After a rapid start to his MMA career, things have now come to a crashing halt for former reality TV star Aaron Chalmers.
Having gone from a regional U.K. promotion to spot on a Bellator MMA card within the space of a year, Chalmers' career is currently on pause due to a contract dispute with the British Association of Mixed Martial Arts (BAMMA), which is now headed to court.
At the age of 30 and following a successful run on British reality TV show 'Geordie Shore', Chalmers (4-0) decided to pursue a career as an MMA fighter. He got off to a flying start and signed for BAMMA in early 2017, fighting for the promotion on three occasions. All three bouts ended with Chalmers winning via first-round stoppage and soon, Bellator came calling. Chalmers fought for the U.S. based promotion at their London show in May of this year, which ended in another first-round finish.
Since then, however, it's all gone quiet. Speaking to Ariel Helwani on this week's 'Helwani Show', Chalmers opened up on his frustrations and explained why his progress has stalled.
"I was told I was going to be released from my BAMMA contract after the fight with Bellator, that didn't happen," Chalmers told Helwani. "It's a load of stuff that is now affecting the fighting because it's a legal case that I can't fight. So, BAMMA said they don't want us to fight for them again, I won't fight for them again after what's happened, so it would just make sense to terminate the contract but for some reason they're not releasing us."
At the time he fought for Bellator, the assumption was BAMMA had given him a release to sign with the Viacom-owned promotion -- but that wasn't the case.
"I never signed with Bellator," Chalmers explained. "BAMMA gave us a one-fight release, so I could fight on Bellator and afterwards they said they would release us which was part of the deal and it never got stuck to. It's unfortunate that it's had to go to court.
"Apparently there were some things that were said, apparently I wasn't making a difference when it come to the fighting, ticket sales. But my last fight in my hometown was 6,500 people, their last show was 300 people so there's a bit of a difference there."
According to Chalmers this legal dispute with BAMMA isn't just affecting his MMA future, it's also preventing him from pursuing other opportunities.
"It's not just affecting my fighting, it's affecting other things," Chalmers said. "I've had TV offers that I can't sign for because it's in court. I've got offers from a big boxing promotion to fight in Europe, in England that I can't look at. Obviously, I've got an offer on the table from Bellator that I can't sign. It's just holding everything back. It's unfortunate that it's come to this because when I was with BAMMA we had a great relationship."
If the current contract with BAMMA is to be upheld, Chalmers is adamant on not fighting for the promotion and would opt to see it out, which according to him would expire in May 2018.
"I would just see my contract out and I wouldn't fight," Chalmers said. "I think it ends next May. Even if it was a contract where I had to fight so many fights, I couldn't fight because there's no shows booked in to fight anyway. It's a weird situation that I'm hoping to get over and done with as soon as possible and then I can look at all the offers that are on the table.
"I wouldn't mind getting one (fight) in at the end of this year. I've only had one this year whereas last year, I had three. I want to be on Bellator. I want to fight in America. I just want to go as far as my career will take us, as far as I can push myself in MMA. That's the plan."