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Kawamata loses in court to Mijatovic

By Zach Arnold | April 12, 2006

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By Zach Arnold

Today, a judge in Tokyo district court awarded a complete victory to power-agent Miro Mijatovic in his civil court case against Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2003 promoter, Seiya Kawamata. (Case background information here and here) Mijatovic sued to obtain a lien on any earnings that Kawamata wins in his civil court case against Nippon TV. Kawamata sued Nippon TV for canceling a contract to produce fight shows on New Year’s Eve. Mijatovic sued Kawamata successfully for he and his fighters not getting paid for working the Bom-Ba-Ye 2003 event.

A summary of main points from today’s judgement follows.

  1. Kawamata has been ordered to pay all outstanding amounts of money owed to Mijatovic (including unpaid fight money for Stefan Leko, Semmy Schilt, and Alistair Overeem – along with various expenses related in booking these fighters).
  2. Kawamata has been ordered to pay for the court costs.
  3. The court recognized an agreement between Kawamata and Mijatovic, in which the deal made Mijatovic co-promoter of the Inoki show and also the exclusive booker for all foreign fighters related to Kawamata’s events. Kawamata had denied in court that such an agreement ever existed.
  4. Kawamata claimed that Mijatovic had given him the legal rights to represent Mirko Cro Cop. However, the court ruled that Mijatovic was the only legally-authorized representative of Mirko.
  5. Kawamata claimed that Mijatovic made a commitment to provide Mirko for the Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2003 show. However, the court found that there was no legal documentation backing up this claim.
  6. The court ruled that Mijatovic (an Australian lawyer, contract expert, international financial consultant, and agent of foreign athletes in Japan) is a witness of high credibility.
  7. The court rejected various verbal statements and evidence presented by Kawamata due to the manner in which they conflicted with the statements of Mijatovic, and the court threw out a lot of Kawamata’s verbal evidence as unreliable.

The aftermath

The next steps after this court ruling will be intriguing to see. Mijatovic has threatened legal proceedings against DSE for “disgraceful business practices” in relation to Mirko Cro Cop & Emelianenko Fedor. In the Gendai interviews, Kawamata has claimed that Miro was threatened and extorted by Sakakibara & DSE yakuza. However, Mijatovic has not publicly mentioned anything about this. On the other hand, FEG/K-1 acknowledged that Kawamata’s story about yakuza threats (in relation to K-1 booking Royce Gracie and creating HEROs) are true and that a criminal complaint is in the works.

At this point, nothing has been heard about Miro’s legal strategy, but everyone is paying attention to the next chapter in this story.

Topics: All Topics, Japan, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 2 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

2 Responses to “Kawamata loses in court to Mijatovic”

  1. […] Based on previous discussions I’ve had with insiders on the court case, I didn’t hear one person even bring up the possibility of Kawamata losing his court case against N-TV. It was almost considered a foregone conclusion by insiders that Kawamata would win, despite the fact that the same district court trashed Kawamata’s credibility in the lawsuit lien filed by former Fedor & Cro Cop agent Miro Mijatovic. Mijatovic’s lien was entirely dependent on Kawamata’s winnings in court from Nippon TV. […]

  2. […] Mijatovic, who is now out of the fight business, went to court to go after admitted yakuza-fixer Seiya Kawamata. Kawamata, of course, was a K-1 fixer whose word printed in various articles in Shukan […]

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