Randy Couture Quits UFC

Couture Quits UFC

At the height of its power and popularity, the Ultimate Fighting Championship today lost the man many recognize as the face of mixed martial arts. UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture announced his resignation from the Las Vegas-based promotion, leaving two contracted fights, his job as an on-air analyst and his heavyweight crown on the table.

Wow... Guess since Fedor didn't sign with the UFC Randy doesn't want to be there anymore. Now what? With the Ex-Pride fighters not performing well(except Rampage), Ufc not getting Fedor, and now Couture leaving, what's next?

hmm.

Im have to read more myself. I have questions.

Did he leave becuase he is frustrated? If so, with who? The UFC?

Or did he leave for personal reasons?

This seems odd.

“I’m 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.”

www.ufc.com...

Seems that he wants Fedor, or no one at all.

Not so weird after all. Dana says he will reinstate his contract if he comes back again.

[edit on 11-10-2007 by JbT]

this is all over the mma underground forums.

maybe i can shed some light.

randy says he wants more money/respect from the organization and he wants to fight fedor. he said at this point in his career it does not make sense for him to fight anyone else.

i kind of think this is a jerk move by randy.
he signed a contract and it is very uncool for him to split like that...what about the fans you know?

fedor has signed with tampa based M-1. M-1 has been around a bit but is a low level org. there was an 'investor' that came in though and is going to turn it around.
turns out the investor is mark cuban, owner of hd-net.

i don't like this cause it is a wwe type angle and i hate the drama.

randy retires.
randy comes back out of retirement to fight cro cop although cro cop never gets there cause he gets beat down.
dana white and the ufc try to strong arm fedor into signing and he walks.
randy decides with only 9 months left in his contract that he only wants to fight fedor so he walks....

fedor wanted to be able to fight in combat sambo once per year(he is trying to break the record for most consecutive wins) and dana white would not give it to him.
they wanted an exclusive contract so fedor didn't sign.

ufc is known for paying their fighters crap but still, randy signed and he walked. not cool.

now, even if the fedor fight is going to happen, it is not going to happen in ufc cause fedor is with M-1.
so, best case scenerio is 9 months from now, fedor and randy fight under the M-1 flag and none of the fans get to see it cause M-1 is not on ppv.

idon't know why dana would not let fedor do sambo.
dana lets his grapplers do abu dhabi. it don't make sense.

i also think that randy realizes that he is a HUGE NAME and it is worth serious dollars these days.

it must be noted for lack of a better word, he 'walked out' on his team, team quest to start his own 'chain' of schools called extreme couture.
at extreme couture he makes $1,000 per hour for private lessons.

i think it should also be noted that he resigned form the ufc via a fax from africa where he was filming a movie...
what kind of resignation is done by fax.

in short, a lot of fight fans stuck by randy through the years and these same fans feel like randy just smacked us in the face, in a round about way.

we have fighters spreading out which means the fight cards we get to see are going to be more dilluted.
really blows....

i do not/can not support randy in doing this....he walked out with 9 months left and vacated the belt....now us fans get to see what, tim sylvia vs gonzaga fight for the vacated title...
what is that crap?

on a positive note, randy is gone and fedor is not coming over so cro cop might be able to get his hands on the belt.

now, to watch all my favorite fighters, i have to scour the net and watch ufc, zst, k1-hero's, m-1, and elite ex...

Originally posted by JbT
Seems that he wants Fedor, or no one at all.

Not so weird after all. Dana says he will reinstate his contract if he comes back again.

[edit on 11-10-2007 by JbT]

it's weird cause he was the champ and was under contract for 9 more months. there are ufc fans that have supported randy couture for years...through his first retirement and injuries...randy is one fighter that the fans stuck by no matter what.
now, he just dogs us out.

i guess it depends on how big of a fan you are.


edit* i'm not liking randy's 'fedor or nothing' attitude either.

ufc just signed nogieura..that would be a fantastic fight for randy.
nog is a brazilian top team member and bjj black belt. trains with mario sperry and other legends.

wrestling legend against bjj legend would have been great.

for the record, within the year, nog will have the belt.

i forgot to add that josh barnett and sergei kharitonov are in talks with M-1, and rumors are mark hunt is also.

imo, randy wanted to make sure he 'went out' with the belt, as the champ, viewed as the best. now, i can understand that but man, ride your contract out.
with only 9 months, he would have only fought once more...MAYBE, MAYBE two more times.

he screwed the fans imo...
of course i blame dana for his strong arm tactics but nobody made randy alk out but randy.



