Ivan Salaverry was a guest on MMAWeekly.com’s Soundoff today with Ryan Bennett. According to Ivan, he has not officially signed a contract with the IFL. They have had lengthy discussions and are close to signing, but no contract has been signed yet.
This surprised me a lot, and made me wonder how many of the other fighters the IFL announced on their “official rosters” that haven’t signed with the organization yet. Salaverry sounded like he most likely will be signing with the IFL but its still up in the air.
I think this is a big mistake for the IFL to announce fighters that they don’t have under contract. I understand they need to announce the fighters in advance so they can build hype and market the upcoming event, but it is a very risky move if you ask me.
Ivan also said that Joe Silva and the UFC told him that he would have to fight in some of the smaller promotions before he would come back to the UFC, so I guess that answers my previous post asking what happened to Ivan.
** UPDATE **
Sherdog.com is also reporting that Urijah Faber also is not signed to the IFL card for their opening show. He has another contract conflict with KOTC and will not be able to perform in the IFL’s inaugural event.
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[...] Dr J has reported that Ivan Salaverry has NOT been signed by the IFL yet. Yesterday the IFL released the fight card for their upcoming April 29 inaugural show and it did include Salaverry on it. You can read more here. [...]
[...] Update: Dr J. says that the IFL is announcing fighters — before they have even signed a deal. [...]