Slim Trabelsi is now a Bellator MMA fighter after a dispute between managers that led to his UFC launch.
Bellator officers confirmed to MMA Combating Trabelsi’s transfer to the Paramount-owned promotion after an preliminary report from TSN’s Aaron Bronsteter. Based on a press launch from Dominance MMA, the contract is a “six-figure,” multi-fight, multi-year deal. His Bellator debut stays unbooked.
The administration agency discovered itself on the center of a dispute involving Trabelsi and Fernand Lopez, the heavyweight’s coach and promoter. Lopez claimed Trabelsi was nonetheless beneath contract and sure to the promotion he co-chairs, ARES FC. Dominance proprietor Ali Abdelaziz claimed he didn’t know Trabelsi was beneath contract and accused Lopez of holding the fighter in “slavery.”
Lopez didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from MMA Combating. However Lopez informed MMA reporter Cole Shelton that he deliberate to contest the brand new deal.
Concerning Slim Trabelsi: Fernand Lopez tells me Slim nonetheless is beneath contract with ARES FC and he received’t be letting him out of the deal to signal with Bellator. As soon as Bellator proclaims the deal he shall be submitting an injunction. #Bellator #MMA
— Cole Shelton (@ColeShelton91) April 27, 2023
A Bellator official declined to touch upon Lopez’s assertion. The MMA Manufacturing unit proprietor beforehand supplied to assign Trabelsi’s contract to Abdelaziz for 90,000 Euros however balked when the dispute spilled out into public.
Trabelsi informed MMA Combating that Abdelaziz is his supervisor and he wished to maneuver on from Lopez, whom he accused of holding again his profession.
“I don’t want nothing for [Lopez],” he stated. “I don’t need any drawback with him, however let me go.”
Lopez countered that Trabelsi, who hails from Tunisia however moved to Paris and not using a visa, stated he’d invested cash into the fighter that he anticipated to be recouped. He blasted Abdelaziz for interfering along with his consumer by strolling away from a legitimate contract.
“This isn’t the way in which to cope with folks,” he stated. “When you’re beneath a administration contract, stick with your supervisor, and when it’s over, you may transfer. Don’t do this. That’s fallacious to do this.”
Trabelsi is undefeated as a heavyweight professional, incomes a 4-0 document on the worldwide circuit together with back-to-back ARES wins. He was set to face Parker Porter at UFC 280 earlier than the administration dispute led to his launch.
