I don’t know you, I certainly don’t owe you anything, but fine, lets do it…..
In late may I began urinating blood, at first I ignored it because some friends had mentioned a similar problem and I figured it would pass. Shortly thereafter it became worse so I went to my doctor… Some samples were taken and some tests were done, then I went back, some more samples were taken and some more tests were done… then finally one very painful test was done and in late June my doctor diagnosed me with having prostate cancer.
I am self employed and I do not have health insurance. After consulting with the doctor and hospital I agreed to do ACH payments for my past due bills and to continue doing them throughout the treatment process or until I ran out of money and we would review more options.
This week I began treatment, I put it off until after our first show.
But lets move back to exactly what you are talking about…
I have absolutely bounced some checks, never intentionally, and never maliciously and all have either been taken care of or are right now in the process of being taken care of.
I have sponsored fighters to wear my clothing companies Tee shirt numerous times.. and really without much upside to the clothing company, but I have a lot of respect for the fighters and I suppose a lot of fighters got word that I would help them out if they needed it. I have in the past given sponsorships to fighter so that they could buy a part to get their car on the road so that they could make it to the gym, given sponsorship to fighters so that they had the money to take a jiu jitsu seminar that they could not afford, given sponsorships to a fighter who has a pregnant wife and needed help paying gym dues, fighters who couldn’t afford licenses, medicles, rent, the list goes on and on… I have never once said no to a fighter that approached me needing help, even if I didn’t feel the fighter was the best representation for my clothing brand…. who am I to judge, they work hard and deserve a break. On a side note, nobody has ever come on and given any type of credit for any of these things with the exception of a sentence by Jason Franklin saying I put fighters first, but I never really did anything for credit, just to help out someone who was down.
Most of the fighters I sponsored let the sponsorship end with wearing a Tee Shirt to the cage (even though my contract specifically states that they have to wear it immediately following the conclusion of the fight and they are required to spend a certain amount of time at my booth), I have never seen a picture of seen live a fighter doing anything other than getting there hand raised shirtless after a fight with the exception of 2 fighter. I have also never seen any of these fighters go to any extent to be an ambassodor for my brand, promoting the product and company on their social network or sending someone to my website to buy something, etc… again, I never made issue of it because I was just helping out. The exceptions to this would be Fred Mandraccia and Mike Polvere, both went above and beyond to promote my brand… others forgot to even bring my Tee shirt or wore the gym tee shirt or tee shirts with their works information written in ketchup, etc.
In late June, early July I was battling the depression of this news, the stress of running a first show and dealing with the fact that I have a 20 month old daughter who needs a father. I did not pay close enough attention to my banking at that point and bounced a few checks.
One to Anthony Kaponis, one to Premier FC and one to Joe Reverdes, all of them were taken care of in cash plus penalty within 10 days.
Prior to that in Mid June I bounced a check to Paul Barry, I have tried a few times to make it out to settle this and I had an envelope in my back pocket at the show for him but he did not attend, as soon as I complete this post I am heading to the post office to mail him a money order.
I commited to all of my sponsorships as well as some random employment before I had any knowledge of what was to come and while I still had plenty of money in the bank to cover my living expenses plus help some fighters out with theirs… I gave a friend 150.00 to make some phone calls to gyms because he had broken his arm in a cage and was unable to work and has yet to get any word from the insurance company on being reimbursed for his surgery, I gave another friend 450 to send a simple questionairre out to fighter because he needed money to buy an engagement ring, at the time I agreed to these things, which I am more than capable of doing myself plus sponsorships I was in a much healthier financial and physical place.
Some sponsorships I gave out because I couldn’t keep payroll under its budget for our show and I really wanted a fighter so I did a sponsorship to cover the difference because again at the time it was not an issue….
My first very large, ACH payment came on August 2nd,there were a tring of smaller ones before this. I never even opened the piece of mail telling me it was coming and it created an upside down effect that I was not expecting…
As of right now I have 4 outstanding debts 1 was sent last night, 2 will be sent today and the 4th on tuesday…
Up until this exact moment 5 people in the world had knowledge of this, my business partners, and 3 people i consider close friends, those of you that know me personally and know Rachel and my daughter, I request that you do not mention this to them as I plan on having the conversation in person tomorrow night.
Mike is very capable and accomplished and he can proceed forward without me for the time being. We accomplished something that not a lot of people can accomplish… We didn’t lose any money on the first show, factoring in the 8-12k in extra expenses a first show has in a post comission era that is not an easy task.
The point of contact for any issues is me, with butcher shop my partner anthony and I dissolved our partnership on July 31st and I would be the one who does all final sponsorship payouts, my email is
johnsepulvedari@yahoo.com.
And thats all I have to say about any of this… good luck to all, hope to see you soon.
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Originally Posted by Hurdleking
