This is ominous. During Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, host Ariel Helwani received a press release during the show and read it on the air. While he didn’t say who sent the press release, Helwani made sure to give the basic details: Georges St-Pierre, Donald Cerrone, Cain Velasquez, Tim Kennedy, TJ Dillashaw, and Bellator founder Bjorn Rebney will “come together for industry defining announcement” this Wednesday (November 30th) at 4:00 p.m. ET on a conference call.
A follow-up article at MMAFighting by Helwani’s colleague Marc Raymond has some additional notes. The press release was sent out by O’Malley Hansen Communications, with company representative David Viggiano telling MMAFighting that all additional details are embargoed until the call on Wednesday.
So, what exactly is going on here? The prevailing belief on Twitter among members of the MMA media right now is some kind of announcement of a union or fighters’ association of some kind. Most of the listed fighters have either made pro-union comments or had high-profile disputes with UFC management, while Rebney has been hanging around on the outskirts of MMA as a vaguely defined behind the scenes manipulator since he was fired by Viacom as the boss of Bellator. Nothing else really makes sense.
Raimondi also noted that other than Cerrone, the named fighters are all represented by Creative Artists Agency (CAA). CAA is the rival talent agency to WME-IMG, which now owns the UFC. One of the major topics of conversation specific to WME-IMG buying the UFC was how they will deal with fighters represented not just by CAA, but also those represented by WME-IMG itself, like Ronda Rousey. As for O’Malley Hansen Communication, they’re a heavy hitter in the public relations world with a ton of major national brand names represented on their website.
Whatever is happening, it looks like it’s going to be a huge story.
