Sheymon Moraes says WSOF will neither book nor release him: It feels like 'the days of slavery'

Eight months after his last WSOF bout, one-time title challenger Sheymon Moraes is injury-free and hungry to get back into action. Still, he has no idea when that will happen.

The issue, he says, is WSOF.

According to Moraes (9-1), the promotion will neither give him a fight nor release him from his contract, which would allow him to negotiate with other promotions. As a result, the 26-year old says he’s had to resort to other forms of income to make ends meet and prepare for the arrival of his first-born in April.

“I need to fight,” Moraes told MMAjunkie. “I’ve been working as a delivery guy, but it’s tough to afford rent, to afford food. I even applied to be a Lyft driver, and I’m waiting for it to come through. But I don’t know how to work with these things, I know how to fight. I want to fight.”

A former Muay Thai fighter, Moraes was signed by WSOF in 2014, less than two years after his pro MMA career started. He has fought four times since, including a scrap with current free-agent and then-champ Marlon Moraes for the 135-pound belt.

The number of fights, Moraes says, is not nearly what he had in mind considering his age, goals and the fact he hasn’t suffered a single serious injury.

“I train every day,” Moraes said. “I’m always ready. If they ask me to fight three weeks from now, I’m ready to fight. All I need is three weeks to fight. I train twice a day every day, except for Saturday and Sunday, when I have to work to be able to pay the bills.

“If you look at the start of my career, I did five fights in eight months. Now I’ve been waiting eight months for a fight. I can’t do that. I come from Muay Thai. At one point I did 16 fights in one year, during my last season in Thailand before going to MMA. There’s no reason for me to stay in this promotion to fight once or twice a year, especially considering I’m not making millions.”

Moraes, who now resides in California with his pregnant wife, was still living in Rio de Janeiro when he first signed a contract that, with no knowledge of English, he couldn’t even read himself. It wasn’t until Jorge Guimaraes, his current manager, took over that he realized what he’d signed up for.

“At the time I didn’t speak any English,” Moraes said. “And the people who were behind it, at Team Nogueira, they said that (WSOF) said that I’d fight every five months, tops. And basically that if another promotion, like Bellator or the UFC, made me an offer, they would let me go.

“And then, when we went to check, there was nothing of that sort. (That’s) when (Jorge Guimares) asked, ‘How did you sign this slavery contract?'”

An assistant coach on Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira’s team on the second season of “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil,” Moraes had to wait eight months for his promotional debut – a WSOF 16 bout against Gabriel Solorio that he won via split decision. He went on to be submitted by Moraes in the failed bid at the 135-pound title before bouncing back with a second-round TKO of Robbie Peralta.

The current debacle, Moraes says, started after his most recent cage outing at last June’s WSOF 31, when he beat Luis Palomino by unanimous decision. According to Moraes, he was then told he’d be able to fight again in October, this time for the 145-pound belt.

That, however, failed to materialize. Moraes says he was then offered a spot at the mega New Year’s eve WSOF 34 card in New York  – a proposal that would ultimately involve signing a new contract that would only guarantee him one fight, maybe two, per year.

“I said it didn’t interest me, because I’m young and I want to fight,” Moraes said. “I’ve been with you for over 30 months and only fought four times, why would I sign a contract with less fights? And they wanted to pay less than what I was supposed (to get), given it was a renewal. So I said no.”

He said WSOF president Ray Sefo even reached out to help mitigate the situation but wasn’t willing to acquiesce to Moraes’ request for a clean break from his legal ties. That’s when, according to Moraes, things became less amicable. Officials stopped responding to him and his team.

“I sent letters directly to Ray Sefo and to the new CEO (Carlos Silva),” Moraes said. “Neither one replied. We called and emailed, but there’s no answer.

“They’re not letting me work. I tried to reach them in every way possible. We tried everyone. They never reply. I don’t want to sign back with them, and they don’t want to release me. It’s a very unpleasant situation.”

Moraes’ management team says they can’t go into details in regards to the terms of contract but that it’s a “complicated” arrangement involving automatic renewals that could, possibly, extend for years to come.

“We even tried to get in touch with one of the guys who wrote up the contract, and he said there’s no way out of it and I have to wait,” Moraes said.

Reached by MMAjunkie via e-mail, WSOF didn’t respond to a request for comment.

At this point, the Brazilian 145-pounder thinks there might be a personal component to the promotion’s handling of his situation.

“I feel it’s something personal against me, because they released two of their champions, at 135 and 155 pounds (Marlon Moraes and Justin Gaethje),” Moraes said. “I don’t have any ill feelings, but I feel they do have something against me.

“Whenever they booked me, I accepted right away and never chose my opponents. I think every fight I did at WSOF, it was best fight of night. I’m a guy who the WSOF fans like watching.  If they don’t want to give me a fight, let me go, so I can go someplace else and move on with my life.”

As far as his relationship with the promotion goes, it might be too late to make amends. As it stands, Moraes says that even if he is ultimately given a fight booking, he simply doesn’t want to be tied to WSOF anymore.

“I want to leave,” Moraes said. “Because they may give me a fight so that the dust settles, and then continue on with this nonsense of making me wait eight, nine months to fight. And I don’t want that. I want to keep fighting.

“I lost the love I had for WSOF. I don’t want to stay with them anymore. I feel we’re back in the days of slavery. I just want to leave so I can get on with my life. That’s the truth.”

For more on WSOF’s upcoming schedule, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.