The reality is altogether different.

For the second time in three months, a mixed martial arts event at a major California arena was canceled by the state athletic commission due to financial issues involving overreaching promoters.

Commission director Armando Garcia canceled the World Cagefighting Organization's Saturday night show at the San Diego Sports Arena, which featured name fighters such as former UFC stars Renato "Babalu" Sobral, Mark Kerr, Vernon White, Ricco Rodriguez, Joe Riggs and David Loiseau, just a few hours before the doors were scheduled to open. Garcia made the ruling because of financial issues; he wanted proof the promoters would be able to pay the fighters and other bills before allowing them to do the show.

"They didn't have the money," said Garcia. "The money they had couldn't be authorized until the end of the month."

But the situation was a lot more complicated. Rick Bassman of Valor Fighting, the promoter of record for the show, was at a Wells Fargo Bank branch in San Diego at 2 p.m. on Saturday, waiting for Bruce Bellocchi, the actual promoter, to sign over a deposit of $225,000 made in an account so that Bassman could be the only person to write checks. Wells Fargo couldn't verify that the funds were going to clear.

Bellocchi wouldn't sign off on the money until Garcia authorized that the show was scheduled to continue. Garcia had given the promotion a 10 a.m. deadline to have proof of funding for the $183,300 in total purse money as well as money that would be needed to pay the bills to the arena and commission.

He had extended the deadline, and would not allow the show to go on unless there was proof of sufficient money in an account that could be drawn on with a guarantee the funds wouldn't be withdrawn or that checks written on the account wouldn't bounce.

Bellocchi didn't make the first deadline, and Garcia had it extended a few hours. There was a standoff at the bank, and Bellocchi refused to sign off.

In October, a similar mess took place for a show scheduled for the Cow Palace in San Francisco which was canceled hours before the event was to take place because they didn't have a safe cage to fight in as well as concerns that the fighters weren't going to be paid.

In both cases, all fighters who had weighed in and had their fights approved by the commissions got 20% of their purses through the bond the promoters of record have to post with the state. In Saturday’s case, Bassman, who claimed his contract with Bellocchi stated Bellocchi was responsible for the financing of the event but they would use Bassman's license, ended up having to write checks totaling $36,660 to pay the fighters who didn't get to fight. He said he was preparing to take legal action against Bellocchi.

Garcia said he learned of the potential problems at Friday’s weigh-ins, from Bassman, who told him he was worried the money wasn't there to pay the fighters after Bellocchi's financier, Jim Miller, failed to deposit the $218,000 promised to cover costs at 9 a.m. that morning.

According to sources, Miller, Bassman and Brian Layne had met the day before at a different San Diego bank, with Miller talking about how the show was going to be a success, expecting a sellout in an 8,900-seat setup. He showed Bassman what he believed was a Ticketmaster report that listed 7,000 tickets sold for an advance of $230,000. Bassman was immediately skeptical, noting that with the exception of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, which has drawn large crowds in Anaheim, Los Angeles, and Sacramento, and Scott Coker's Strikeforce shows in San Jose, which have popular local drawing cards, nobody draws that kind of a paid crowd for MMA in California.

Bassman claimed that Miller called the arena and found out the real advance was 1,043 tickets sold for $70,000 at Ticketmaster outlets and the arena box office. There were another 480 tickets, for $33,000, out on consignment. He said it appeared Miller had received a forged report. Bassman said a phone message on his home phone from Layne stated Miller's agreement was all the box office receipts would go directly to him, but that when he talked to the arena people, they knew nothing of such a deal and weren't authorized to do so.

Similarly, the October San Francisco Cow Palace event that was called off had only 300 tickets sold.

Publicity for the show was poor. Jonathan Iosim, an avid MMA fan in San Diego, said that neither he nor any of his friends who he classified as hardcore fans, even knew such a show was taking place. Bellocchi at first contacted a cable advertising firm in the city in December about buying a schedule, but had earmarked a low advertising budget for running such a major arena. He ended up not buying anything at the time, but came back the week of the show, and got ads in local cable rotation the last three days before the show.

The prime audience to attend such an event would be those who watch UFC programming on Spike TV. But the final episode of Spike's UFC programming last week was on Wednesday night, the day before the ads started running.

"At 9:01 a.m. on Friday, I got a phone call from Brian Layne, saying there's bad news and good news," said Bassman. "The bad news is, Jim pulled out. I asked how there could be good news. He said that Bruce had agreed to put up the money."

At 10:40 a.m., Bellocchi, who was unable to be reached by Yahoo! Sports for comment on Sunday, made a $225,000 deposit in a Wells Fargo account under the name World Cagefighting Organization. But Bassman said only $5,000 of the money could be drawn starting on the 15th, three days after the show, and the remaining $220,000 couldn't be drawn until the 25th.

With Garcia on the verge of canceling the show, Bellocchi had a meeting with the fighters, where he asked at least some of them if they would tear up their contracts, and sign new contracts that would only guarantee them $100 to fight, promising he would then pay them the rest of their promised purses later in the month. Bellocchi claimed to Garcia and Bassman that all of the fighters had agreed, but Bassman said when he called fighters, the ones he spoke with claimed they never agreed.

Garcia indicated it was ridiculous to even consider allowing such a thing.

