Following his defeat in the Bellator season eight featherweight tournament final to Frodo Khasbulaev, Mike Richman considered moving down to the bantamweight division.
He initially brought up the idea following his defeat against Khasbulaev at the Bellator 95 Post Fight Press Conference.
After he talked with Bellator about a potential move, it appeared that he would be one of the four men in the Summer Series bantamweight tournament.
He was ready to make the move to the bantamweight, but his plans change once Bellator wanted him to sign a new contract as a bantamweight.
“I was supposed to be in the summer bantamweight tournament,” Richman said during Tuesday’s edition of The MMA Report Live. “They brought it up to me about the four man tournament and I was interested. Initially, I said I was going to do it and it was before they brought up the contract and money issues. I was under the assumptions that I was still going to be under the same pay scale. Then once I said I would do it, they wanted me to sign a new contract as a bantamweight. Unfortunately, right now with Bellator bantamweights, it would have been a pay cut for me.”
Richman did not want to go into details on how the contracts at featherweight and bantamweight are different in Bellator. He did state that if he moved down to bantamweight, he would be making half of what he is currently making as a featherweight.
“It would have been half as what I am making now fighting at featherweight. Dropping to bantamweight, I would have been making half the money. Once I found that out, it was either the four man bantamweight tournament or the eight man featherweight tournament in the fall, and I decided I would do the four man thing. I want to be a champion and I know I can beat and finish [Eduardo] Dantas, but then the money situation came up.”
If Richman had decided to move down to the 135 pound division, his expenses would have increased due to a new diet and cutting an additional ten pound to make weight. Just like everyone else in the world, Richman has bills and moving down in weight was not in his best financial interest.
“I am going to be spending more money to cut to cut down, eat healthy and eat one hundred percent clean. It was just not financially in my best interest to drop to bantamweight. I have a house. I have a mortgage. I have to pay child support. I have bills to pay. I enjoy being a full time prize fighter and it was just not financially good for me to drop down to bantamweight.”
Richman is known as one of the more exciting fighters in Bellator as four of his five wins in Bellator have come by knockout in the first round, including his win last Saturday night against Akop Stepanyan.
Bellator and the management team for Richman will be meeting soon to talk about his contract, which Richman was not sure how many fights are left on his current deal. He is still opened to moving to bantamweight as long as he is making the same amount he is making as a featherweight.
“I enjoy doing what I do but I also want to save money. I would definitely be interested in that if I could get paid more as a bantamweight. Right now, I am getting towards the end of my contract and that is what my manager and Bellator are going to be talking about in the next week or so in what’s next for me. Contract wise, tournament wise, payment wise and that is where I am at right now.”