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Pete Spratt And Mark Pavelich Have Words Over MFC 15 Happenings
Here is the entry from TheRealPeteSpratt.com:
My experience with MFC was horrendous and of utter disbelief. Upon arrival Mark Pavelich seemed to be a gentleman of respect and honor but that was far from the truth! Let me start from the beginning with my journey to the MFC….When I received my itinerary I couldn’t believe the path that they had their main event fighter traveling. I spent all day in and out of airports and on and off planes. I was appalled that they were so cheap that they could not get me and my cornerman a direct flight to Edmonton or put me and my cornerman on the same flight. I flew from San Antonio to Phoenix with a 2 hour layover. Then I was off to Denver for another 4 hour layover and then to Edmonton landing at 8:45pm. All in all, 7.5 hours of flight time but a 14 hour travel day. My corner man’s route was even worse. He went from San Antonio to Phoenix to Minnesota to Edmonton arriving at 11:30pm only to get held up at immigration for another 3 hours.
As soon as I arrive, I don’t get a break. I have to go to a local radio station to do an interview and hype up the fight which was cool but I really didn’t want to do it. Being the professional that I am, I did the interview anyway. On the way over, Mark was tooting his horn on what a great promoter he is etc, which may be true but I didn’t care. Finally my night is over and I can go try to get some rest.
Thursday afternoon, I get a call from my cornerman Rodrigo saying that he has to go back to the airport and deal with immigration some more. He said he would call me when he got back. Well the official weigh in was at 4pm and around 3:30 I hadn’t heard from Rodrigo yet so I called his room. Front desk says he checked out and I knew shit was going wrong then! I told the event guy that I think my cornerman may be having some issues and may be sent back to the U.S. and could he find out what was going on. All he did was call the front desk and tells me that he’ll be back but he wont be able to get his same room and that he would have to bunk with me. To myself I was thinking…. “What does the front desk have to do with immigration? Mark was quick to tell me about this company that he has working for him that can get anyone in the country etc but made no effort to keep Rodrigo in to corner me. His quote, “If they can get 50 cent in the country, they can get anyone in here!” Yeah right! Well, the next time I hear from Rodrigo is around 11pm saying that he just landed in San Antonio and that they sent him back! Great, déjà vu all over again, Pete Spratt vs. GSP in 2003! Now, I am scrambling to find me a team to corner me. Fortunately, Tom Vaughn (WEC Welterweight Champ Carlos Condit’s trainer) from Albuquerque steps up to help me out. He had I think 4 other fighters on the card as well and I appreciate the help that he and his team gave me. Now for the 1st time I had to wrap my own hands, apply my gloves and tape my own gloves. I had about 10 minutes of warm up time with Tom and gave it my best considering the circumstances! I did not realize that I would be in the ring with a guy that likes to break the rules. Had I known that, I would have been dirty myself. Was it just me or has anyone else noticed the gynecomastia tits on Ford? I really don’t know much about it but upon research I found that that is a direct side effect of Anabolic Steroid use! I am 37 years old and one thing I have never done is cheat at any level of my athletic career. Some people will do anything to win no matter what the cost but I hold myself and my values at a different level. Now I cant say that using HGH hasn’t crossed my mind since I’m getting older but I would never use performance enhancing drugs. You could randomly drug test me at any point and I guarantee that I would be clean every time!
Back to the point at hand, Sven Bean, my manager sent Mark an email stating that we would like an immediate rematch on neutral territory and that I would not fight him on his show. Well for some reason Mark sends a rematch contract anyway after we already said I wont fight for his show again! Not only that, but a contract he knew we would not agree too! Now the rematch contract stated I would rematch Ford in May at MFC 16! If I win, I was to have a rubber match with Ford before the end on 2008 at the MFC again for the same pay as 2 previous fights. Now, why in the world would I agree to go to this guy’s backyard for 3 fights in a row after being treated so eloquently in my first fight there? Makes a whole lot of sense for me doesn’t it? I am not one to complain, I just simply state the facts.
Pavelich is classless and has no character and I would never associate myself with him or his promotion ever again. I will be vindicated maybe once Ford gets off of parole but a rematch will happen one day hopefully before I retire!
MFC vice president, Dave Pavelich, responded in a post on MMA.tv saying:
Let me start off by saying that direct flights from Texas to Edmonton are very rare, we appologize that the airline companies make a couple of stops before landing in Edmonton, because you had a 14 hour travel time this makes us cheap? Now your corner man was sent back by immigration because it is illegal to travel from the U.S to Canada on a work Visa? If he ahd a criminal record the lady which is employed by our company would have been able to keep your cornerman in the country - like we did for you Spratt.
Let’s get one thing straight please, you never had to do anything! you we’re not forced to do radio but we’re asked if you would like to join, you could of easily declined the offer but thank you for being professional and accepting doing the interview and then “Complaining about it after?”
It seems to me that most of your post or “blog” would be a bash on Ford - again “Rule’s” “Regulation’s” “Gloves” “Tapping Hand’s” is all the “Boxing Commission” and really as no reflection on the MFC.
Now negociation of a rematch were in place, well if he’s giving you an Automatic rematch (really its Ford’s choice he really doesn’t have to) you should have the respect to give him one back now this is only my opinion. It is also common practice that if a fighter losses a fight he fights the next fight for the same “money/purse” as he did in his previous fight.
To me your bashing comments do not make any sense, we treated you with the utmost respect and just because you had a long flight, did a twenty minute radio interview that you call “us” classless and without Character - highly rude and unacceptable.
Sorry about your continued bad luck travelling to Canada.
Sincerely,
Dave Pavelich MFC/VP
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Extreme Bias For:
Heath Herring-Josh Barnett-Roxy Modafferi-Kazushi Sakurauba-Murrillo Bustamante-Tatsuya Kawajiri-Megumi Fujii-Dan Henderson-Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria-Kazuyuki Fujita-Hideki Kadowaki
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Pete Spratt And Mark Pavelich Have Words Over MFC 15 Happenings
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