GLORY Statement on Gökhan Saki - Future of the LHW division?

[K1power]

Earlier this week it was announced (and shared in our news thread) that Saki has been stripped of his LHW Glory belt.

Below is Glory's statement on the situation:

GLORY has been negotiating with our light heavyweight champion Gokhan Saki on a new contract since he won the title in April 2014.

During this negotiation period, GLORY had the opportunity to partner with Bellator MMA on the much-anticipated Bellator: DYNAMITE show, an ideal opportunity to showcase not only Saki, but the light-heavyweight division and title in front of kickboxing and MMA fans worldwide.

GLORY could not come to an agreement with Saki to compete on the Sept. 19 card. As a result, considering the fact that this title has not been defended in well over a year, GLORY has been forced to vacate the title due to inactivity.

However, the organization is working on a deal with Saki to compete for GLORY before year's end

"Acting in good faith, and because we are in ongoing negotiations with Gokhan [Saki], GLORY wanted to allow every chance for a light heavyweight title defense to take place on the DYNAMITE card even though it has been over a year," said GLORY CEO Jon Franklin. "We couldn't make that happen, but our deep light heavyweight division has been itching to fight for the belt and now two of our athletes will get that opportunity. We also look forward to Gokhan's return to the GLORY ring and are confident it will happen soon.

GLORY's next light heavyweight title fight will be announced this week.

www.gloryworldseries.com/en/news/view/854

Saki is bitching on social media that Glory is 'taking away his title' as if he's not to blame:



So is Glory actually still in negotiations with Saki or are they just trying to save face?

For some reason Glory has Ilunga ranked above Cavalari so they might be pushing for Cavalari VS Ilunga II. The only other options I see are Cavalari VS Mwekassa/Bouzidi II.

What matchup do you guys think will be announced as the title fight for the LHW belt?

[dvewlsh]

There have been talks and they think they'll have him back for the end of the year, but I've heard that he's gonna sign a bigger deal with GFC (are they still a thing?!).

[K1power]

Official statement from Gokhan Saki on vacating his GLORY title



First of all I would like to take this opportunity to thank my fans worldwide for their many years of support. Also my family and my dear friends who have always believed in me.

Having said that, it will not have escaped your attention that Glory did vacate my Glory Light Heavyweight Title. This means that from now on, I am not the champion anymore. I won the belt at GLORY 15 in April 2015, defeating Tyrone Spong and Nathan Corbett in the four-man tournament in Istanbul, Turkey. Even though this fight came in last minute for me, with only two weeks of preparation and some serious back injuries, i came through and fought for my fans!

Glory failed to come to an agreement with me on a new contract and the ‘rules’ at Glory are, that if you don’t defend your title within one year, your title will be vacated!

The title that I have trained hard for, fought hard for, and earned with my blood, sweat and tears is now taken away from me. The respect that people have for me, it is not given, it is EARNED! I have always been humble and polite but maybe now it is the time to change that a bit, no more mister nice guy!

The match for the new light heavyweight champion will probably be between Saulo Cavalari, Zack Mwekassa and/or Danyo Ilunga (free promotion here for you guys, thank me later). The fight will probably take place in the USA on Sept.19, 2015 in the Bellator Dynamite event.

Not only did Glory disappoint me and my team with their decision, they are disappointing all kickboxing fans worldwide! If you want to be the best, you got to beat the best and with me still here, that ain’t gonna happen! You want to talk business and statistics? Oke let’s go.

Look at my fans worldwide, my social media (twitter, facebook, instagram), I have about half a million followers in total! I fill arenas with my fans, because of me they sell ticket after ticket and get more views!! I am one of the most populair kickboxers out there. Look at the fighters which Glory is bringing to the USA for the belt, Cavalari, Mwekassa and Ilunga, these 3 guys COMBINED don’t even have 20 thousand followers in subtotal. Ask the people in Europe, ask the people in Japan, ask every kickboxing fan out there, to make a top 3! The names that will fall are Gokhan Saki and Badr Hari. If you ask them about Cavalari, Mwekassa or Ilunga, they will answer: ”WHO?”. Nobody knows them. You want people to pay a full ticket to see a movie in the cinema, you better give them an A-Movie with A-Actors, because that is what they deserve, they want to be entertained. What Glory is doing now, is giving an B-Show with B-fighters. How can you even as a fighter be happy with the belt after you won it, knowing that you didn’t beat the best, knowing that I am out there and I would beat the fuck out of you.