[edit on 12-10-2007 by Boondock78]

Don't forget:

They were underpaying Randy ($250K vs one mil for Fedor). He also has a broken arm from the GG fight, which has to heal. So it would have been 6 months, anyway.

In addition he'll be close to 45 years old. That's a bit old to be fighting in the cage.

Leaving now assures he's going out on a high note and is an uber-legend.

I think he should consider himself above what some selfish fans might want.

2 cents.

Originally posted by Badge01
Don't forget:

They were underpaying Randy ($250K vs one mil for Fedor). He also has a broken arm from the GG fight, which has to heal. So it would have been 6 months, anyway.

In addition he'll be close to 45 years old. That's a bit old to be fighting in the cage.

Leaving now assures he's going out on a high note and is an uber-legend.

I think he should consider himself above what some selfish fans might want.

2 cents.

i didn't forget i just don't think that is a valid reason for him to walk. he is not the highest paid in the ufc and they were offering a million to fedor...so?
that means cause randy don't like the fact that someone else is getting more money, he can just walk away from his contract and vacate his belt?
thats not cool.
about the arm, if it would have been 6 months for that to heal, then there is a good chance that he would not be fighting again anyway...that said, the fans like he when he comments on the fights. he corners his fighters..none of that is happening now.
45 years is old....he knew his age though when he signed the contract right? yeah, he did.

yeah, he goes out an uber legend that walked out on his contract, and the fans with months left in his contract.

so, are you implying that i am a 'selfish fan' cause i don't agree with him walking away from his contract?

hows that work then?

if his contract was up and he wanted 10 million a fight then i would be a selfish fan. dude is the champ, under contract...
he walked out on that...

randy is the selfish one IMO

www.ufc.com...

TG – So this wasn’t a surprise, but were you at least surprised at the way he went about it, via fax?
DW – He is shooting a movie right now in South Africa, but yes, I am very surprised by the way he did it. I consider Randy Couture a friend and still do. He hooked up with some Hollywood agent that I bitch slapped about a month ago, and these Hollywood agents are parasites, so unfortunately this guy is probably in Randy’s ear right now. But, that’s the world Randy wants to be in; Randy wants to be in the movie world now, that’s what he’s working for and that’s his guy right now.

badge, you think there is nothing wrong with randy walking out on his contract?

i think if this was not happening to 'captain america' then more people would be uber upset.
for some reason, randy can do no wrong.

dana is also quoted as saying that randy would have 'destroyed fedor'...

guess thats why he was offering fedor 4 times as much as randy was making.

i have no doubt this is the best business choice for randy. thing is, i see it as wwe type crap. he retires, then comes back to take the belt, only to vacate the belt.
is he gonna come back in 9 months and try to renegotiate a 'super fight' with nog for a fat payday or something?

i just don't like the way he is handling this and i don't like the way dana has been handling it for a while.

hey, at least on the upside they have a complete stable of T U F fighters to fill the slots

the more i read about this, the more i feel that randy just took his ball and went home.
he very well 'could' have fought nog after he healed and then go on to hold out for the big payday against fedor.
i don't think randy is scared of nog but i think he realizes that there is a SERIOUS chance that nog would have him tapping with the quickness and that would destroy his chance for a huge payday with fedor.
everyone wants to go out on top but walking out on your contract and leaving your fans hanging is not the way to do it, imo.


i also like how on one side you have randy saying he wants to fight 'teh best' and the best is fedor and that is part of the reason he left.

then on the other side, you have dana saying fedor has never done anything but beat mark coleman and matt lindland...he was still willing to fork over a million plus an end on the ppv to get this guy that 'never did anything'...
i think that is funny.

i really don't see why randy could not have waited for his arm to heal, fight nog(who is clearly one of the best in the world) and then IF he wins, try to get fedor.
randy has only beaten two people since coming back. he is not this invincible fighter like people make him out to be.


guess we'll see what happens.

