http://www.thefightnetwork.com/news_detail.php?nid=5085




due to the signing of Fedor to a different organization, says that since that superfight wont happen he has no reason to continue fightin for UFC

damn

Quote :

"I appreciate this opportunity the sport of MMA and the UFC has given me,” the UFC Hall-of-Famer said. “However, I’m tired of swimming upstream at this stage with the management of the UFC. It only makes sense at this point in my career to fight Fedor Emelianenko, and since he’s now signed with another organization, I feel like it’s time to resign and focus on my other endeavors.”"

[Edited on October 11, 2007 at 4:01 PM. Reason : cv]

10/11/2007 4:00:59 PM

straight from the horses mouth via sherdog.com
http://www.sherdog.com/news/news.asp?n_id=9455

Quote :

" Randy Couture (Pictures), the face of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and one of mixed martial arts most revered fighters, notified the UFC via fax from South Africa at 11 o'clock Thursday morning that he has chosen to resign from the UFC, "The Natural" confirmed with Sherdog.com. "I sent the letter of resignation to the UFC today, resigning not only from my position in the company as a commentator and as an ambassador, but also as the heavyweight champion," Couture said over the phone from South Africa, where he is currently filming a movie. "The motivation for the decision is two-fold," he continued. "I know Fedor (Emelianenko) just signed with another organization and that's the only real fight that makes sense for me at 44 years old as the heavyweight champion of the UFC. That's the fight I wanted and if that can't happen it doesn't make sense for me to compete with all these other guys. And then obviously that's not going to happen now. And, two, I'm tired of being taken advantage of, played as the nice guy and basically swimming against the current with the management of the UFC. I have a lot of other things going on in my life that I'm doing just fine with. I don't need the problems. I don't feel like I get the respect I deserve from the organization, and that's motivation No. 2 for the letter of resignation that was sent today." Couture (16-8) is the only fighter in UFC history to hold belts in two weight divisions. The current UFC heavyweight champion, he recaptured the belt in March by coming out of retirement to out-point Tim Sylvia (Pictures). Couture defended the title in August, stopping challenger Gabriel Gonzaga (Pictures) in the third round. The Sylvia win came after a year away from the sport after Couture suffered the second of two knockouts to then UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell (Pictures). Couture won the first bout in the trilogy by capturing an interim UFC light heavyweight title in June of 2003, stopping Liddell in the third period. Couture's ledger in the UFC reads like a who's who. "The Natural" first captured UFC heavyweight gold against Maurice Smith (Pictures) in 1997 before doing it for the third time against Sylvia in 2007. A day after news broke that Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures), the widely regarded top heavyweight in the sport, had apparently declined to sign with the UFC, Couture submitted his resignation. "I want that fight and would have waited if the fight was offered to me," Couture said. "Knowing what they offered him, I would have made demands to get paid equally or better than him as the champion. Whether or not those would have been met is another question." Couture will have to wait nine months for his current UFC deal to lapse before he can go after Emelianenko. Over that span Couture said he will concentrate on acting, continuing to franchise his Xtreme Couture training facilities, as well as growing his Xtreme Couture clothing line. His success outside the ring is proof of his success inside the Octagon. But Couture said it was a lack of respect by the UFC, in particular its president Dana White, that led him to resigning. "I think the final straw for me was meeting with Dana and Lorenzo where they claimed I was the No. 2 paid athlete in the organization, which I know is a bold-faced lie," Couture said. Polling other athletes, said Couture, he learned that his compensation -- some $250,000 a fight with pay-per-view bonuses, according to the Couture camp -- was nowhere near what other top UFC fighters were making. "All us athletes are all pretty tightly intertwined," he said. "You hear what other guys were paid signing bonuses and what other guys were paid on the record and off the record with bonuses. I've heard Chuck's numbers. Tito's numbers. Hughes' numbers. Quinton's numbers. Cro Cop, Wanderlei. I heard what they were offering Fedor, and it's insulting." Couture's rocky history with the Zuffa-owned UFC began in 2001. "I think what set us off on the wrong foot was that my management [at the time] wasn't willing to give up ancillary rights across the board with no option for some sort of compensation," said Couture, alluding to a reason cited by Emelianenko's representatives as to why the Russian did not end up with the UFC. "All the other athletes at that time were signing those contracts. That created a lot of animosity and got me pulled out of the Carmen Electra campaigns to promote the athletes and the sport and the video game and all that stuff." Beyond the money, both Couture and his wife Kim stressed Thursday's resignation from the UFC was about respect. It's a move "The Natural" acknowledged could have far-reaching effects. "Certainly there's personal motivation for resigning and taking stand for myself," he said. "If it sets a precedence that down the road requires athletes to be treated better than that's icing on the cake." Attempts to reach the UFC for comment went unreturned. "

[Edited on October 11, 2007 at 4:41 PM. Reason : f]

10/11/2007 4:36:26 PM

now that's some bad pub for the ufc. I didn't even know fedor had signed somewhere else yet. I have been avoiding the MMA sites today because I haven't watched TUF yet and don't want to know who won.

