Sherdog reported this morning that Stikeforce light heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi has parted ways with management company M-1 Global:
Mousasi, who won the Strikeforce light heavyweight title in August, said he has a fight contract directly with the U.S.-based promotion and will continue to compete for it. Mousasi said he also still plans to enter the first round of Dream’s light heavyweight grand prix, rumored to begin this May in Japan.
It's always news when a top fighter leaves his management company, but this one might have more significance than most business-side shakeups. There are two reasons that this matters:
M-1 Global also represents (and it part-owned by) the world's #1 heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko
Mousasi is not only one of the fastest-rising stars of the sport, he was the only other significant fighter represented by M-1 Global.
For the moment it appears that this move will have little noticeable difference for MMA fans as Mousasi will still fight for DREAM and Strikeforce. But the longer term implications are very interesting. Mousasi controversially claimed that he had been offered a contract by the UFC last year but M-1 hadn't informed him of the offer.
Hopefully Fedor wises up and breaks away from those crooks as well...
