Robert Whiteford signed a six fight deal with the Absolute Championship Berkut (ACB) promotion back in 2016 and is current 3-0-0 in the organization.
ACB has since canceled three events, one of which Whiteford was supposed to compete at, and now the UFC veteran hasn’t heard much from them since. That is just one of the reasons that Whitefords believes that ACB is “playing puppet master with my career.”
“I’m signed to a six-fight deal. At the time, I didn’t want to sign for the six fights, but [ACB] were adamant that everything was fine, so I signed. And don’t get me wrong, up until this had happened, it was going well. I’ve fought on three ACB shows, I was main event for two of them and they’ve paid me good money,” he said to MMA Fighting. “The only thing is they signed me for these six fights, specifically for a European schedule and now the European schedule is not happening. Even though that’s all off, they’re trying to keep me in the deal and make me fight in Russia, which was something that was never discussed. Things have completely changed on their end of the deal, and now it’s f*cking me over. What am I supposed to do? Sit quiet while everyone else makes money and pretend everything is fine? Hold my tongue in case I offend someone? It’s f*cking shocking, honestly…I’ve done nothing wrong to any of these people. They’re playing puppet master with my career now and it’s shocking. If the promotion was still going the way it was, this wouldn’t be a problem, but that’s not the case. Why try to f*ck a fighter over and hold him ransom?”
The promotion returns to action for the first time since the events were canceled with ACB 93 and Whiteford isn’t a part of that card.
Whiteford is tired of what the promotion is putting him through and the fighter has requested a full release from the organization.
“The morning after I put out that tweet, [ACB] said they would release me for one fight, but [ACB] would have to agree to the fight. What promotion is going to get behind me for one fight when they know I have to go back to ACB and they have to basically agree to who I fight? A full release is what I want, what else can I do?,” says Whiteford.
Those three aforementioned bouts Whiteford won in the promotion came over Kevin Petshi, Nam Phan and Kane Mousah.
