It appeared heavyweight prospect Slim Trabelsi was one month away from making his UFC debut when the promotion suddenly released him from contract, just days after he agreed to the deal.
The sudden change got here consequently of a contractual dispute between the Tunisian-born fighter, his longtime coach Fernand Lopez, and high-profile manager Ali Abdelaziz.
As of now, Trabelsi is tied to a contract with Lopez, who owns The MMA Factory in France and in addition oversees the careers of several MMA Factory fighters because the owner of Management Factory. The manager and coach believes he’s Trabelsi’s rightful representative. He was willing to let Abdelaziz buy out a three-year management contract the heavyweight signed prior to his UFC deal – the initial asking price was 90,000 Euros.
Now, the offer is perhaps off the table.
Abdelaziz claims he didn’t know Trabelsi was represented by Lopez before arranging to book the fighter at UFC 280. He accuses Lopez, who amongst others reps ex-UFC interim heavyweight champ Ciryl Gane, of grandstanding and calls the heavyweight’s contract “slavery.”
Trabelsi said he’s unable to make a living and just desires to find a way to fight on the world’s biggest stage. But without delay, he’s certain to ARES Fighting Championships, the France-based promotion where he’s the heavyweight champion. Lopez co-founded and serves as ARES’ chairman, a position he claims is legal in France but appears to place him in violation of the country’s Code of Sport and U.S.-based athletic commissions.
“I don’t want any problems,” Trabelsi told MMA Fighting. “I’ll fight within the UFC, I’ll make my dreams and that’s all. I don’t need nothing for [Lopez]. I don’t want any problem with him, but let me go.”
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Originally from Tunis, Tunisia, Trabelsi arrived in France with out a visa or proper documentation to live and work within the country. Before trying MMA, he hoped to wrestle within the Olympic games. He said couldn’t afford to undergo the correct channels to receive his visa.
“I [have lived] in Europe for six years,” he told MMA Fighting. “I used to be qualified for the Olympics in 2016, and I left to Europe to alter my life, to make a recent profession. But I live here illegally. I actually have an issue with [documentation].
“I used to be a French champion in wrestling. I met Fernand Lopez, and he said to me, he’ll [help me learn] MMA. But after that, he just used me for sparring with Ciryl Gane, with [Francis] Ngannou. I used to be sleeping on the street for a very long time, for a lot of, a few years. I don’t have any documents, I’m illegal. He used me as he wanted all this time. He never helped me. He never did nothing for me. He could help make the documents so I could live here, but he didn’t, so I stayed like slave to him. He used me as he wanted.”
Trabelsi doesn’t consider Lopez acted in good faith when it got here to his profession because he never attempted to assist him gain legal status in France, which made him further beholden to his coach and manager.
Trabelsi, nevertheless, ended up signing with Lopez’s promotion, ARES. Due to his visa status, it made traveling to other countries incredibly difficult. He struggled to get fights frequently.
Things got here to a head with Lopez, partly, on account of Trabelsi opting to work with high-profile manager Abdelaziz, who also handles fighters equivalent to Kamaru Usman, Henry Cejudo and Kayla Harrison. Abdelaziz said he was told that Trabelsi wasn’t under contract with some other manager — a fact Lopez later disputed once the UFC deal got announced.
Lopez said he managed Trabelsi until the 29-year-old heavyweight asked to be released from his contract in August 2021, unhappy with the services he was receiving. Then, in May 2022, Lopez said Trabelsi apologized for wanting to sever business ties and ultimately returned to ink a recent three-year management deal.
“[I said], ‘Slim, I do know you,’” Lopez told MMA Fighting. “‘You might be someone who’s peaceful, but very offended inside. You’ve gotten something that I can’t tame. I’m pretty sure this message shouldn’t be you. I believe someone gave you advice to return back so you possibly can have something from me but I can’t work with someone who doesn’t consider in me. So don’t do this.’
“[He said], ‘That is me, coach, I recognize what I did. I’ll apologize to you, I would like to apologize to Ciryl [Gane], because sooner or later, I said Ciryl wasn’t helping me, he was just interested by himself. But that’s not true, I would like to consult with him, I would like to consult with you, I would like a second probability.’”
Serving as an MMA promoter and manager is universally seen as a conflict of interest within the combat sports industry. Lopez, nevertheless, claims it’s not a difficulty in France, where he runs his businesses.
“In France, it’s totally legal,” he said. “I’m not doing anything illegal.”
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After their initial split as coach and manager in 2021, Trabelsi said he traveled outside of France, hiding in cars, he said, to cross over borders between countries to fight; he still didn’t have legal documentation to work in Europe. He eventually competed twice in Levels Fight League, a company based in Holland. But he said Lopez attempted to interfere with that deal.
