Is Khalid Bourdif (right) being unfairly punished by It's Showtime?

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There's an interesting story making the rounds in European kickboxing circles regarding the big It's Showtime Amsterdam ArenA show in May.  One of the original scheduled fights was Rayen Simson v. Khalid Bourdif in Simson's retirement fight.  Now, It's Showtime has announced that Bourdif is off the card and instead it will be Simson v. Sahin "Kass" Yakut.  Here's the official statement on the switch:

Rayen Simson will face a new opponent in the Amsterdam ArenA on May 29. The reason is that the opponent he was supposed to fight, Khalid Bourdif, accepted a fight which will take place 4 weeks before his match in the Amsterdam ArenA. We at IT’S SHOWTIME always agree that a fighter can’t/won’t fight at another event minimal 5 or 6 weeks prior to the ArenA event, this to prevent injuries. Exceptions will be made for K-1 fighters but this will always be discussed first, and put in a contract. Regarding the management of Bourdif, we at IT’S SHOWTIME find this not professional and we have expressed we will not use Khalid Bourdif’s services.

This was followed by the announcement that Yakut would indeed take Bourdif's spot.  This news has been met by some harsh criticism of It's Showtime, and has caused some to raise questions about this policy.

To give some background, Simson v. Bourdif was first discussed late last year as an option for Slamm VI, but was then pushed back to this show.  Simson, a Muay Thai legend in Amsterdam, hand-picked Bourdif as his final opponent for a number of reasons, including their history as training partners, personal friendship, and his belief that Bourdif was the best fighter in his weight class.  There is no doubt this is the fight Simson wanted to go out on, and for many fans, It's Showtime is acting disrespectfully by not honoring his wishes in his final fight.  To further complicate matters, there are accusations from Bourdif's camp that It's Showtime has not handled this properly, refusing to discuss options with them before removing Bourdif from the event.

For It's Showtime and matchmaker Simon Rutz, the argument is that this is a question of practicality.  If Bourdif is hurt in his earlier fight (against Ali Gunyar in a main event fight on May 2) he could be forced to drop out of the Simson fight, forcing a late change to the card.  As Rutz states, this is the It's Showtime policy, and it is one you can see the rationale behind.  Where things get murky and somewhat controversial are in regards to the exceptions to the rule, and the choice of Yakut to replace Bourdif.

As their statement says, It's Showtime is willing to bend their rule for K-1 fighters.  Why then would they not make such a concession for Bourdif?  The obvious answer is that he does not have the same star power as a K-1 fighter and, like it or not, being an in demand fighter allows you to have more pull in your contract negotiations.  But the real trouble comes in the fact that their replacement opponent, Sahin Yakut, is a fighter represented by It's Showtime management, leading some to argue that Rutz and company have used Bourdif's May 2 fight as an excuse to drop him and move their own fighter into a higher profile fight.

The question then becomes, is it a conflict of interest for a matchmaker and promoter to also manage his own stable of fighters?  Looking specifically at Yakut, he has not been given a tremendous amount of high profile fights by It's Showtime, and this will be his biggest fight in quite some time, maybe ever.  So you can't say that the company has been giving a huge advantage to Yakut previously.  Still, the potential conflict of interest is enough to make many fans cry foul. 

So far, Rutz has not officially addressed this controversy, and he may not.  They've made their policy clear, and Bourdif violated that policy, so for them, there's not much else to say.  I can see why some disagree with this move, but provided this policy was made clear in Bourdif's contract, I don't see It's Showtime acting in an unfair manner here.