M-1 Global Sues Bellator Middleweight Vyacheslav Vasilvsky over Breach of Contract

Which means whoever made this picture just wasted a bunch of time.

If you were impressed with Vyacheslav Vasilvsky’s performance at Bellator 61, out gunning Victor O’Donnell en route to a unanimous decision victory, don’t get used to seeing him in Bellator just yet.

MMAJunkie.com is reporting that M-1 Global has been awarded damages from a breach of contract by former M-1 Light Heavyweight Champion Vyacheslav Vasilvsky by a Dutch court, and is planning on pursuing Vasilvsky- who wasn’t present in court, nor were any of his representatives, mind you- in the United States. Okay, that sounds pretty rough, but at least M-1 is being reasonable in their demands and not trying to bury the guy, right? Um, have you heard of M-1 Global?

The promotion has been granted €1,000 for each day he’s been in breach of contract (which, according to M-1, is exactly one year today), €5,000 for each fight he’s had in another promotion (five since 2010), and court fees. I’m not exactly a mathematician, but I think that adds up to 1,000x more money than M-1 Global could have possibly made off of Vyacheslav Vasilvsky. Ken Shamrock could not be reached for comment.

Naturally, Vasilvsky’s manager, Sam Kardan, denies that M-1 Global has any type of enforceable contract with the fighter. As Kardan says:

“When Bellator signed him back in November, I know at that point, the fighter requested – and I believe Bellator has done the same – requested a copy of the (M-1) contract…If he was presented a contract, I’m pretty sure Bellator would not have signed him. I’m pretty positive of that. So for almost six months, [M-1 hasn’t] presented any kind of contract that would state they do have an existing agreement with him.”

For what it’s worth, when Bellator first signed Vasilvsky in November, CEO Bjorn Rebney denied any knowledge of a contract with M-1 Global but agreed that if one existed Bellator would respect it.

A lot of stuff to digest here. Is this a case of M-1 Global, who recently allowed Yasubey Enomoto to fight with an open wound infection that bled throughout the bout, showing it doesn’t care about it’s non-Emelianenko fighters? Or is this a case of a naive young man recklessly disregarding his prior commitments? Your thoughts, comments section.