Top prospect taking legal action against PFL
A recent lawsuit from PFL lightweight Manoel Sousa has resulted in some interesting discovery. A Brazilian court recently ruled that they had the right to hear the fighter’s case, over claims that the promotion was unjustly holding him in a multi-year, exclusive deal.
Just 26-years-old, Sousa emerged from the regional scene with a slick 9-0 unbeaten record, with all victories inside the distance. A big get, considering how often fighters in the position end up in Dana White’s Contender Series, instead.
Manoel Sousa’s contract troubles
There was a reason for that, apparently. Namely that Sousa reportedly thought he was signing a one-fight deal to get a play-in spot on the PFL’s next tournament season. He won his fight, they declined to offer him a place in the lightweight brackets, end of story, right?
As it turns out, Sousa’s contract allowed the organization to keep him on lock for at least three years, something that ‘Manumito’ only found out when he tried to grab a spot on DWCS later in 2023.
Although
he just recently competed newly purchased partner Bellator, the Academia Octogono talent has decided to take the the promotion to court, with his lawyer claiming his fighter was functionally illiterate when he signed his deal, and that he has since separated from the manager who authored the agreement.
Contract details
As that legal process moves along, we’re getting some interesting information about PFL’s business practice, including a look at Sousa’s contract.
Erik Magraken posted details from the document on his Combat Sports Law blog. Most notably, the promotion includes language that allows for two rounds of automatic one-year contract extensions for their talent.
- Initial Term: Except as otherwise stated herein, the initial term of this agreement shall begin on the Effective Date and continue through January 2, 2024 at the end of PFL’s 2023 League Season (“Initial Term”);
- First Renewal Option: PFL shall have the right and option to renew the Agreement (“First Renewal Option“) for one (1) year following the Initial Term (the “First Renewal Term“);
- Second Renewal Option: If PFL has exercised the First Renewal Option, then PFL shall have a second right and option to renew the Agreement (“Second Renewal Option“) for one (1) year following the First Renewal Term (“Second Renewal Term“).
Automatic extensions
The contract also includes language for extending fighters for an additional year if they win a tournament championship, and another year if they miss out on even part of a season due to injury or “any reason outside of PFL’s control.”
What’s more, the document states that upon the expiration of the initial/first renewal/injury/championship winning terms the PFL’s contract extensions will take place automatically “unless PFL provides Fighter with a written notice of nonrenewal.” Which is to say athletes won’t hear word one if they’re going to be stuck for another year.
Donn Davis claims fighters don’t leave
This information kind of sheds a whole new light on PFL president Donn Davis’ recent statement that the PFL had never lost a fighter to another organization before Kayla Harrison’This information kind of sheds a whole new light on PFL president Donn Davis’ recent statement that the PFL had never lost a fighter to another organization before Kayla Harrison’s departure to the UFC earlier this year.
“PFL, in six years, has never lost a fighter.” Davis explained in
a recent interview. “And remember, in year one and year two and year three, PFL was not a strong company. We’re a new company, so there were many reasons for fighters to leave and they never did. Now, did we release up fighters? Yes. Did we upgrade fighters? Yes, because we were always getting better. Never had a fighter leave, so this is the first time in six years.”
Considering that the most of fighters the promotion would probably be looking to aggressively retain would be those that won a tournament title over the past six years, that would put almost all PFL talent on an automatic four year contract. Considering how often fighters get injured, that would make for five year deals. Easy to see why so few have left in just a six year span.
Obviously, this kind of mess is exactly why every fighter should be doing their due diligence. But for someone like Sousa, who apparently couldn’t functionally read or write, it’s easy to see how he could have thought he was taking one fight with an option to get picked up for a season tournament, that was never exercised. Hopefully others learn from his mistake.
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