ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
The parent company of the UFC Gym Australian franchisees has collapsed into administration this week amid legal battles with the gym owners.
The company behind UFC Gym Australia were ordered to pay millions to three franchise owners after a court found them and its directors had ‘engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct’ when the franchises were being sold to the buyers.
That has proven enough to bowl the company over, forcing the administrators to come in and comb through the mess.
Nevertheless, the collapse of UFC Gym Australia means that our real estate agents are now without a safe place to chock one another out. Many of them are too nervous to join a smaller mixed martial arts gym, other are concerned that if they do, they might get punched in the head by someone who isn’t doing cage fighting as a hobby.
A local leasing agent says the potential closure of UFC Gym Betoota is leaving him worried about where he’ll learn to ‘protect himself’ in the future.
“It’s a shame because I’ve really been enjoying the gym,” said Lachlan Preen of Ray White Commercial Betoota.
“Like last Wednesday before Origin, I got to blow off some steam before the game. I actually took it a bit too far, in hindsight.”
Mr Preen is referring to an incident where he choked a real estate agent into unconsciousness last week during an innocuous sparring session. After the man tapped on Lachlan’s arm, Lachlan just kept on going.
“I wanted to see what it was like to choke a man out. It’s exhilarating.”
Faced now with the prospect of moving to a boxing gym or a karate dojo, Mr Preen said it’s got him worried.
“I have a mate who went to the PCYC in the Old City District and he got the living shit punched out of him by a retired organised crime detective. That chills my blood,” he continued.
“Can you image doing something like taekwondo? Fuck that. Getting kicked in the head by some psycho! That’s not for me. I also can’t go to a regular gym because what will I tell people to impress them?”
More to come.
