Quote of the Day: Mark Dion on Marriage

Mark Dion should be blackballed in MMA. Who else does he manage?

A few other fighters but no one notable I don’t think.

As many know, I can’t stand Nick Diaz. But for once, an EliteXC story involves him but is not about him.

KJ Noons and his manager Marc Dion. The main problem in this equation is once again, Marc Dion of City Boxing. This guy will go on and on about how he wasn’t responsible for Brandon Vera sitting on the sidelines all that time. He complained (in court) how the UFC went behind his back to talk to Vera and explain their side. The two came to an agreement and Dion was left out in the cold. Well once again, Dion is doing all the managing of KJ Noons. This time, he even had a clause put into KJ’s contract with EliteXC banning EXC from contacting KJ without going through Dion. This way, he holds all the cards. Similar to Vadim Finkelstein managing Fedor. The guy is pretending to be the Scott Boras of MMA/boxing and is getting ridiculous.

Dion goes on and on about Diaz not being the #1 contender. I agree that the three wins Diaz has had since losing to Noons were against inferior competition. But where else can EliteXC turn? Eddie Alvarez is who Dion is suggesting. But Dion knows full well that Eddie is likely not an option for EliteXC. Alvarez is getting married in mid-September with a honeymoon to follow. So the CBS show on Oct 4th is obviously out. Dion’s statement about Alvarez’s marriage that John points out above shows just how uncaring and ridiculous this guys really is. Guess you never got married and had a honeymoon.

Some suggest that they put Noons against Alvarez at a Showtime event in November. While this would still likely lead to a short training period for Eddie, I’d be willing to bet he has bigger plans. Its been widely talked about that Alvarez and Joachim Hansen would like to have a rematch at the big New Year’s Eve Dream show. After Hellboy won the GP, he himself said in the ring that he felt Eddie deserved the first shot at him since he replaced the injured Alvarez in the finals. So while he has a non-exclusive contract, Eddie would probably rather fight in that huge NYE show rather than a smaller EXC Showtime event. Monetarily, it probably makes a lot more sense as well. Lets not forget, Eddie has only fought once for EliteXC, on one of their small ShoXC event. So its not like he’s a well known entity in North America/UK outside the hardcore fans.

Without Alvarez, who else under EXC contract other than Diaz deserve a title shot? No one. And while Noons was clearly beating Nick when the fight was stopped to to a cut, there is no guarantee that it would have continued that way over the next 4 rounds. It was enough of a controversial ending that it deserves a rematch. Throw in the garbage that happened in the ring after Noons’ defense against Edwards, and the rematch with Diaz is obviously necessary.

Dion wants to talk about Nick not deserving a rematch. How is it that Noons fought for the title to begin with? He’s gets KO’d Charles Bennett of all people, beats Edson Berto, and gets a title shot?

One of the problem lies in that Marc Dion is a boxing manager first and foremost. In that sport, managers have a lot of say as to who and when their fighter will fight, even champs. Its one of the problems with that sport. People will slam the UFC for not letting their fighters fight elsewhere, and I agree to a point. But by letting fighters fight all over leads to more power for some of these power hungry managers like Marc Dion or Vadim Finkelstein. Thus one of the pitfalls of non-exclusive promotional contracts.

But lets not heap all the pile of steaming pooh on Marc Dion. Jared Shaw of EliteXC is proving once again he’s a chip off the old block (Gary Shaw). He’s came up with this brilliant statement.

“[Noons] is earning in his next fight about $23,000 to show,” Shaw said. “That to me is already more than any fighter who has under 10 fights is making. He’s highly paid.”

Wow, Shaw forgets that quickly the $175,000 that Kimbo got from EliteXC for that fight against Thompson. Last time I checked, he was well under 10 fights. This is the same Shaw that likes to hang out with Kimbo and his crew. The one who was screaming at the ref from ringside to “Stand ‘em up!” when Thompson had Kimbo mounted and was elbowing him repeatedly in the face.

And for all the flogging White and crew get at Zuffa for extending contracts if guys won’t fight, Jared Shaw did that exact thing yesterday. From MMAJunkie...“We have already sent a letter,” Shaw said. “It doesn’t extend for fights. It just extends for time. With that and time off for injury following the first Nick Diaz fight, pull up that chair if you’re not willing to fight.”

The amount of threats that Jared Shaw is throwing around is truly crazy. Looks like he’s learned well from daddy.

What is also interesting is that I believe Gary Shaw owns KJ’s boxing promotional rights as well. So its not like KJ is going to go back to boxing for a living at this point.

With Dion threatening to “expose” EliteXC, expect this story to get even more crazy.