Seven months ago, Bubba Jenkins was waiting. Seven weeks ago, he was still waiting. Up until three days ago, he had been waiting. But enough was enough.
In August, Jenkins fought Georgi Karakhanyan for the second time in a fight that could’ve skyrocketed him through the Bellator MMA featherweight rankings. Jenkins lost to Karakhanyan two years ago, but in a way it was a risky rematch for him, as he was riding a three-fight winning streak at the time and his opponent was on a two-fight skid. That played out to be true, as the featherweight fighter was knocked out in the first round. His hot streak was over.
So were his days with Bellator MMA, unbeknownst to him at the time. He would not fight again under the organization’s banner. There was a significant lack of fight offers and communication after the Karakhanyan fight. Jenkins quickly grew tired of that and annoyed. But on Monday, he reached a breaking point. He and his team requested his release from Bellator, and it was granted the next day.
“It’s just a slew of grievances over and over and over that are starting to mount up, where I’m feeling so much disrespect that I have to eventually, as a man, stand up not only for myself, but for my family, to get my respect back,” Jenkins told BloodyElbow.com’s The MMA Circus. “I need to focus on what’s going to be best for me. I’ve been doing so much for the organization and being a company man that I have not been able to really focus on the things that I need to focus on as far as my career goes. I continue to put myself out there, continue to do favors for them, and not get anything back. I’m at the point where I need to part ways. I’m definitely over Bellator.”
Jenkins had one fight left on his contract with Bellator MMA, which would have expired in April had he not been granted his release earlier this week. He planned on fulfilling his contract by fighting it out, but gave up and asked to be released because he wasn’t getting any fight offers. Had he fought one more time under the Bellator MMA banner, Jenkins said he isn’t sure whether he would’ve tested his worth on the free agency market or re-signed with his longtime home immediately. It is safe to say he didn’t plan on departing from Bellator up until very recently, however, despite having a rocky relationship with the Viacom-owned organization for quite some time.
“I’d say Bellator has definitely not had my best interest at heart for the last two years of my career,” he said. “Not fighting me — I’ve only fought twice this past year, and the year before that, I only fought twice. It’s not like I’m asking to be rich off of MMA. There have been a select few that have made it rich off of MMA, but I just want to support my family. It’s taking a piece of my manhood from me when my profession is professional fighting and I cannot do anything outside of what they tell me to do, but then they don’t fight me.
“I took a pay cut, and I didn’t fight for another five, six months. I beat Goiti Yamauchi, and they told me that they’d rather have seen Goiti Yamauchi lose to me the way he lost to me than me beat him the won I won. That doesn’t even makes sense.”
How the 29-year-old was treated by Bellator MMA depended on the setting and whether or not the public was watching, the fighter said. From in the cage to backstage, it was incredibly different.
“When I was winning fights and when I was on TV, they’d show my family and that they were behind me,” he said. “And then behind the scenes, they were telling me, ‘Oh, we didn’t like that performance. We didn’t like this, we didn’t like that. We need you to start talking trash, we need you to start speaking up more, we need you to start calling people out.’ And when I do these things, they don’t back me. I’m tired of being with someone who doesn’t appreciate me.
“It’s so much trickery and so much weirdness with what they’re trying to do with me. It just started becoming overwhelming.”
Karakhanyan missed weight ahead of his fight with Jenkins last summer, and Jenkins said he was told that he would be booked at his convenience and treated well if he accepted to fight his overweight opponent. That was after being placed in a bizarre predicament in which he was essentially forced into taking the bout. Neither of Bellator MMA’s promises came true.
“They said, ‘We’re gonna take care of you if you take this fight. It’s not going to look good on you if you don’t take this fight. But if you do take the fight, we’re going to stand out in front, we’re going to take care of you. Win, lose or draw, we’ll get you right back in there, regardless,’” he said. “So I took the fight, end up losing, and I haven’t fought in seven months.”
Because Karakhanyan missed weight, Jenkins was supposed to receive 20 percent of his opponent’s purse. That has yet to happen, and that’s one of the largest factors that led to Jenkins’ departure from the organization.
“That was a massive deal to me,” he said. “To me, that was one of the last straws.”
According to Jenkins, Bellator complained that he didn’t talk enough trash and get his name out there enough. Jenkins said he’s good on the microphone but chooses against bad talking and calling out foes. He went out of his comfort zone somewhat and threw out a few names and ideas — all of which Bellator happened to dislike.
“I don’t even like the word ‘call out,’” he said. “So I said, ‘OK, I don’t want to call this guy out, but I’ll just say I summon him.’ I summoned Emmanuel Sanchez. Bellator hit me back, ‘Oh, we don’t like that fight, we’re not gonna give you that fight.’ I asked for Justin Lawrence; they wouldn’t give me that fight. I’ve asked for James Gallagher, and that probably was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Since August, Jenkins said, the only fight he has been offered was a bout against a former teammate on three day’s notice.
“They wanted me to fight A.J. McKee,” he said. “I’d been training with him for the last two and a half years. That was in October, maybe November. It’s almost to say, ‘Well, we didn’t say you couldn’t fight; we have a fight for you.’”
Jenkins didn’t request his release from Bellator MMA earlier than he did because he was still contractually obliged to fulfill his deal and he “trusted” the organization.
Jenkins doesn’t think his release would have been granted had he requested it even just a year or two ago.
“Earlier in my career, if I had asked for my release, I don’t think they would have had released me, because of the potential, because of the big name at the time, and of the winning I was doing,” he said. “This time, I could see that they care so less about me and what I’m doing for the organization. They didn’t even ask me to sign a release.”
Jenkins isn’t sure what the future has in store for him, but he’s excited for it. He and his team have yet to talk to any organizations, though he expects discussions to start in the very near future.
Jenkins doesn’t have a certain promotion in mind. He just wants a deal that makes the most sense for him, and knows that that could come under a banner not called the UFC. Right now, his options are wide open.
“The mecca of fighting is the UFC. But I’m a smart man, I’m a businessman. I have to put my family and myself at the front and center of all these decisions to figure out what is the best move for me,” he said. “Hearing everybody out and being interested in everybody is something that my agent is going to advise me to do. I’m just gonna listen to him. I know I can make the final decision, but to hear all the pros and cons about all the situations that we could possibly have is something that we want to do.
“You don’t want to say, ‘Oh, well, the UFC is bigger than Bellator, so we’re going to say screw Bellator and go right to the UFC because the UFC is bigger and better.’ That’s just not smart. We’re going to look at every situation. Obviously, I want to be in the biggest organization, but the money has to add up. It doesn’t help to have had the loss I had in Bellator, but I’m hoping to redeem myself and have an organization that’s gonna put their best foot forward and say, ‘We want to see what you’re about.’ That’s all I’m asking for. I’m not asking to be rich.”