Josh Burkman Asks For Release From WSOF, Ali Abdel-Aziz Feels Betrayed
WSOF welterweight contender Josh Burkman has worked hard since ending his three year stint in the UFC; The Salt Lake City native has gone 9-2 since his 2008 release, and has put in his most impressive stint with his current 4-1 tally over at The World Series Of Fighting. Before being submitted during his title challenge against Steve Carl, Burkman had beaten Aaron Simpson, Gerald Harris and Jon Fitch.
His rebound fight against Tyler Stinson at last week’s WSOF 9 event showed that ‘The Peoples Champion’ may be ready for another shot at the big time, and this recent tweet from Burkman indicates he may already be in talks with the UFC:
I can’t work on going anywhere else unless #WSOF releases me. If so, we will start fresh somewhere else…
— Joshua Burkman (@JoshBurkman) April 3, 2014
Burkman had already stated that he would not try to leapfrog Jon Fitch in the welterweight title picture, but I hadn’t thought that leaving WSOF was on the cards. Come to mention it, nor did the promotion’s executive Ali Abdel-Aziz. He spoke with MMAJunkie regarding the matter:
“This is not how a man handles business,” Abdel-Aziz told MMAjunkie. “We have treated Josh Burkman like family from day one at World Series of Fighting. He’s made more money than anyone else in the entire promotion. He wants to stay active, so we’ve given him five fights in 16 months. We always gave him more tickets to the events than he was contracted to receive. We gave him extra hotel rooms. Now he’s saying he feels like we’ve mistreated him? I don’t get it”
Perhaps Burkman has received a call from the UFC about crossing over, or maybe there is an underlying issue with his current promotion’s practice. Abdel-Aziz continued:
“I have no hard feelings with Josh Burkman, but he’s trying to bash me in the media, so I feel it’s only right to respond with the truth,” Abdelaziz said. “Josh Burkman wasn’t even supposed to be on the card last weekend, but he told us he really wanted to fight, so we canceled the fight we had planned to make room for him instead. Legally, I’m not allowed to talk exact numbers, but we didn’t have his purse budgeted for this card, so he was asked if he was willing to fight for a flat fee – a fee that was more than his show money – and he agreed and said he could make up the difference in his sponsorship deals. Now he has a problem with the amount? I don’t understand it.”
Legal battles are never helpful to either party, as Eddie Alvarez found out when he engaged in courtroom battles over contract issues with Bellator. It may be prudent for Burkman to take the last fight on his contract, although a loss my count him out of fighting for WSOF and the UFC.
“Look, if Josh Burkman wants out of his deal because he just doesn’t want to fight Rousimar Palhares or Jon Fitch, I don’t blame him – those are tough, tough guys,” Abdel-Aziz said. “But we’ve gone out of our way to treat Josh Burkman well since he first signed with us. All we’re asking is for him to fulfill his contract. I feel betrayed by Josh Burkman.”
It is doubtful that Burkman wants out of his WSOF contract so that he doesn’t have to take tough fights, especially considering he is likely headed for the UFC. Also noteworthy is that ‘The People’s Champion’ choked Fitch out very quickly when they fought last year. So it’s sour grapes all around, but will Burkman get what he wants out of this situation?
