MMA INTERVIEWS
RIch Bergerons 25 million dollar lawsuit
Rich Bergeron is a self-proclaimed "little blogger from Cape Cod." Yet, his blog (www.unlimitedfightnews.com/wordpress) contains all sorts of information on MMA, companies involved in MMA and the politics behind it. Fight news sounds pretty simple, right? A few fight reports here and there, who’s calling out who, who just signed a contract, pretty tame stuff all around at first glance. Not many scandals to uncover there, not much hard-hitting reporting to do, right?....well, you’re wrong if that’s what you think.
What I’m asking here is how did this guy end up involved in a 25 MILLION DOLLAR lawsuit against him brought by Xyience, a supplement company that just went into bankruptcy earlier this year? The company is perhaps best known for its “Xenergy” drink and its huge logo that used to grace the centre of the UFC octagon. I asked him a few questions recently about this bizarre scenario he finds himself in. I also asked for his take on the involvement of the Fertitta brothers, 90 percent owners of Zuffa, the UFC’s parent company. Bergeron is currently pursuing a counterclaim against both Xyience and Fertitta Enterprises in an adversary proceeding in bankruptcy court.
He has assembled a whole page of court-related material and documentation at:
www.unlimitedfightnews.com/xyience.htm
Here’s how he handled my questions:
Firstly what got you interested in the Xyience case?
I actually was trying to get sponsored by them in the very beginning when the Fight News Unlimited concept was just a MySpace page. I got an email from one of their people, and I mentioned offhand to one of my other contacts that I was thinking of putting a proposal together to send out to Xyience.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he said, and he sent me an email he’d received and told me I might want to look into it.
So, I read the e-mail and there were docket numbers in it that I checked out by way of old research methods I used as an investigative reporter in New Hampshire. I ended up putting a lot of time into writing my initial report on the information I garnered from the e-mail and the fruits of my research based on the e-mail’s claims. The story just kept ballooning more and more with each day. It went from one crooked ex-con stealing money behind people’s backs to a group of people worth billions of dollars committing massive amounts of fraud to make a few bucks more for themselves at the expense of a ton of innocent victims.
How do you see the Fertitta brothers to be involved in the case?
It’s not as much a matter of how I see them involved, it’s how they are involved. The Fertittas are the owners of Station Casinos, a very significant Nevada taxpayer and a business worth so many billions that it catapulted both Frank Fertitta III and Lorenzo Fertitta onto the Forbes 500 list. These are the guys who bankrolled the UFC when it was about to die, but back then nobody seemed to raise an eyebrow about the Fertitta Family’s illustrious history in Mafia circles. Nobody even thought about the problem that might arise due to huge gambling interests running a fight league people could bet on. Frank Fertitta, Jr. was actually the person in charge of the counting room the movie “Casino” is based on. He perfected the skim so artistically that the FBI had him on a wiretap talking about the process of rigging the scales at the casino, and he still escaped accountability.
To make a long story short, if you read some of my blogs you’ll get a better idea of what people mean when they try to claim the Fertittas are “clean” now. They may not be out shooting people or pulling off daring bank heists or any other old familiar mafioso activities, but these guys are still mobsters. They’re corporate mobsters, taking out anyone who stands in their way with legal maneuvers and downright devious corporate takeovers.
Now, the Fertittas became involved in my case because my initial stories mentioned how Xyience came to be partnered with the UFC through close ties between Dana White and Xyience Founder Russell Pike’s wife Jennifer. Dana, Lorenzo Fertitta, and Frank Fertitta III all went to the same school at one point: Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas. One of my initial sources laid everything out for me describing an absolutely mind-numbing conspiracy going on between Pike and White to get Xyience investors to pay for advertising that Spike TV initially gave to the UFC for free.
How did Xyience file a lawsuit against you outside Nevada seeing as lawsuits don’t usually cross state lines?
