Martial arts fighter sues former N.J. Partners
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
By HUGH R. MORLEY
STAFF WRITER
Brazilian jujitsu fighter Wallid Ismail is suing a North Jersey corporation for $10 million in U.S. District Court in Newark, saying four former business partners broke a multimillion-dollar deal with him. For 20 years, Wallid Ismail was a winner in the brutal, fast- growing sport of mixed martial arts, building a worldwide reputation as an aggressive fighter and able businessman. Now, he is squaring off against four former business associates in a U.S. District Court in Newark.
The Brazilian jujitsu fighter has filed suit against Pro Elite Inc., a New Jersey corporation formed to promote the sport, claiming the company’s three principals and another partner broke a multimillion-dollar deal with him to mass market the sport. The suit, filed Jan. 9, seeks compensation of more than $10 million for Ismail’s contribution to creating Pro Elite, which the fighter says was founded with the knowledge he gained from his 20 years fighting and promoting the sport through his company, Jungle Fight Championship. Ismail, 38, says Secaucus-based Pro Elite broke its promise to give him a $250,000 job promoting and organizing fights, a position now held by Gary Shaw, a well-known boxing promoter from Wayne.
The fighter also says he never got the 25 percent or so share of the company that was promised. But Pro Elite – a public company that recently signed a deal with Showtime – says the deal with Ismail was never sealed. A Jan. 2 suit filed by the company in Los Angeles says talks with the fighter broke down in September, shortly before the deal was to close. It says the partnership foundered on Ismail’s statement that he owned sole rights to a Jungle Fight Web site that could be part of the new company. In fact, according to the suit, Pro Elite learned that Ismail probably had partners in the Web site, which then could not be part of the new venture.
“There is no enforceable agreement, or any agreement,” between Pro Elite and Ismail, the suit says. A spokesman for Pro Elite said the company would not comment beyond the papers. The legal battle and Pro Elite’s vigorous efforts to promote mixed martial arts reflect the growing interest in the sport. That fan base also fueled the creation of International Fight League, a mixed martial arts venture created by Bergen County entrepreneurs Kurt Otto and Gareb Shamus, which went public in December. Robert Routh, an analyst at New York-based Jeffries & Co., said the sport is growing because of the void left by the decline in boxing. Still, he said, it’s not yet clear whether mixed martial arts has a future.
“It may be a fad; it may not be,” he said. “It’s gotten traction.” In a sign of its ascent, Showtime in November announced a deal with Pro Elite to televise live mixed martial arts events. Shaw is the head of the Pro Elite division responsible for organizing the events. The promoter, a former chief inspector for the New Jersey State Athletic Control Commission, promoted fights by Mike Tyson in his later career. Shaw also owns Totowa-based Gary Shaw Productions, a boxing promoter. The promoter, who is not a defendant in the suit, declined to comment on Ismail’s claims. The fighter says that the Pro Elite’s deal with Showtime “would not have been possible” without his reputation and record as a promoter to give the new company credibility.
The suit says Ismail began promoting mixed martial arts fights in 1991, successfully mounting six fights, some of which were screened in 60 countries. The suit says Ismail made his name beating four members of a well known family of mixed martial arts fighters, the Gracie family. In one fight, according to the Pro Elite, Ismail choked one family member “unconscious in less than five minutes.” Chris Palmquist, editor in chief of the MaxFighting.com Web site, said Ismail is “known a little bit for his crazy antics.” Still, said Palmquist in an e-mail interview, “Wallid is a good businessman and fighter.” “He has contributed to the growth of the sport in that he helped to promote it and was fighting long before it was even close to popular,” he said.
Wallid’s suit names four California-based defendants – Doug De Luca, David Marshall, Kurt Brendlinger and Eric Pulier – that he says helped put the company together. De Luca is co-executive director of the “Jimmy Kimmel Live” show. Kimmel is a director of Pro Elite, but is not a defendant in the suit. Ismail, in an interview from California, said the defendants knew nothing about mixed martial arts when he met them. “I did everything for four months for these guys,” said Ismail. “They had never been in this sport; they had never been in an arena, didn’t know nothing about this sport.” Another defendant is a California-based investment company, Santa Monica Capital Partners, which helped start Pro Elite.
The suit says Santa Monica and the four defendants agreed to form a private company and then conduct a reverse merger with a public company, which they did. The venture merged with Pro Elite, which sold branded apparel, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The documents say the company raised $10 million in a private share placement in October. Santa Monica Capital Partners did not respond to a request for comment.
E-mail: morley@northjersey.com