Certified by the Global Association

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"Viv Yoman? He threw it all away for her? Some washed up she-brawler? That is of course the perplexing question still on everyone’s mind in the MMA business. Some voice it. Some keep very quiet, understanding Matt Tripp’s deep connections within the fight game. Rumour has it that during the back end of 2001, Tripp’s personal life dragged his professional life down. Drugs. Weeks without being heard or seen of. Surfacing from whatever hole he’d been hiding in only to utter Viv’s name in incoherent emotional outbursts. Everyone around GAMMA during those troubling months in late 2001 could sense something had changed. Although publicly as silent as ever, Mark Wallace was reportedly furious when he learnt of Tripp’s use of company funds to pay off Viv’s debts. Vegas just isn’t the place for some people and Tripp has learnt that the hard way. It must have been during GAMMA 44 that he met her… Anyway, that’s all just a company footnote. Our next event is our 50th, our golden anniversary, and boy will it be that – golden.

 

Last year I was just making the phone calls. Now I’m making all the calls. When Mark Wallace asked me to step up he confided in me. He told me that he has grave concerns for Matt’s welfare and that as a friend he wants to give him time to get his life together. As a businessman, however, he doesn’t foresee him ever returning as CEO. Last year was a big year for us, despite Tripp’s distractions. But my loyalties aren’t to Wallace or to Tripp or to that charlatan James Foster. My loyalties are to mixed martial arts. I have a bold vision for the company and this sport and the countdown to GAMMA 50 is the time to announce it to the world."

Personal Diary of Austin Walker (January 2002)