Following a recent five-month delay in payment to lightweight contender Nick Diaz, the Japanese-based DREAM promotion has again run behind on compensating its fighters.
The participants in question this time are heavyweight Jimmy Ambriz (13-11-1) and lightweight Todd Moore (9-3). Both U.S.-based fighters participated in September's DREAM.6 event.
"As far as I'm concerned, they pretty much have stiffed us," Moore told
MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). "The fight was Sept. 23, and we're going on into [late November] and they still haven't paid. That's two months. That sucks, man."
MMAjunkie.com was able to speak to Moore despite, what he said, have been his recent attempts at dodging phone calls from bill collectors awaiting the money the Texan earned in a first-round submission loss to Shinya Aoki. The three-year professional said he has never before found himself in this predicament.
"The closest thing was I had one bounced check from one promoter, but he eventually paid within the same month," Moore said. "And he informed me, 'Hey, I had a couple of bounced checks, just to give you a heads-up.' Then he was able to pay me back pretty quickly. (It was) by far quicker than DREAM has been."
Mike Kogan, the U.S. representative for DREAM's parent company Fight Entertainment Group, said the missing money was simply an oversight by the company's accounting department.
"They're not getting stiffed," Kogan said of Moore and Ambriz. "Let me put it this way: They'll get their money. There's been reports in the past that we were a little slow in paying, and to a lot of the American fighters, it might seem a little weird. Because with the commission here against how the promoters pay in the U.S. -- right after the event they get their checks -- we don't do that. But that's disclosed in the contracts."
Moore and Ambriz's agent, Ken Pavia of MMAagents.com, said he was aware of the delayed payment requirements of the Japanese-based promotion. But Pavia points out that the contract stipulated the money would be paid before the end of October, and that DREAM officials have proved difficult to deal with during the process.
"[DREAM] can't [pay at the event] anymore because of some sort of Japanese tax audit, which requires, for paper trails, them to wire the money," Pavia said. "They told us that we would have it soon thereafter. And it's been what, two months now?
"They told us it was wired twice, and it wasn't. We never received it. Once [DREAM officials said] it got kicked back, and the second time they re-wired it, and they don't know what the problem is. But it hasn't made it to us. And that was two weeks ago."
Kogan insisted the fighters would be quickly compensated once the accounting errors were corrected.
"As far as I know the contract stipulates that all fighters will get paid within the month following the month in which they fought," Kogan said. "So if they fought in September, then they would have been paid in October. If they still haven't been paid then, there's probably either some kind of accounting error or backlog or something else unrelated to any kind of a problem -- more of an administrative issue.
"I know for a fact that our accounting department issues payments -- not just for fighters, but in general -- every 15 days. So if they were backlogged in October, they might have put it onto the November roster."
Diaz's most recent appearance for DREAM was a May win at DREAM.5 over Katsuya Inoue. It took until October for Diaz to receive his purse for the bout.
Kogan explained that while that situation may seem controversial at first glance, it was again a simple mistake that was quickly addressed.
"Believe it or not -- some of this stuff sounds kind of ridiculous, but this has happened in the past," Kogan said. "In Nick Diaz's case, I don't know who, but obviously there's a lot of people that work for FEG in our accounting department. And half of them don't even know what Nick Diaz looks like. They're just paper-pushers. Well somebody apparently filed his (account) as paid. So as far as our accounting was concerned, he was paid.
"I don't know why they filed it that way. So after months and months of me bitching and bitching and bitching, they kept looking and kept looking and kept looking. Finally somebody said, 'Well wait a minute. We thought that blah, blah, blah.' And he was paid immediately. Actually he received his money right in time since he's out of a job right now."
Kogan insisted both Ambriz, who took a bout with Sergei Kharitonov at the last possible moment on the September card, and Moore would be compensated fairly and accurately -- and that the entire situation was a non-story.
"I fear for MMA if it's newsworthy that Ambriz hasn't gotten paid yet," Kogan said. "If that's what's on the mind of MMA fans, then fire away and report it.
"I think they're probably more interested in what 80 fighters being held hostage by a ProElite/CBS war, who are unemployed and unable to look for a job, they want to know. Ambriz will get his money, trust me, within the next week at the latest."
Ambriz hopes Kogan's assurances are realized, but feels the situation demands a touch more concern.
"I just really want to be paid, basically," Ambriz said. "I put the work in and it's the compensation time. I don't want this to get stretched out into a legal situation. But if that's what we have to do, that's what I'll do.
"You put your work in and contracts are signed. Live up to your end of the contract."
(Pictured: Jimmy Ambriz)
John Morgan is the lead staff reporter for MMAjunkie.com.