I'm still not clear on what your objections are.

Is it the method RC resigned? Is it that he also resigned from doing color commentary?

We don't know the details of his contract. It's probably worded so that he has options to do 'x' amount of fights, but they can't force him to fight, nor penalize him if he doesn't pick up the option to do another fight.

If DW came back with a counter offer of the same or slightly more than he's offering Fedor then it would probably be worth the risk. After all, what if he got injured in that fight?

I think this is a very smart thing to do - go out on top. He's got two successful gyms to run - how can he do that if he gets a permanent injury?

Few fighters have the sense to quit while they're ahead. I think he's given the fans a lot more than they ever expected with those brilliant wins over TS and GG.

I'd suggest you go to Sherdog and re-read the actual press release that RC made. There seem to be unspoke issues between him and DW and LF.

I do have to wonder why he's doing the negotiations personally. Why isn't he using a sports agent to get him the best possible paycheck? If he's doing them himself then he risks being outflanked by the UFC mgmt. He claimed that he's been taken advantage of by his tendency to be a 'nice guy'.

So in summary, not only do I not blame RC for his decision and the cursory way he did it (back in yer face, Dana), I also applaud him for getting out when he is on top and cementing himself as a Legend in MMA.

reply to post by Badge01


i spend more time on sherdog than i do here.
thanks though.
my objection is that he resigned, period.

the guy is/was under contract. he decided he did not like the money he was making, so he resigns from the ufc via fax.

it's just not cool.
of course he deserves more money. all the fighters do.
there are fans out there that stood by and supported him his whole career though. now, at the end of it, with the chance of another fight or two he just walks away.

what is the point in having a contract then?
i could see where he would go out on top but you know, i have been a fan of the sport for more than 10 years now..something is wrong is it's starting to get to the point where FIGHTERS are walking away or not taking fights cause they don't want to get hurt or cause it will take time away from his gym...
i think it would have been a smart thing to do had he waited 9 months for his contract to be up.
i read the press release where he talks about respect, money, etc...
still, he signed a contract...
i'm gla dyou applaud it but i don't.

finishing his contract, taking whatever fight gets tossed his way, THEN retiring would cement his 'out on top' deal.
as it stands, it looks to me like he'd rather quit then stick out his contract cause he can't get the fight he wants.

why not fight nog? nog went the distance with fedor twice. nog's record takes a dump all over couture's.
fight nog then retire(not resign) on top.

quitting with time left in the game cause you want to be numero uno is lame, imo.

i guess it's cause i have never been a couture uber fan anyway.
the dude is a sick wrestler but i could always take him or leave him.

lay and pray dirty boxing for the win.....
not really my thing.

i just don't see how you or anyone can be on board with any fighter, let alone one of th largest names just walking away from the fans, the org and his contract....

all cause he wants to go out on top?

lame

edit* his brilliant win over tim sylvia???
imo, 5 round decisions are not 'brilliant'



[edit on 12-10-2007 by Boondock78]

edit*
do you watch any other sports?
a basketball or football fan?

if joe blow QB decides halfway through his contract that he wants more money, would you support his wanting to just split?
i am having a hard time understanding why anyone would support this...