10/11/2007 4:41:43 PM

yea man he signed to M-1 about a wek ago


Dana fucked up but i doubt hell change anything, good for Randy im glad hes not gonna sit around and be used


it makes me really interested in what they offered Fedor, must have been a shit ton, but like Randy said Fedor wouldnt have been able to do shit else when he wanted to compete in Sambo in Russia


shit they probably wouldnt have even tried to have a card in Russia


i hope he goes after Fedor i would pay upwarss of 70 bucks to see that fight, but id understand if he was just tired of all this shit

Fuck dana white i cant believe they lied to his damn face

10/11/2007 4:45:01 PM

wait. I heard his brother signed with M-1 a week ago, but I didn't know he did. hmmm....


The funny part is that the nevada state athletic commission publicly publishes fighter salaries per fight and there are a ton of dudes over $250,000 per fight. Of course, that doesn't count endorsements and bonuses and stuff so maybe dana had some weird way to justify that. Don't get me wrong, I have heard alot of shit from fighters about not being treated fairly and stuff from zuffa, but it sounded like alot of whining to me and dana white doesn't seem like the type of guy to bullshit people over stuff like that.

10/11/2007 4:50:54 PM

ive actually not heard of fighters complaining they always say they practically live off the bonuses which dont have to be reported at all but dana def gives them out


but I certainly understand Randy's position. He is the face of the UFC and to america that means hes the face of mixed martial arts, he should get paid like it


reading the article, it seems like he was alright with Chuck earning more than him per fight (500,000 + a share of buys) but when Tito freakin ortiz is making more than you and you hear the UFC offers Fedor a million a fight at the very least, Cro cop, wandy, shogun all got offered tremendous bank i would be pissed too if i elt like i had to panhandle when i am the face of the organization

and it doesnt help that they lied to his face point-blank about it how hispay relative to other fighters

from what ive read, randy didnt have a formal contract, it was fight-to-fight, so he wasnt obligated to stay for any number of fights, but the UFC has to protect its brand and interests (which is why he cant do anything with any other organization for 9 months) so im glad for him that he can remedy the situation and live off the earnings of the Xtreme Couture gyms and future entertainment endeavors

and Dana seems like a big time bullshitter to me, he has historically lied aboutt he quality of talent in other organizations (sayin that Ricardo Arona and Denis Kang are not good fighters) and his bullshit beef with the IFL is a prime example of his crappy attitude towards competition even going so far as to insult the fighters of the IFL directly

have you heard about the ken shamrock/pat militech/matt hughes ultimatums regarding not only participatiing in the IFL as coaches, but even sending some of the fighters in their camps to fight in the IFL....yea dana white pretty much said that if Hughes or Militech did either they would never be allowed to take part in any UFC related business ever again...

Militech pretty much told him to fuck off and went to coach and Ken Shamrock was reportedly unclear as to what dana meant (he had approached dana white asking for his approval to do so and apparently dana said it was fine), he figured he could coach in the ifl but not participate in the superfights, so he coached and dana white immediately terminated his contract a few months ago


so basically, you had the wrong impression of dana

10/11/2007 5:11:06 PM

There are tons of reports about dana being an over compensating for something dick. He has always been very out in the open about it, though, even to the point of looking like an idiot. No shady back deals and shit. That's what surprised me.

If couture said it, though, I believe that is what he was told. Randy has always come across as someone you can like and trust. I just think Dana has some way to justify what he said to Randy as it not being a lie. For instance, maybe when he said that to Randy, he meant that Randy was the second highest paid fighter not locked into a contract. Sure, it's still bullshit, but I am sure that is how he justified it to himself.

10/11/2007 5:19:33 PM

danas statement regarding this is a real piece of work


something to the effect of "oh well we had talked about the possibility of leaving if we couldnt sign fedor in the past"

yea right, dana obviously theres more to it than that

ill have to find it again

Quote :

"STATEMENT FROM DANA WHITE, UFC PRESIDENT, REGARDING COUTURE“I’m UFC 63: Hughes vs. Penn DVD not surprised at all by Randy’s decision. I talked to Randy several weeks ago and he said that if he couldn’t fight Fedor, then he has nothing left to prove in the sport of mixed martial arts. He has been doing a lot of acting, and I know he is in South Africa right now filming a movie. I think it’s a great move for Randy’s acting career to retire from fighting while he is on top. As we all know, Randy retired before. The landscape in MMA changes every day. So when he is ready to come out of retirement again, he is still under contract with me, and I’m ready to promote him.”"

ha. ha. ha....

[Edited on October 11, 2007 at 9:23 PM. Reason : s]

10/11/2007 9:14:08 PM