Last Thursday night at Bellator 85, Rick Hawn came up short to lightweight champ Michael Chandler in the organization’s debut on SPIKE TV.
The 36-year old former Judo Olympian took to Twitter and announced that one of his sponsors had pulled out of an agreement following the loss.
So one of my main sponsors from my fight canceled his check cuz he wasnt happy with the outcome or my performance. Read his explanations below.
“At this point, a stop payment has been placed on check which cannot be cashed or deposited now”
“I will not comment on Rick and his fight. That is not my place. But what I will tell you is this: I took a huge chance with him. TV exposure was great…but it only holds weight if he wins or puts on a good show. Neither happened. At the end of the day…not one sole (sp) will run to [my] store and buy product because they [saw my logo and saw] Rick loose (sp) the fight. I’ve made it my career and business to know what nets a return on investment for the brand…and this is the number 1 reason why I DO NOT hand out money or product to fighters.”
Its funny how all my pics wearing his product are still up on his company pages even after he says and does all this stuff!!
A lawsuit is pending so I cannot comment on who it is just yet but stay tuned.
Fighters rely on the payment of their sponsors as a source of income. The money which comes in from their sponsorship is often times more than what they take home from the organization for fighting.