“He called the promoter of LFL and he said, ‘You will need to stop giving him fight in LFL,’ so I got here back to him,” Trabelsi said. “I got here back to fight in ARES.”
Multiple individuals with knowledge of the situations between Trabelsi and Lopez, who asked to stay anonymous, told MMA Fighting there was a conflict where Lopez “asked LFL not to offer Slim any more fights,” though he still ended up competing there on two separate occasions.
“I got here back to [Lopez] and I fought in ARES, and he said, ‘OK, you possibly can train in any gym you would like if you happen to cannot live in France – you possibly can train in any gym,’” Trabelsi said. “But after I fought with Luis Henrique, he said, ‘No, if you should fight for the belt in ARES, you will need to come to coach in my gym.’ … He said this so I’d must spar with Ciryl.”
Lopez disputes that there was nearly as much animosity with Trabelsi after the heavyweight returned to his gym and management firm. But he conceded that modified more recently when preparations were being made for Trabelsi’s ARES heavyweight title fight.
“He said to me, ‘You might be a foul guy, you lied to me that you’re going to train me,’” Lopez said. “‘I went in your gym, you train me only seven days, and then you definately went on vacation, you left me alone.’ That’s true, but I’m not a foul guy because I actually have 10 days’ vacation in a yr.
“I actually have a show coming up. I actually have three fighters in UFC Paris. But because I promised my family and I booked every ticket, I actually have to go on that vacation.”
Lopez said he left a full complement of trainers and coaches to work with Trabelsi in the times leading as much as his fight, adding that he never corners his fighters competing in ARES because he’s also acting because the promoter for the event.
“You’re asking an excessive amount of,” Lopez said of his response to Trabelsi. “I do know you for 4 years. In 4 years that I’ve known you, I’ve never had one single dollar from you, not one single dollar.
“I spend money, sometimes to purchase you clothes. I spend money sometimes to offer you a spot to remain. I spend money on medicals since you don’t have insurance – he has eye problems, I pay for glasses. We now have a store that can provide that to me, and we pay that for him.
“We did all the things we could. We don’t owe you anything. If you sign a management contract, you’re the one who can pay me for the services I do for you. I can’t find you a great fight out of the town because you might be illegal. I’m trying my best to offer you the perfect opportunity to have the next fight. So, please stop complaining.”
While fighting on the regional MMA scene rarely affords anyone a cushty living, Trabelsi said Lopez made guarantees that he just didn’t deliver on.
“I sacrificed so much this yr,” Trabelsi said. “I didn’t even have one Euro to eat because I don’t have documents. I cannot work here. I can’t work normally because I don’t have documents. In the event that they catch me, I can go to prison.
“He never helped me. He never tried to assist me one time with my documentation. All this so I can stick with him. I fight in his organization with none documents. I don’t have any documents.”
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UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard was in attendance when Trabelsi won the ARES heavyweight title on Sept. 2, in the future before the UFC’s first-ever event in Paris.
Lopez said he’d already spoken to Maynard about taking a look at Trabelsi as the subsequent heavyweight from his gym to make waves after he previously developed Francis Ngannou and Gane.
“I used to be talking to him two years ago, sending him messages about Slim, [saying], ‘Please Mick, keep eyes on this kid,’” Lopez said. “I used some tapes where [Slim] was training – he was throwing Ciryl around, he was throwing Francis around, and I used that to inform Mick that is the subsequent big thing. Mick is behind me [at the event].
“In some unspecified time in the future, he’s like, ‘Brother, are you sure Slim is your guy?’ I’m like yeah, I’m positive. He said, ‘Under management with you?’ I said, ‘Yes, I’m positive.’” (UFC matchmakers will not be allowed to talk to the media; a UFC PR rep didn’t reply to a request for comment by MMA Fighting.)
By then, Trabelsi had already began dialogue with Abdelaziz through his cousin, who made the initial contact. After hearing about Trabelsi’s struggles to achieve legal status in France, Abdelaziz said he offered to assist the fighter, making payments totaling roughly $10,000 to 2 separate immigration attorneys.
A deal was then struck for Trabelsi to exchange Hamdy Abdelwahab at UFC 280 in Abu Dhabi, where he was expected to face Parker Porter. That’s when Abdelaziz said he learned about Trabelsi already working with Lopez as a manager somewhat than simply his trainer and coach.
Copies of text messages obtained by MMA Fighting, which couldn’t independently be verified, show a conversation by which Abdelaziz tells Lopez he wasn’t aware that Trabelsi had a previous management agreement in place.
Consequently, Trabelsi reached out on to the UFC and told the promotion he can be managed by Lopez moving forward while apologizing for the “unnecessary drama.”