There is a great deal of leeway when it comes to “jurisdiction” in the Untied States. However, usually a person has to qualify under several conditions that make jurisdiction “proper” in a given area. I hit the books, did a bunch of research, and tried to challenge jurisdiction with my first motion in the case, but I didn’t convince the judge. It didn’t help that the judge was endorsed for his seat (Nevada judges get elected to the bench rather than appointed) by Station Casinos, owned by Fertitta Enterprises. Station Casinos even put out election handbooks to pass out to all their casino patrons. I brought up the judge’s connection to the Fertittas a few times, but he didn’t recuse himself until he came across a lawyer working for Xyience who had a previous working relationship with him.
You have mentioned on www.mmalinker.com that you are "in the process of trying to put together a documentary on the whole thing with an actual production company." Can you elaborate on this, i.e. when it will be released/if you have any clips from it or links to clips, etc..
I don’t want to go out on a limb just yet, but I can tell you there’s a guy in Seattle who contacted me wanting to do a documentary that will tell my story. He’s done some other MMA related stuff and has a bunch of huge connections with big name folks in the industry and in media. I’m going to continue working with him and see what he has in mind and how he wants to go about things. I imagine it will be easier to get the project accomplished when the case ends, which should be before the end of this year. For now the only clips available on the whole saga are on my YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/fightnewsunlimited
How long has the case gone on for and how long do you think it will?
So far the case has been longer than your average woman’s pregnancy. It started July 18, 2007 and is now going into June of 2008, so it’s actually coming up on an anniversary soon. Not bad for a guy representing himself. As far as how long it should go, it’s really impossible to tell. The case against me should be over by June 25th when the scheduling conference is supposed to happen. If all goes well that conference will be designed for the counterclaims in the case alone. Those proceedings could easily drag on into next year. I expect there to be a trial on the counterclaims by next summer, if it goes that far. I suspect the other side to settle before a trial makes things really ugly for them. Both opposing lawyers already complained in the most recent hearings about the strain of the legal fees on their respective clients. I think once the judge makes his decision on the May 14, 2008 hearings I’ll keep pushing toward discovery and trying to get them to continue paying those outrageous legal fees while I only have to pay for the court’s telephonic appearance service. I can go on forever while they will eventually have to decide whether or not it’s worth paying hundreds of dollars an hour to keep on fighting a losing battle.
What do you feel will be the outcome of the case and do you feel it will have any effects on the world of MMA?
I have a good feeling that I will win in the long run, but whatever happens with my case it won’t make a dent in the MMA world just on the basis of a win in court. What will make an impact is what comes long after a win on my behalf. I’ll write a book, do that documentary, maybe even write a screenplay. By then the other MMA leagues will be ready to strike the death blow to the UFC, and if Karma is for real then the Fertittas and Dana White will finally get what they deserve at that point.
Have you been in contact with any of the shareholders who agree with you stance on the Xyience situation?
I talk to shareholders all the time. I’ve maintained contact with a bunch of them, though lately there hasn’t been as much interaction as there was when I was really following the saga as more of a reporter than a lawyer. One shareholder was telling me at one point he wanted to fly me out to Vegas to sit down with a bunch of attorneys in order to really go after all the perpetrators. He changed his mind since then, but it still might happen since I will eventually need to go to Vegas to get a feel for the setting of my future book. In a few weeks I might be able to afford to fly out there on my own if the judge rules in my favor.
Also, I had a lot more shareholders trying to shut me up at the beginning who are now heaping praise on me. At first they were angry at me for telling the truth, but now they thank me all the time for it. People I knew were connected to Xyience were leaving really nasty comments on my stories and calling me a homo and a liar among other insults. It’s been a really wild ride to go from taking so much crap from all those folks to fielding their best wishes and their highest complements.
Is it true that you were offered just 1,000 dollars to settle out of court?
