of the night. After seeing this and how it crashed and burned, I still wouldn't have this in my contract. I don't see what's wrong with wanting to learn from the mistakes of others. Sounds like a good idea on paper, but didn't work out for Alvarez. No matter how you spin it, Eddie wanted to go to the UFC and now he's stuck and that has to make them look a little bad. And if Bellator wins, they'll have a guy working for them that doesn't want to be there. That can't possibly be good for a promotion's image.

Yeah you're probably right

[Drunken Cat]

Promotional legal battles are never fortunate. I don't think that Alvarez has received the best advice though and he hasn't handled the situation well. From Bellator's perspective, they are essentially doing what they need to do to defend their own interests. I do wish this would be resolved in a timely fashion and Alvarez could get on with his career. However, this sort of thing is often not swift. This happens in combat sports. Mayorga for example had a lengthy court battle with Don King, as have other fighters. Couture of course had his battle with the UFC. These things do happen. I think this instance is more about Bellator vs Zuffa than anything. Alvarez was also misled by Zuffa.