Knock Out Investments, Golden Glory Sues Alistair Overeem

Alistair Overeem's legal troubles appear to be far from over.

According to reports from ESPN, the Dutch heavyweight is being sued by his former management firm Knock Out Investments (KOI), also known as Golden Glory, for breach of a five-year contract that ran from 2007 to July 2012. The lawsuit was filed on Thursday, the eve of UFC 141, in Clark County, Nevada.

KOI alleges Overeem to have failed to payout a 30 percent commission fee to Golden Glory for his June 18th, 2011 victory over Fabricio Werdum at Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum. KOI policy dictates a controversial business model in which promotions pay management, who in turn award fighters their cut of the purse. By contrast, Zuffa policy specifies fighters to be paid directly.

Given that the June bout marked Overeem's first Strikeforce appearance under Zuffa ownership, the heavyweight was directly paid a salary and win bonus of $170,000, per Zuffa practice.

"We have a legal team," Overeem's representative Collin Lam said. "We have a great law firm in Las Vegas. A great law firm in L.A. So they're taking care of everything."

Overeem was subsequently released from the promotion six weeks after the bout, along with a slew of notable Golden Glory fighters, due to Zuffa's unwillingness to bend to KOI's payment practice.

Regardless, Overeem maintained Golden Glory representation and signed a lucrative contract with the UFC on September 6th, 2011.

Following the signing, Overeem broke from KOI in November and subsequently filed suit against the firm for over $151,000 in lost wages. The fighter publicly admitted to a growing distrust between the two sides in several interviews and said of the conflicting legal action, "we knew (it) was coming."

"The suit was filed for a very simple reason," said legal counsel for KOI and Golden Glory Roderick J. Lindblom. "Alistair Overeem has been part of Golden Glory for 11 years. Knockout Investment has a management contract with him. The management agreement was from 2007 until 2012. They negotiated one of the largest MMA agreements in the history of the sport for him. And within days he accused them of some pretty shady stuff that is not true. And he has walked away from his contract."