Former Monster photographer Courtney Hendo is the latest to speak out against Hans Molenkamp.
Molenkamp — a Monster executive — has been in the headlines ever since Dominick Cruz called him out in his post-fight interview at UFC 259 earlier this month.
Cruz notably claimed Molenkamp held fighters hostage by threatening their Monster contracts if they didn’t do as he wished. He proceeded to challenge Molenkamp to a charity fight soon after.
Hendo backed up Cruz’s claims of being held hostage by Molenkamp as he was on the receiving end of it as well.
“If you look at his social media, it seems he’s the cool guy, the fun guy,” Hendo said in a recently uploaded video (via MMA Junkie). “He’s around all these elite fighters. you know. He’s the cool guy, but behind the scenes, these guys are forced to interact with him. They’re forced to do all the antics, get the Monster can kicked out of their hand, and do all this stupid stuff and these crazy, funny videos. They’re forced to do that.
“If they don’t do that, what happens is that they will lose their contract. They’re pretty much held hostage. And that was the same thing with me.”
Hendo Was Blackballed By Molenkamp
Hendo went on to explain how Molenkamp’s treatement of him eventually led him to quit his role.
“He acts like you’re sh*t, he treats you like you’re nothing,” Hendo explained. “So the way he talked to me in public, around fighters, around other people, it was like I was a kid. … I was at my nephew’s football game, and Hans called me that day and said, ‘I need you to come to L.A. today.’ This was on a Saturday. No prior, ‘Hey, man, tomorrow we’re going to L.A.,’ nothing. It was when he calls you have to stop everything you’re doing – even fighters. When he calls, everything you’re doing, I don’t care if you’re at your wedding, you have to stop everything you’re doing, and you have to attend (to) Hans.
“So he called me when I was at my nephew’s game. He told me to come to L.A. because he was going to L.A., and I told him I couldn’t because I was at my nephew’s game. He told me, ‘When I tell you to do something, you do it.’ I’m a 36-year-old man. I’m 36. ‘When I tell you do so something you do it?’ You know what, Hans, you have to find someone else you can talk to like that. That’s it. I had enough, so I quit.”
Of course, that led to Molenkamp allegedly blackballing the photographer from doing work with anyone in the mixed martial arts world.
“‘If you do business with Courtney, you lose your contract.’ Hendo added of the message Molenkamp told MMA fighters and gym owners contracted to Monster. “So ultimately, I couldn’t work in MMA, I was blackballed. And since I was blackballed, I damn near went homeless, and that’s the truth. I couldn’t make money in the sport – the field I built my career on. But I was blessed enough to save some money on the side to open up my studio, and it took me two years to get this thing going, and I had to sleep on the floor until I got this thing up.”
As the weeks go by, it appears more and more stories will come to light of Molenkamp and his conduct as a Monster executive.