That is true, but that was just the first offer. As my own attorney I didn’t know at that point what I could and couldn’t do as far as settlement negotiations. I wasn’t sure if asking for a flat number could leave me open to extortion charges. I was pretty uneducated about the legal points I know fairly well now. The attorney kept asking me to name a number, but I wouldn’t. Here are the links to the two-part recording of that little settlement conference:
http://unlimitedfightnews.com/xyience/xyiencecounselcogburn.mp3
http://unlimitedfightnews.com/xyience/xyiencecounselcogburnpart2.mp3
The second offer came in after Fertitta Enterprises took over Xyience and brought in a couple real corporate crooks as Co-CEOs. Adam Frank and Kirk Sanford arranged through Xyience to have me flown down to UFC 78 in Newark, New Jersey in November of 2007. After that trip was over and done with they told me in an email that they only ever planned to offer me $5,000 total to end the case. I asked for a million dollars, and they refused it, so I continued to fight the case and publish reports of their planned bankruptcy of Xyience.
How much money do you feel your body of research is worth and would you ever settle out of court?
That’s a pretty hard question to answer. It’s really priceless considering the great lengths I’ve gone to in order to keep fighting for the whole story. I wouldn’t be doing all this if the stuff I wrote wasn’t totally true and based on countless hours of digging and making phone calls to a bunch of insiders and people in the know. And the digging wasn’t done the traditional way with a journalistic shovel. I went about it more like an archaeologist would. I’ve stripped away the thin layers of dirt and rock inch by inch, being careful not to disturb the integrity of the whole thing.
Beyond the stories themselves I’ve produced a great deal of information’s come out of the process of being my own attorney. I’ve done a vast amount of research on the Fertittas, the other principal players in the scandal, and even the new owners of Xyience. I’ve given the better part of the last year and a half to tracking down the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
If I had to put a solid number on the value of my part of the story itself, it would be in the high millions. That’s what a movie and book deal will garner me in the long run, I think. As far as settling, I don’t think I can at this point. There’s too much riding on me taking this thing full throttle to the end of the track.
A couple million in cash might change my mind. Appeal after appeal on any judgment I get could potentially have the case going on for years, so if I can get the thing settled on good terms without any agreement on my behalf to suppress anything I might consider it, but it’s a long shot. They won’t be inclined to settle at all since it will be so embarrassing to give up against such an amateur attorney.
If these court cases did eventually lead to the collapse of the UFC management system, who do you think will take over?
I’ve gone back and forth on the whole idea of the UFC being in a tight spot right now. At times I’ve noticed all the indicators are there that prove that the UFC is in trouble even without my case. Yet, the very fact that the UFC management and ownership is so well known and powerful makes me doubt that there will be any collapse. If anything, they will sell the whole thing if it gets to be too much to handle. I’m thinking Vince McMahon will end up with it in the long run. The Fertittas are heavily leveraged in their casino interests, and a few other bad investments have put them in a rough position of late from what I’ve heard. Dana White is spending money like it’s going out of style since getting the huge multi-million dividends from the $350 million Zuffa senior secured credit facility last summer. If Dana gets used to having all that cash on hand he might try to persuade the Fertittas to unload the brand before the competition starts really gaining any huge ground.
What precedence do you feel this case will have on free speech if any?
If it goes to the U.S. District Court level, which is where I plan to take it, it could have a huge impact on free speech. More so than the First Amendment, though, this case is about an individual representing himself against two corporations now. The case could really be about anything, and the issue itself would still pale in comparison to the principle of one man with no legal experience succeeding against multiple law firms and attorneys hired by two big corporations. That would be simply unheard of. Still, there is also a chance this thing could make it all the way to the Supreme Court, and then it would be a landmark case that would have a great historical impact. I don’t believe from what I’ve read and researched that blogs and other Internet communication have really been adequately tested at the appropriate level as far as free speech and First Amendment law. I’d love to be the one who sets the ultimate precedent, but at the same time I don’t look forward to whatever outrageously long process I’ll have to engage in to get it that far.
I have heard a lot of people on the internet refer to you as a crackpot just because you took on this company by yourself. What do you have to say to people like that?