Bellocchi blamed the commission in an interview with MMA website Sherdog.com. He noted he attempted to apply for his own promoters license on Friday, but it would be impossible to process such an application on such short notice, and it fell short of commission requirements.

"With our promoter's license application in limbo, there was nothing we could do this late in the process," he told Sherdog.com. "I'm seriously considering never doing business in California again. I'm kind of in a state of shock. When you're dealing with people that are unreasonable, it's tough to get by." Bellocchi had run MMA shows in the state previously, most recently a Nov. 7 event in Hollywood where he used the license of well-known boxing promoter Jackie Kallen, that came off smoothly.

Dave Meltzer covers mixed martial arts for Yahoo! Sports. Meltzer, who has published the pro wrestling trade industry publication the Wrestling Observer Newsletter since 1982, began covering MMA with UFC 1 in 1993. He is a graduate of San Jose State University, and has written for the Oakland Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and The National. Send Dave a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.

Updated on Monday, Jan 14, 2008 1:43 pm, EST

Thanks to Sherdog.com for the story below

Sunday, January 13, 2008
by Josh Gross (joshg@sherdog.com)

At least Mark Kerr got his 20 percent.

While "The Smashing Machine" had planned on collecting $15,000 Saturday night, he like his opponent and 16 other mixed martial artists learned they wouldn't fight because promoters failed to provide sufficient funds.

Problems first surfaced Friday evening after Rick Bassman, the promoter of record, informed the California State Athletic Commission that money had not been secured to pay fighters.

Bassman, who has promoted several Valor Fighting shows in California, said World Cagefighting Organization's Bruce Bellocchi hired him to use his promoter's license and to produce the event and perform administrative functions.

Bassman told Sherdog.com he had a contract with Bellocchi in which the WCO accepted responsibility for "all cost items associated with the show," including fighter pay. However, as the event neared, the promoter worried whether the funds would be available, prompting him to go to the commission.

Had Bassman not said anything, Garcia surmised, Saturday's card would have likely taken place, perhaps leaving fighters to deal bruises and bounced checks.

Bassman said he met with the investor backing the event on Thursday. He believed the investor intended to fund the show, but Bassman also doubted a report he said the investor was given by Bellocchi that claimed roughly 7,000 tickets had been sold for the event, totaling about $232,000.

"That didn't seem possible that it was doing that well," Bassman said.

After speaking with San Diego Sports Arena box office personnel, Garcia said he was informed that ticket sales were extremely slow.

In Bassman's view, the investor chose not to fund the show after learning that ticket sales were not what he had been contractually guaranteed. After the investor pulled out, Bassman said Bellocchi rushed to deposit $225,000 into his bank to allow the show to go on.

Garcia confirmed the presence of funds with Wells Fargo, but said money would not have been available until Jan. 24 so long as none was removed from the account prior to that date and the deposited sum didn't bounce.

Even if Bellocchi had cash in hand Saturday, it wouldn't have mattered.

"I couldn't use that money anyway because that wasn't Rick Bassman's money," said Garcia. "That was Bruce Bellocchi's account."

Bassman was very reluctant to write $218,000 worth of checks without knowing whether the money would be available.

In a final effort to save the card, WCO officials attempted to submit an application for a promoter's license late Friday. It fell well short of the necessary requirements, including financial, for a completed promoter application packet, Garcia said.

"Ultimately, the commission wanted Valor to have the funds, regardless if we had them confirmed," Bellocchi said. "I have the money secured. We even had fighters who offered to forego their purse in order to be able to compete tonight, but the commission declined."

Continued Bellocchi: "With our promoter's license application in limbo, there was nothing we could do this late in the process. I'm seriously considering never doing business in California again. I'm kind of in a state of shock. When you're dealing with people that are unreasonable, it's tough to get by."

Bassman didn't blame the California commission. He blamed Bellocchi -- and himself.

"Although Armando [Garcia] can be tough, he, in my estimation, bent over backwards to help make this thing go forward," Bassman said. "But [Bellocchi] missed deadline after deadline. He missed our deadline and he missed Armando's deadline, and Armando even extended his deadline."

Bassman - and as a result Bellocchi - were given until 10 a.m. Saturday morning to show evidence of proper financing to Garcia. The CSAC Executive Officer extended that deadline back too noon, but in the end usable money never materialized.

"I should have smelled a rat and known better. I've been doing this for a long time, [promoting] wrestling and fighting both, and I've seen pretty much everything," Bassman said. "Now I'm about to walk into a room and write about $40,000 worth of checks, which is essentially my personal money."

As per CSAC regulations, fighters are guaranteed 20 percent of their purse if an event is cancelled.

"Thank God we didn't fight and have our checks bounce," said Kerr, who was slated to face Hawaiian heavyweight Kauai Kupihea (Pictures) and also expressed appreciation for the CSAC's efforts to protect the fighters. "I feel for Joe Riggs (Pictures), who just had a baby and has a mortgage to pay. Now he only gets 20 percent of his purse."

Garcia said by early Saturday evening each fighter with a signed bout agreement had received a check.

Fans at home who paid for the Internet pay-per-view broadcast of the WCO via ringsidejunkie.com will receive a refund within 30 days, according to a statement on the Web site.

Mike Fridley and Joe Hall contributed to this report