Bellator fans, the people in the USA are not going to see top quality kickboxing and this is bad for the sport. When you win the belt on Sept. 19 you can keep the price money but I expect the winner to hand the belt over to me and acknowledge that he didn’t beat the best. I mostly don’t talk like this and maybe there are a lot of emotions right now. But now that I offended anyone, I did that on purpose and I’m not sorry about it.

Gokhan Saki

PS: you are forcing fighters to sign the contracts, if they dont agree with whatever bullshit terms you guys give, they wont fight and if they dont fight, you will take away their title and belt. Nice policy!

www.kickboxingplanet.com/news/official-statement-gokhan-saki-vacating-glory-title/

The bullshit levels in this are too damn high!

[kbfan]

Oh wow, the salt levels in that statement from Saki are OFF THE CHARTS!

[K1power]

Right? Even more so it's absolutely bonkers when I see how many uneducated fans just blindly support Saki and act as if Glory somehow screwed him over. I guess it's just popular to blame "the organisation/politics" for everything.

[K1power]

For the Dutch speakers, Saki did a radio interview with FunX a few hours ago

www.funx.nl/radio/fragmenten/193319-gokhan-saki-is-wereldtitel-kwijt

Quick notes:
- Saki says he had one fight left under his contract for a set purse which Glory tried to change
- Glory wanted to extend his contract, but only if he agreed to a lower purse due to Glory's financial trouble
- Saki didn't agree to the deal, because he feels fighters like him put Glory on the map and deserve more
- He still hopes to come to an agreement with Glory and regain the LHW belt

And this is the difference between a 'businessman' and a true champion. Remember when FEG K-1 was in trouble and Aerts agreed to a cut in purse because - in his own words - "I just want to fight"?

People like Saki and his enablers so to speak play a big part in reaching the current fractured landscape we have in kickboxing.

[nectar]

^ Amen!!!

[rictor]

He can just retire from kickboxing if he doesn't like the purses. No need to make a clown of himself really.

[dvewlsh]

Saki was making between 200-250k previously. His contract was a part of those bloated Golden Glory contracts that were hilarious from the start and drove the company almost to bankruptcy. Just about everyone else saw that and said, "Fuck it, I'll take the pay cut."

I get not wanting to dilute what you are worth, but when it comes to the kickboxing market nobody is worth that much right now.

Also, Saki is not a good businessman. Why? He just buried the entire division and made them all sound like talentless no names. So let me get this straight, you should be paid 4x+ what everyone else makes to just mow through these talentless no name scrubs?

This is an entirely clueless statement on his part and is a terrible look for a guy like this. Love to watch him fight, but good riddance, head over to GFC where you'll get paid a ton to fight guys that are actually below your level, unlike guys like Ilunga, Cavalari and Mwekassa.

[fartsmeller]

On the one hand it's hard to blame the guy for wanting to make big money when the same promoter that paid him insano-bucks is still asking him to fight for them. On the other hand, c'mon man, you know it's not happening, give it up. They couldn't pay you that if they wanted to, unless it was in imaginary latter-day FEGdollars.

[K1power]

The announcement of Zack Mwekassa VS Saulo Cavalari II has started a Twitter argument between Mwekassa and Saki:

[kbfan]

HAahahha the fuck is going on? I still can't believe Saki chose the no glory (no pun intended) no money route instead of all the glory less money than before route. It's like he thinks that if he accepts less money his value will be lowered and all those others orgs putting on KB shows won't pay him as much as before ... Saki is in dire need of a reality check.

[K1power]

[K1power]

GLORY CEO Jon Franklin on Gokhan Saki: 'For now, we move on without him'

www.mmamania.com/2015/8/3/9076563/glory-ceo-jon-franklin-on-gokhan-saki-for-now-we-move-on-without-him-kickboxing