MMA: Gesias "JZ" Cavalcante Has Yet To Be Paid By DREAM For His July Fight

With the sport of MMA being as popular as it is today, it’s hard to imagine fighters still being screwed over by promoters.

Sadly, the sport still has a long ways to go before fighters outside of the UFC are taken care of financially after a fight.

Fresh off an exciting three round affair with Josh Thomson at this past weekend’s Strikeforce event, Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante recently appeared on TapouT Radio to discuss the bout.

Prior to signing with Strikeforce, Cavalcante fought for the Japanese based DREAM promotion. "JZ" compiled a 1-2-1 record under DREAM with a recent victory over Katsunori Kikuno at DREAM 15.

When asked if Cavalcante is able to return to DREAM or if he was exclusively part of the Strikeforce roster, “JZ” shared some unfortunate news about not being paid yet from the Japanese promotion for his fight with Kikuno back in July.

“I would like to fight in both [DREAM and Strikeforce] but DREAM didn’t pay me for my last fight with Kikuno,” Cavalcante said. “They are struggling, I don’t know what they are thinking but they didn’t pay me yet.”

DREAM’s financial situation has been out in the open for awhile.

It’s no secret that the Japanese based promotion is struggling with their finances but to not pay their athletes—the very same athletes who put their health at risk to keep your promotion alive—is completely unacceptable.

“JZ” isn’t the only fighter that DREAM hasn’t paid; in fact, Ralek Gracie still hasn’t received payments from the FEG-backed organization for his fight with Kazushi Sakuraba in May.

Cavalcante also alluded to other competitors who have received late payments.

“It happens to a lot of guys. It happened to Bibiano [Fernandes] who is a friend of mine but finally he got paid,” Cavalcante said. “It happened before with [Ronaldo] “Jacare” [Souza]. It’s sad because DREAM is a nice event in Japan so I would like to fight for both DREAM and Strikeforce. My crowd is over there [in Japan], my legacy is over there so I would like to keep fighting back and forth [between the two promotions] unfortunately it’s not going good.”

Despite the money issues, Cavalcante still wants to compete for DREAM. A majority of Cavalcante’s MMA career has been spent competing in Japan. He would like nothing more than to be able to fight both in Japan and in North America for Strikeforce.

But until he receives a check for his July decision victory over Kikuno, “JZ” is not going to fight in DREAM anytime soon.

DREAM isn’t even professional enough to give an explanation as to why they haven’t been able to pay Cavalcante. They won’t even return phone calls from Cavalcante’s manager.

“I’m not done with them but I’m not going to fight for them until they pay me, you know? Or until they come out with something to explain because they don’t even answer my manager,” Cavalcante said.

“My manager tried to call them and they don’t even answer. They didn’t come out with an explanation so I feel disrespected [by] them. I’m not looking to fight [in DREAM] for awhile.”

Ironically, fighters are often told that they can make more money competing in Japan than they can here in the states. Well, with DREAM that certainly isn’t true because clearly they aren’t able to pay their fighters on time.

Not only are they not on time with payments but they are several months late. In Japan, they are contracted to pay fighters within a month’s time after a fight. But it has now been three months since “JZ” last competed in DREAM and five months for Ralek Gracie.

“In Japan they usually pay you in one month. They have a month to pay, that’s in the contract,” Cavalcante said.

“In Strikeforce they pay you right after the event because the commission asks for the checks and everything to be paid to the commission so they pay the fighters right after the fight. So I already have my check for my fight [with Josh Thomson]. It’s really good [fighting in the U.S], you fought and you want to have your money.”

Fighters have bills to pay and families to provide for. They spend months pushing themselves to their mental and physical limits in training.

Denying these great athletes compensation for the show they put on to entertain your crowd is horrible and—to a certain extent—evil.

If DREAM continues on this path, it won’t be long before they are out of business. Hopefully, the promotion is able to turn things around because as Cavalcante said they are an entertaining show.

They always deliver with great fights and they keep that Japanese style that PRIDE excelled in alive.

But they need to get their financial situation under control and pay their fighters.

Mitch Ciccarelli is the sexiest columnist in MMA today. He is a staff writer for Heavy MMA and a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also a future United States Airman and a Jedi master. Mitch Ciccarelli uses the force every day. Do you? Follow him on twitter @mitchciccarelli