Ha ha, well, it’s simple. I’d ask anyone who thinks that to put themselves in my shoes. What would you do if you had no money, no access to a lawyer, and you knew you were innocent? If I just let them steamroll me I’d be on the hook for $25 million bucks. That would take more than a lifetime to pay off. I have enough credit card debt as it is, LOL. Besides, the last time I checked people have completely come full circle and stopped criticizing me. Most people give me praise for what I’m doing now, because they realize I was right all along. I predicted the Xyience bankruptcy a month before it happened, and Zach Arnold (fightopinion.com) even called me Nostradamus in one of his pieces.
Any way you slice it, I’d rather be a piss-poor lawyer who fought for what I believed in than a coward who turned tail and ran. It wasn’t all that hard looking back now at the whole process. Of course it was frustrating and required long hours of research and writing motions, but I knew in the long run not giving up and doing what seemed at first to be impossible would inspire others to do the same in similar situations. I got a lot of inspiration myself from a guy who became his own lawyer and started his own Web-site to battle a big corporation trying to railroad him. Go to www.taubmansucks.com to see how he handled the situation. I just hope someday in the future people will gain the same inspiration from my Xyience page: http://www.unlimitedfightnews.com/xyience.htm
My first impression of Rich Bergeron has only changed slightly since he answered my questions. Firstly he is a perfectionist at heart, this became evident when he corrected some of my numberous grammatical errors when he received my questions.This is visible in all of his reports. He appears to me to be a man who is willing to take his belief in his body of work to a whole other level that most “small bloggers" would never dream of. As for Zach Arnold calling Rich a Nostradamus, I would have to disagree he is a investigator as he says his methods are more like that of “an archaeologist” than a those of a journalist. He has a keen eye for detail and is highly perceptive. These traits are a far cry from what many have referred to him as being a crackpot. Most people based their crackpot theory on the fact that he was taking on a corporation single handedlyand also the layout of his website resembles that of a a scattered conspiracy theorists. But what those people failed to mention was that he has done a very fine job of single handedly rowing this landmark case towards the shore thus far. Before you form an opinion on Rich I urge you to read into his work at the links provided bellow. If he is successful then the world of MMA will surely change. The UFC will be forced to adapt its methods. My final word on his body of work is that it is truly inspiring and his story proves that the little man does indeed have a chance.
Donal Mc Guinness
Here are the links to court recordings of his most recent hearings:
http://premium.fileden.com/premium/2007/9/16/1434673/xyiencemotiontodismisshearing.mp3
http://premium.fileden.com/premium/2007/9/16/1434673/xyiencemay14fertittadismissalmotion.mp3
http://premium.fileden.com/premium/2007/9/16/1434673/xyiencecourthearing.mp3
Interview with Mkick the creator of MMArmy online game
My most recent obsession as of late comes in the form of a free online MMA simulation called MMArmy- click here
The basic jist of the game is that you set up a gym and name a manager. From here you hire fighters to fight for your team, buy equiptment, sign your contracts, customize your look, spar and many many more options to complete your fighter and GET IT ON in the cage (or ring wherever it may be). You must also choose a primary and secondary style. Sounds easy right........
There is more to this game than meets the eye. Fighters may well have hidden stats and you must also choose your oponents carefully and try to summise what style they are and how best to counter this. There is a very well designed ranking system that rewards you for fighting higher ranked oponents.
I became so enthralled by MMArmy that I decided to ask the creator of the game Rick Wiltsie aka MKick a few questions of my own.
How would you sum up your game?
MMArmy is a statistically driven multiplayer online game centered on running a team of mixed martial arts fighters. I consider it open ended in the sense that the goal is whatever you choose to make the goal. Want to establish your camp as the team to beat? Go for it. Want to rise to the top organization in the world? Do it. Want to be the champion? Why not.
First of all what made you decide to make an mma game?
Oh wow. Long story. There are really three different elements that tie it all together.
I've always had a fascination with programming, even since I was a little kid. The video games that caught my attention were the ones that allowed me to customize, such as Starcraft, and SimCity. Naturally I've dedicated my career to various types of programming, leaning more towards web based applications.
