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When ownership of a company changes hands, there's no love or loyalty to the old regime, something two recently released UFC legends learned firsthand. No matter how long you've been around, it's out with the old, in with the new.
When Viacom announced that Bellator MMA founder Bjorn Rebney was being let go on June 18, 2014, the CEO of Bellator was surprisingly silent in the face of social media speculation about why, until this tweet on June 29th.
MEXICO!!
— Bjorn Rebney (@BjornRebney) June 29, 2014
While some people may have thought he was in Mexico to watch some fights or scout talent for a new promotion, the truth behind this tweet went unexplained until Rebney recently appeared on Ariel Helwani's MMA Hour to explain.
It turns out the 2014 FIFA World Cup is actually to blame.
"We clicked back on and Mexico had scored. So I tweeted, 'MEXICO!!' And then the bottom fell out and the Netherlands won. I was like, 'You know what? I'm an idiot and I'm breaking my own rule.' So I just stopped tweeting from that moment forward. And it became this infamous tweet like I'd gone to Mexico with Pablo Escobar, but it wasn't."
Not only was Rebney nowhere near Mexico at the time of his tweet, his overexcited utterance embarrassed him so much he maintained near radio silence for years afterward.
"It was just a dude who was really excited drinking beer with a bunch of buddies and then suddenly it didn't go well, and I just said, 'You know what? That's probably the end of the tweeting for the next couple of years.'"
And there you have it. He wasn't hanging out with Joaquin Guzman or trying to sign Erik Perez to a contract -- he was just an overenthusiastic football fan who had a few too many to drink.
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