In keeping with Trabelsi, the management contract with Lopez wasn’t what prevented him from joining the UFC, but somewhat his cope with ARES, where he’s now serving as heavyweight champion.
“[Fernand Lopez] said, ‘He cannot go fight within the UFC because he’s with me in ARES,’” Trabelsi said. “He wants simply to block me because I’m not with him. I’m with one other manager.”
Conversations continued in an try to hash out the differences over Trabelsi’s status. That’s when Lopez contacted Abdelaziz with a suggestion to purchase out the fighter’s deal to free him from all prior obligations. Abdelaziz responded by posting the offer online.
“The compensation will likely be 90,000 Euros, and also you brought that to the general public,” Lopez told MMA Fighting of Abdelaziz’s response. “You brought that to your Twitter, type of mocking me. I asked for 90,000 Euros.
“Take into consideration Ciryl Gane, I sell you Ciryl Gane’s management contract for 3 years and I let you know before Ciryl Gane’s first fight within the UFC, will you purchase Ciryl Gane for 90,000 Euros? That’s a superb investment, right? That’s what I used to be saying to Ali. Don’t blame me on this.
“I used to be claiming to Mick Maynard three years ago, this kid is the subsequent big thing, but you might be the leader of managers, you might be superb at what you’re doing. It’s best to tell the child not to try this. This shouldn’t be the solution to cope with people. In the event you’re under a management contract, keep on with your manager, and when it’s over, you possibly can move. Don’t do this. That’s improper to try this.”
Lopez said the offer was really about taking a stand against Trabelsi’s try to renege on the three-year management deal.
“The 90,000 wasn’t concerning the money,” Lopez said. “It’s that individuals must respect that once you begin to do something, and you’re employed on that, you don’t do this to people, [and] you don’t want them to try this to you.
“I’m pretty sure if I asked for 300,000 Euros for somebody to have Ciryl Gane or Francis Ngannou’s contract for 3 years, they’d give me 300,000 in the event that they had it, since it’s a great investment.”
Trabelsi saw things much in another way, especially considering the cash he was earning in ARES. He was about to grow to be a first-time UFC fighter, and there was no guarantee he would ever generate that type of income in his profession. Add to that, he had already agreed to return to Lopez as a manager in order that they could strike the deal to affix the UFC roster.
“If I had money, I’d give it to him, but I actually have nothing,” Trabelsi said. “I live illegally. I cannot even work here. Even normal work, even to make some money, you can’t work, because I live illegally. I don’t have any money to pay him.”
While management deals won’t stop the UFC from signing anybody, an existing agreement with one other promotion can quickly kill a contract if that organization won’t allow a fighter to interrupt free. Lopez said ARES normally works hand in hand with the UFC to sign fighters from the promotion, but he checked out Trabelsi as a special case.
“We don’t hold kids,” he said. “We would like them to be free to maneuver to live their dream, but we have now the best to say to a child who’s signed with us you will have a fight coming up, you’re waiting. We are able to do this if we would like. If we don’t give the discharge, you possibly can’t move, and that is our right.
“All the things is about an agreement. The matchmakers in ARES have an agreement with the matchmakers within the UFC to have people move, and we don’t have that problem having kids move. Josh Parisian fought in ARES, but when the UFC called him, we let him move. There’s a superb agreement together with his management. We don’t have any problem with that. He never lied to his manager. We now have a bunch of fighters that come from us after which they’ll move.
“On this case, you will have a fighter who involves me with an agenda to make use of me after which claim that as soon as they’ve the belt is running away. He stopped with the management, and he stopped with ARES.”
Abdelaziz said that despite relinquishing any relationship with Trabelsi as a manager, the cope with the UFC was still killed. In an announcement sent to MMA Fighting, Abdelaziz wrote that no one should get in the best way of the chance afforded to Trabelsi that was earned within the cage.
“It’s not about me and Fernand, it’s about this young kid,” stated Abdelaziz, who himself ran afoul of the Nevada Athletic Commission for acting as manager and matchmaking for the World Series of Fighting (now the PFL). “He has to cover when he travels. It’s sad and gratefully the UFC gave him a chance to grow to be a free man. Now, we have now this individual who desires to flex his muscles and take it away from him.
“We told [Lopez] he could manage him, he might be his manager and proceed on and let this kid live his dream. He’s talking to each media outlet to advertise himself. He desires to be famous, but you possibly can be famous in the best way through exertions and dedication. I don’t respect people like that who put their egos and self-interest over someone’s freedom. We’re talking about someone’s freedom. It’s absolutely disgusting.
“No person’s perfect, but you hold the child hostage for what? One thing people find out about me, I never surrender on people. I’ll have his back, and I’ll make sure that he’s free from the slavery he’s in.”
Trabelsi hopes he can eventually get back on the UFC’s radar after the debacle cost him a contract.