I'm sure I'm more or less committing suicide by saying this, but pro wrestling had a lot to do with it. I was (and still am... sue me) a huge fan of pro wrestling. There was a wonderful game where you could take control of a single organization and put on matches, storylines, etc etc, called EWR by Adam Ryland. Excellent game, and it really showed me that statistically driven games don't have to be dull and lifeless.
When the first season of The Ultimate Fighter debuted it was originally airing following wrestling. Naturally I checked it out and I was hooked. Yup... I'm a TUF noob. I've since fallen in love with the sport watching many different organizations, and even training a little on and off.
Knowing those three elements it's not hard to see how it all came about. It just made sense really.
When did you start making it?
I had toyed with the idea on and off since early 06 I think, but nothing was actually put into practice till May/June 07.
How long did it take you to make it for initial release?
We released it live on Jan 15,2008 after a solid 2 months of beta testing.
How many registered players do you have at the moment?
we are over 15,000 accounts registered now. Though not all of them are active at the moment. I'm not one to bullshit numbers to make my cause look better than it is. We have about 3000 active members.
Is their any one style that you feel is dominant above the rest in the game or would that be letting the cat out of the bag?
Not really. The game was developed heavily with the idea of balance being important, so all styles have strengths and weaknesses much like in reality. It's funny, because if you look at the game trends (even dating into the beta testing), you'll see strings of dominance of a single style until someone figures out the counter, and then that is popular, and so on and so forth. That cycle is only now ending I think.
I know you just recently updated the game with extra features to stop titles being held in multiple weight divisions, do you plan on many more upgrades to the game or do you feel its near completion?
MMArmy will never be complete. We aim to add in new material as frequently as we can, be it new shop items, or new game mechanics. It's a work in progress and it will stay that way.
The game is completely free to play apart from some customizing features of the charters appearance, seeing as free games like this are appearing less and less what made you decide to release it for free?
We felt so strongly about what we made and had such a passion for it that we wanted to the world to see it and enjoy it. The primary goal was to build a community. If you have that, profit will follow naturally.
Do you have any plans in the future to charge for the game?
Well, as you know we initiated premium accounts just a while back. But there will always be a place for someone to play for free. In creating premium memberships we wanted to establish aesthetic adjustments, and not statistical ones. I hate games where the person who pays the most money wins, and I wouldn't allow MMArmy to come to that. So with premium memberships we are focusing on updates that don't skew the balance.
Do you have any updates planned?
Tons. But I'll talk about those when the time is right...
What organization in the game do you find to be the most stacked at the moment?
EFC has been the most consistently stacked company for a long time now, and I don't see that changing with the companies long history.
To your knowledge who was the longest reigning champion in the history of the game?
I know Atlas Lapointe had a helluva streak running. Bryan "Burgertime" Anderson and Brett "Overweight" Johnson had a great feud over the EFC title and racked up numerous titles, but I don't think either held it consecutively enough to make that claim.
My camps name is the Irish Pride and my managers name is Impurenergy, will you power level my characters stats for me until I am a SUPER FIGHTER.........?
Sure I just added a new hidden stat for "special". Your fighters are all really special now. Good for them. :) (it was worth a try)
Do you have a camp in the game personally? If so give details?( Mainly because I want to say I fought the guy who made it in one match personally to me it would be like fighting Dana White in the cage albeit your probably not anywhere as evil as dana white or the Zuffa brothers):>
I do have an in game camp, but I don't like to give out to the public. I don't want people watching my camp under a microscope, and would like to just enjoy the game like everyone else. But odds are, you've probably fought me at one point or another.
I would like to thank Mkick for replying to these questions .....and for adding the "special ability" to my characters :>.I definitely recommend it for any MMA fan.The link again for this addictive game is www.mmarmy.com
My next interview will be with Rich Bergeron a man being sued for 25 million dollars by Xyience for a scathing body of work that he compiled. Did I mention hes also representing himself in court?
Donal Mc Guinness
AKA Tom Tiwan, AKA Impurenergy