[edit on 12-10-2007 by Boondock78]

badge, thanks for talking this out with me..
i LOVE mma and it is one of the few things left in life that i still enjoy.

i can understand why randy is doing this, but i don't agree.
he wants to go out 'the best'...who don't.
to go out the best you have to beat the best. randy has not beaten the best.

even looking through his career, i don't see how he can say he has anything left to prove. he is 16-8. that is not exactly a super fantastic record you know.

the way i look at it, if he stuck his contract out(even if he had no more fights) and then retired with the belt, he would have went out on teh top of the ufc.
splitting early though seems like it is not earned...there would have been/was a good chance that in his next fight, he loses...
of course he does not want that to happen.

he wants the fat payday...champ vs champ.
if he loses to nog or whatever, there goes that.

he and his agents had no problems signing this deal when he came back. i can't get behind him taking off cause others are making more...

i have never been happy with the payscale of the fighers, but it is getting better and that is the one good thing about multiple orgs. it will be better for the fighters as far as negotiating pay, butit will not be as good for us fans cause all the fighters will be spread out, and the cards will be dilluted.
-----------

a little off topic but i don't know if you heard...
you know the muay thai dude dorian from this season of T U F?
he is living in new york and training with serra/drago and the crew.

pretty funny i think cause he was on hughes team on the show....

---------

just wanted to give you the heads up.

One way to look at it is that RC used the resignation as a publicity ploy.

When he went to negotiate with Dana and Lorenzo, he got lied to, put off and made to look like a pain for any protestation.

So his only leverage was to resign. However, to keep that from having too much drama, he did it from location in S.A. by FAX. It was a 'I'm moving on guys, you lost your chance by not being upfront, but it's no biggie, I'm into movies now'.

That would have maximum impact on Dana and the Fertittas, but still seem to be casual.

Now the ball is in DW and LF's court and they have the option of making a counter-offer that is in line with the guy they propose RC fight. You don't offer the Champ one-quarter of what you offer the challenger. (In fact, parenthetically, do many in the US knows who Fedor is? He's only 1/10th as popular as RC in the US, except among the hardcore fans.)

So maybe it's prudent to wait a few days and have the decision sink in and see what the fallout is.

I still insist that from RC's point of view it was a brilliant maneuver. It's similar to a major sports figure holding out by not going to training camp and getting signed as a free agent. Sure there's a small risk, but the reward is big bucks.

It's simply not worth it to him to fight and risk his career, legendary status and health for one-quarter of what they've offered Fedor. He's got his gyms, endorsements and now a budding film career (though I don't picture him as being a successful actor - he doesn't have that big screen charisma). Were he to lose a fight he'd risk losing nearly a million dollars in endorsements. (which is where the real money is, btw).

In fact, I'd suggest that there's no amount of money that would be worth doing another fight as much as I like seeing him fight. The guy has it made.

As far as the record and Tim Sylvia, you might consider re-watching that fight. It was probably the most incredible upset ever in the UFC and I thought Joe Rogan was going to wet his pants (and rightly so).

Originally posted by Badge01

Now the ball is in DW and LF's court and they have the option of making a counter-offer that is in line with the guy they propose RC fight. You don't offer the Champ one-quarter of what you offer the challenger. (In fact, parenthetically, do many in the US knows who Fedor is? He's only 1/10th as popular as RC in the US, except among the hardcore fans.)


As far as the record and Tim Sylvia, you might consider re-watching that fight. It was probably the most incredible upset ever in the UFC and I thought Joe Rogan was going to wet his pants (and rightly so).

dana/fertittas do have a history of paying their fighters crap. i will not argue with that.
still though. it's not like randy was sitting on 2 years left you know and as you said, his arm is broken. had he stayed on, i think there is a decent chance anyway that couture could have stayed on the mic and then renegotiate the contract when it is up.
i am just having a hard time accepting him just walking out. as a fan, i want to see fighters fight.

i want to see fights. i HATE the drama, contract negotiations and such but as the sport grows, i guess that is expected.
i just don't want my sport to get tainted. fighters walking out and not wanting to fight cause they do not want to risk losing their last fight...imo, that is not what it is all about.

i thought that these fighters would fight 'whoever they put in front of me'..

to the couture/sylvia fight...i guess we just see it differently. i can not see an mma win as brilliant when it goes 25 minutes.
if he would have been rolling in abu dhabi or something and went 25 minutes that would have been sick.
i can't take joe rogan seriously anymore.
the dude is going out of his head...

he dogged out randy(before randy resigned) and accused him in a round about way of juicing.

