Sponsoring an Olympic athlete in a title fight generally seems like a sound investment within the realm of MMA. Even if they lose, they’re still Olympians and worshipped everywhere they go. Rick Hawn is no exception. Dude is straight classy. Even when his sponsor stiffs him, he doesn’t give up the name of the deadbeat sponsor out of respect and hope that they’ll do the right thing. That’s way nicer than he needs to be. If it were most other fighters, they’d probably make sure that company got lit-up on social media and legal representatives from all angles.
The truth of the matter is, Rick Hawn and I are a team. Every time they show his highlight reel on television, I see my red Yankees hat sitting ringside photographing his famous Judo hip-toss. His success is important to me because I want to keep seeing myself on every Bellator broadcast from now until the sun melts the earth, so if Rick Hawn is annoyed by this situation, I am too. This is what Rick Hawn said about the ordeal on his official Facebook page.
So one of my main sponsors from my fight canceled his check cuz he wasnt happy with the outcome or my performance. Read his explanations below.
Its funny how all my pics wearing his product are still up on his company pages even after he says and does all this stuff!!
A lawsuit is pending so I cannot comment on who it is just yet but stay tuned.
In a nutshell, following his loss to Michael Chandler, Rick Hawn shared this response from one of his sponsors, and that’s all we know with regards to them stiffing him.
“At this point, a stop payment has been placed on check which cannot be cashed or deposited now”
“I will not comment on Rick and his fight. That is not my place. But what I will tell you is this: I took a huge chance with him. TV exposure was great…but it only holds weight if he wins or puts on a good show. Neither happened. At the end of the day…not one soul will run to [my] store and buy product because they [saw my logo and saw] Rick lose the fight. I’ve made it my career and business to know what nets a return on investment for the brand…and this is the number 1 reason why I DO NOT hand out money or product to fighters.”
