At the March GLORY 80 event, Jamal Ben Saddik was booked for the main event fight against Levi Rigters. Because of a riot breaking out during the Badr Hari vs Arkadisuz Wrzosek, the remaining of this event was canceled.
GLORY has offered fans who purchased the GLORY 80 a free event which will be without an audience in a studio. Ben Saddik vs Levi Rigters will not immediately be rebooked as Rigters just had twins and is not interested in fighting right now.
Because of the cancellation of this event, Jamal Ben Saddik has lost sponsors and pay, according to his management. Though, they say, GLORY had offered to pay the GLORY 80 purse but paid to Ben Saddik in installments. Ben Saddik’s management had offered to fight at the GLORY RIVALS event for a lower amount.
Jamal Ben Saddik’s claims that while they have been offered fights for this event, none have been agreeable, and the fault falls to GLORY CEO Scott Rudmann. According to the management, they wanted either Gökhan Saki or Alistair Overeem but both are too expensive for GLORY.
Jamal Ben Saddik’s management spoke with Lars van Soest of the telegraaf.nl. The following has been translated from Dutch to English. These comments are from Ben Saddik’s agent Ali Fardi.
Jamal Ben Saddik furious at GLORY CEO Scott Rudmann
“It would be to his credit if he continued to act professionally and keep all our forms of communication out of the public domain. By violating our nondisclosure agreement, Rudmann has crossed certain boundaries and has created an irreparable breach of trust between Glory and all fighters and managers. Moreover, when making such statements, he should be telling the truth and that has not happened. Due to Rudmann’s unethical actions and inaccuracies, Jamal is forced to respond.”
“We have asked for zero additional financial compensation and no additional compensation has been offered by Glory. In fact, Glory has proposed to pay the previously contractually agreed amount for Glory80 in installments. To date, there has been zero Euro compensation, while Jamal has fulfilled all contractual obligations. Unlike other fighters, he has attended press conferences and weigh-ins and actively promoted the event. Jamal has agreed to Glory Rivals on May 21, at a lower price, to give his fans and the Belgian and Dutch public the show they deserve. Jamal wants to show in a packed stadium that what happened is an exception within our beautiful sport, and not the norm. To date, however, Rudmann personally blocks this course of action. It can in no way be interpreted as anything other than character assassination and career blocking.”
“During and after the event, Glory initially did not contact us and no apologies were made until we approached ourselves. Rudmann is ultimately responsible for each event, but continues to pass on his ultimate responsibility. In an effort to limit the financial impact after Glory80, Glory now dupes the fighters, as it barely wants to compensate. In the meantime, Jamal has spent ten weeks on trainers, a dietician, a media team and a hotel. Because his fight didn’t go through, he also lost sponsorship money. It is a six digit amount. Two sponsors have even dropped out permanently. The financial damage is considerable.”
“We agreed at an earlier stage for a match, even before Ramadan, against Rigters, but he refused because he has just become a father. Then we said yes to a number of other fighters who are just below Jamal in the ranking. But Arek Wrzosek was fired after the riots, while number five and six Nordine Mahieddine and Benjamin Adegbuyi did not want to, according to Glory. They also found Gökhan Saki and Overeem too expensive, because they did not want to incur extra costs for the replacement studio event. Badr Hari was not an option either, while Rico Verhoeven is not available for the time being. As number two in the ranking, Jamal has nothing to gain with a match against a fighter who is in eighth or lower position. We then proposed ourselves not to fight immediately after Ramadan and also proposed a number of other opponents, but Rudmann personally refused them. Other employees at Glory are not to blame, they are transparent and always look for the right solution for all parties.”
The above comments were made after GLORY CEO Scott Rudmann spoke with vechtsportinfo.nl and told them:
“We offered Jamal to be at the May 14 studio event. But his management came up with far-fetching demands such as fighting a lesser-ranked fighter. There was also a financially demanding requirement. We are still trying to get Jamal to fight, but he turned down two opponents. GLORY even offered Ben Saddik to pay his training camp costs and more for the GLORY 80 replacement match, but he turned it all down.”
“We have even offered to move the replacement GLORY 80 studio event later in May or June to respect Ramadan. But his management demanded a lesser opponent and a six-figure bonus.”
“Jamal phoned me and Robbie Rimmers (matchmaker) personally to say that he agreed. But after two weeks it was too late. After rejecting all those offers, we already had the event wrapped up. We love Jamal and of course, hope for a later fight.”
Ben Saddik’s agent Fardi says that what Rudmann is saying is not true. GLORY CEO Scott Rudmann and his fighters’ management continue to spread their issues publicly in the media.
Featured image credit to GLORY Kickboxing and Getty.
