Dana White says Golden Glory fighters were cut due to 'different business practices'

I'm sure UFC President Dana White doesn't mean to contradict Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker, it just sort of keeps happening that way.

The latest instance is in regards to the recent mass exodus of Golden Glory managed fighters such as Alistair Overeem, Valentijn Overeem, Marloes Coenen and Jon Olav Einemo, who were all given the axe by Zuffa in one fell swoop.

Coker's explanation was that Strikeforce simply doesn't have the television slots available for fighters who aren't consistent winners and in the case of Valentijn and Coenen, one loss was enough to send them on their merry way. 

But as it turns out, that might not be the case. At least, it might not be the full story.

White today explained that the decision to get rid of every member of the Golden Glory team, save for Sergei Kharitonov, was simply a business decision made in the best interests of his company.

Here's how he explained it (with video):

"This is actually a pretty simple explanation. If you look back throughout history, we haven't had any Golden Glory guys fight with us since Semmy Schilt, right? And the reason is we have very different business practices. It's tough to do business with them. The bottom line is the way they do business is, you have to pay them, not the fighters. We don't work that way. It's not the way we do business. It's not how it works in the United States with the athletic commissions. You don't pay the managers and the managers pay the fighters. You pay the fighters and the fighters pay the managers."

Simple enough, no?

Of course, it would seem there is much more to it than that, however. After all, if this was always the case, why was the decision made to sign Jon Olav Einemo to the UFC and place him in a high profile bout against Shane Carwin (fight was eventually scrapped due to Carwin moving up on the card)?

The timing is also rather convenient considering the issues at hand with now former Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion Alistair Overeem and his failure to participate in the second leg of the grand prix tournament due to injury. Once he accepted a fight just one month after his planned bout against Antonio Silva in round two, that appeared to be the last straw.

Of course, now that we've got conflicting explanations from Coker and White, it's becoming increasingly more difficult to discern what the actual reason is for Team Golden Glory's exit from Zuffa promotions.

Care to sort it all out?