UPDATE ON THE LAWSUIT THAT DOESN'T SEEM TO WANT TO END- ALBERTO DEL RIO VS. COMBATE GLOBAL

 

There was a conference on Friday 11/12 in regard to the lawsuit filed by former WWE and Impact Wrestling Champion Jose Alberto Rodriguez Chucuan aka Alberto el Patron against MMA promotion Combate Global before the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Patron has alleged that he is owed $250,000 for his December 2019 MMA fight against Tito Ortiz and that Combate Global maintained control over his social media accounts even after the end of his relationship with the company.

The conference was brought about by Combate trying to have the lawsuit dismissed, stating Patron's lawsuit featured a "lack of subject matter jurisdiction and for failure to state a claim."  Patron's attorney obviously argued otherwise.  During the conference, the court approved that Chucuan will be allowed to file an amended lawsuit by 12/13 with Combate having to respond to that filing by 1/4/22.  The two sides will have to file any responses from those filings by 2/18/22.   That approval kicks Combate's dismissal attempts out of bounds as they will now have to respond to the amended complaint, after that is filed.  So, we are back to square one in the process.

Patron's original lawsuit, filed this past July, saw Patron allege that he signed an agreement with the company in September 2016 to become a “co-spokesman, color commentator, roving reporter, pre-fight and post-fight interviewer, on-camera personality, liaison for fighter relations and brand ambassador" for Combate Americas LLC, as the company was then known.

This is just as long and dragged out as the Jeff Jarrett vs Anthem Sports lawsuit was. 

The lawsuit noted, "The Agreement stated that compensation for Plaintiff Jose Alberto Rodriguez Chucuan, Inc. was for two-hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000.00) for the first year, to be paid monthly ($20,833.34 per month). If Mr. Rodriguez appeared as an on-camera, ringside commentator for televised or pay-per-view events, then Plaintiff Jose Alberto Rodriguez Chucuan, Inc. received another ten thousand dollars ($10,000.00) per event."

The two sides extended their deal for eight additional months, then agreed to extend for another two years beyond the initial term, one year at a time with the lawsuit noting, "The Agreement and the Amendment would total $883,333.36 ($83,333.36 for the first four months, $200,000 for the final eight months of the first term, then $600,000 for the final two years)."  The lawsuit states that Patron "performed all duties and services; and Defendants did not complain about the quality of those duties and services."

The lawsuit states that the agreement was terminated in July 2017 but two months later, Combate made an offer for him to fight Tito Ortiz with the agreement being he'd be paid $500,000 to promote the fight and another $250,000 to fight.  Alberto fought (and lost) to Ortiz and alleges the company has not paid him the $250,000 payday for the actual fight and have ignored invoices for the payment.

As part of the promotion for the fight, Patron alleges he gave Combate access to his social media accounts and "now that the parties have no working relationship, the Defendants refuse to answer questions about the social media accounts."

Patron is not asking for a jury trial.