MMAOddsBreaker’s Frank Trigg speaks with Bellator 143 bantamweight Joe Warren as he prepares for his upcoming main event bout this Friday night (September 25, 2015) against LC Davis at the State Farm Arena in Hidalgo, Texas.
The former Bellator featherweight and bantamweight champion has been dealing with some serious financial distractions in advance of this upcoming main event:
“My family’s in desperate need of some cash here, because I’m not used to losing. The bottom line is, I’m in here. All my sponsors dropped me after my last fight. Every single sponsor I had dropped me after I lost last fight. Even Blue O4. I had contracts signed through the year, everything. It’s just been really messed up.”
When pressed about the situation, Warren elaborated:
“They didn’t pay me for the fight. None of my sponsors paid me. Bamboo Nutra, Blue O4, no one paid me after I lost that fight. Ridiculous, man. It’s just been really bad. And then taxes and the whole shit. Everything hit at once. I’m used to winning, throw a hundred grand in there, pay shit off, know what I’m saying? You don’t win? Then you rely on those sponsors, those monthly sponsors. Those $3-$4,000 a month that just ran out after I lost. It was sad, man… I try to tell people, ‘You remember I won a shit load of belts, right? I’m gonna keep winning those.’ ‘Here’s $250.’ What? That’s not a sponsorship. Blue O4 was supposed to pay me 12 grand on a win plus four grand a month and I signed a contract for a whole ‘nother year. The contract was already signed and they just decided they were out of the deal.”
So what was the reason the sponsors bailed? According to Joe, it all goes back to a management dispute with MMA pioneer Frank Shamrock:
“Dave Martin, he’s my manager. He’s an unbelievable guy. Takes care of all my stuff. I had some run-ins with Frank Shamrock, remember? He’s been trying to sue me. Crazy, crazy, crazy, sending me papers. It’s just out of control. Me? I don’t need this shit. I’m just fighting. I’m not doing anything wrong, I’m a good person. He was my manager and it didn’t go right. He wasn’t taking care of the deals so I let him go and moved forward and he assumes he’s still, so yeah, he’s making sure I get no sponsors… He was a friend of mine and it kind of hurts. I don’t want to talk bad about anybody but it just sucks man… It’s kinda sad.”
The upcoming fight is do or die for Warren, as his Bellator contract is expiring as well, and he’s not sure what’s on the horizon for him:
“Hopefully Bellator will step up to the plate. My contract’s done after this fight. My contract’s done. I’ve given everything I’ve had to Bellator. Shit, you know me. I’ve given half of my body to Bellator in that cage. I believe I’m part of Bellator and I’m always gonna stay here. I don’t have much communication with that side.”