The fallout for the Ultimate Fighting Challenge, following the attempted assassination of Alex within the cage by the former Light-Heavy Weight Champion, and the Prince of Oman, as well as the negotiations leaked to the internet between Alex and Dan had thoroughly tanked the stock price of the company.
A company that was worth over fifteen billion dollars days before had suddenly become worth half of that overnight. As people ragged on Dan and the promotion for leaving their fighters out to dry, and for using underhanded business tactics such as blackmail to try to get their fighters to sign to unfavorable terms.
Just like how illegal and outright immoral business practices had tanked the Ultimate Fighting Challenge’s biggest rival decades before with BUSHIDO in Japan. So too were they now facing such a crisis.
If public opinion and faith from the investors didn’t sway back in their favor soon. It was likely all the major deals they had made, especially the one they made with the biggest sports network on television to broadcast their fights globally would not be renegotiated when their contracts ran out.
Dan had underestimated Alex’s guile, who he presumed was an idiotic psychopath. Alex’s ability to silently record their conversation, and selectively edit it in a way that made the Dan and the promotion look bad was more than he had ever expected from the young man.
And because of this, Alex was receiving non stop calls in the following days, begging him to resign with the promotion under far more favorable terms. He wanted individual fight sponsors back? It was a done deal! He wanted one fight contract without a champion’s clause? It was a good as day.
Did he want 50% of all the company’s revenue to be split with the fighter? So long as he signed the paper, and worked to reverse the course that he had caused thus saving the company. Anything and everything was on the table.
After all, half the revenue was still better than no revenue. And that was the fate of the promotion if things continued as they were. Having brought the world’s largest mixed martial arts promotion to its knees in under seventy-two hours. Alex signed a deal, which got everything he wanted. Pretty much. He couldn’t convince the athletic commissions to allow for a more violent rule set.
But with his leverage, Alex changed the landscape of the sport forever. Fighters suddenly found that when they re-negotiated their contracts after they ended, they would be making a lot more money than they previously were. Everyone from the lowest level of the promotion to the highest level had a vast increase in funding.
Whereas other sports gave their players roughly 40-50% In addition to this Alex got the right for fighters to wear individual sponsors on their uniforms back. So long as they didn’t conflict with the promotion’s sponsors that is.
And finally, Alex won the right for fighters to have non-exclusive contracts. Fully regaining the individual rights they had as proper independent contractors. Meaning they could fight in the Ultimate fighting Challenge, and their competitors. Changing the entire sport practically overnight.
Even those fighters who hated Alex for his arrogant personality, his controversial nature, and his repeated scandals came out and sang praises for the man. Yet the media was behaving as the Media always did.
Continuously trying to talk down what Alex accomplished, focusing more on the underhanded means he had achieved it, rather than the end result, which broke the monopoly on the sport which the Ultimate Fighting Challenge had.
This also meant that while Alex now held the Light-Heavyweight title in the largest promotion in the world. He could go fight in Asia whenever he wanted, where a more lax rule set allowed him to be as violent as he pleased. Well, at the very least, more violent.
And it was because of this that the internet was both singing Alex’s praises, while also simultaneously condemning him. Depending on who you asked, he was either the Muhammad Ali of Mixed Marital Arts. Or the world’s biggest scoundrel.
There was no opinion on Alex that was in between. And he took great pride in this. Meanwhile, Nari was gaining attention, as she had just passed the Olympic Trials for Judo, and had come out in support of Alex, stating that what he did for the world of Mixed Martial Arts was revolutionary, and that the fighters who competed in the sport owed him a great deal.
This led many to believe that the young girl was either a fangirl of Alex, one of Alex’s many women, or was planning to enter the Mixed Martial Arts world after the Olympics were over. While there were videos of Nari on the internet with Alex, for example, the one taken a year ago when he proposed to eighteen or so different women at the same time.
The internet had a short memory, and most people had forgotten about this by now. Especially since she was just a background character among many other women that were briefly glanced over by the camera.
Still, by tying herself to Alex’s controversy, her fame skyrocketed, as many people were looking forward to the young Korean Judoka and how she would perform in the Olympics. Especially since she was so absurdly beautiful. No doubt thanks to the enhancement she had undergone because of Alex maxing out her affection.
Either way, now that Alex had finally achieved his goal of becoming the Light-Heavyweight champion of the world, and all of this drama was out of his way. He could finally return to his goal of conquering the world’s many heroines. And the next country he was headed to was actually one that wanted him dead.
The Prince of Oman’s younger sister was Alex’s next target, whether the man actually realized it or not at this very moment.