he's high as a kite all the time.(*snip* various reasons so i am not mr uptight about it. matter of fact i think it should be legal)...i don't like seeing him on the mic when he is all wrecked.
it is not the image i want to see for this sport....
i liked him much better a few years afo. i think he i spiraling down and i don't want anymore slips of the mic from him.

search youtube. there are al kinds of vids of joe talking about how amazing dmt is and how everyone should try it. how he gets stoned and then goes into a flotation tank...he has a friggin sensory dep tank in his house then he hps into when he is stoned...

i know that is off topic but my point is, just cause rogan is crapping his pants over the match, don't mean i should or will you know.

as it sits now, i will hope that M-1 picks him up for a 1 fight deal so i can see fedor demolish him..


hey badge, you hang out at sherdog a lot?
i have been a member there since early 03. that said, i can hardly stand to post in the heavyweights forum anymore.....
people in there are friggin retarded.

i lurk in there a lot. if you want to talk technique, you should go into teh grappling section(if you grapple) or the striking section if you strike. THAT is where the good talks are.
the heavyweights forum is all gnub, white belt T U F fanboys. it is very annoying.

it's pretty wild though being there cause you get inside scoop or whatever.
a LOT of the guys in the grappling/striking forums train.
a lot of those guys train with/at the gyms run by the guys we watch.

you know blake bowman from this season of T U F..?

he was around the dog back around 03. i talked to him many times.
i have talked to bas rutten on there too.

that was pretty cool.

Bas used to pop on sherdog all the time for Q&A's.

it has really gone downhill lately and you have to sift through some serious dung to get to the good stuff.

there are a couple other mma forums where there is less gnubness happening.

thanks again for talking mma with me.




[edit on 13-10-2007 by Jbird]

No, I don't go on Sherdog, but I am a blue namer on the UG.

Though I've been a striker, I'd rather talk grappling, which I'm happy to do here.

I agree on not being a fan of the drama - I usually skip the first 30 min of TUF and just catch the fight.

As far as Rogan goes, I don't think you have cause to claim he's high during broadcasts, nor is it very fair. Last time I checked color commentary isn't like driving a public school bus (where impairment would be hazardous). Personally. I like the guy and am a big fan of Eddie Bravo.

We'll have to disagree on 25 min fights. Since I'm able to see detail and strategy on the mat, to me it's not at all boring.

So, what's your take on the Sylvia vs Vera fight? I'd like to see Vera take it but Tim is under rated in his standup imo. I think he'll get a decision, unless Vera can take him down, and I think that's not going to be easy. Vera doesn't have the clinch game that RC was able to exploit.

On Franklin vs Silva matchup, I'm afraid that it could be the same outcome as last time, though Silva can be vulnerable on the ground, witness Travis Luter almost taking him (and Luter was exhausted from cutting weight at that time).


PS, here's an interesting site: Top MMA gates in Nevada:

BTW, I misspoke on the healing time for RC's arm. He'll be in the cast for 6 -weeks- not 6 months, but he'll probably need to avoid stressing it for another 3-4 weeks. So that probably isn't a factor.

Here's a cool link with an interview with Randy and Kim.



[edit on 12-10-2007 by Badge01]

Originally posted by Badge01

As far as Rogan goes, I don't think you have cause to claim he's high during broadcasts, nor is it very fair. Last time I checked color commentary isn't like driving a public school bus (where impairment would be hazardous). Personally. I like the guy and am a big fan of Eddie Bravo.

We'll have to disagree on 25 min fights. Since I'm able to see detail and strategy on the mat, to me it's not at all boring.

i claim it cause i believe it to be true. why isn't it fair? the guy admits to smoking grass and taking dmt all the time. if you watch him enough, he 'looks' stoned to me, so, i claim it....fair or not, it's what i think

i am a grappler too and i can see strategy in the fights too. i never said anything like it being boring....what i said was, randy's 25 minute decision over tim sylvia is not 'brilliant', which is what you said...
there is a big difference between boring and brilliant.

i am not too interested in sylvia vs vera. sylvia is the most over rated heavy i think the ufc has produced.
i think vera is gonna take the decision.

i am a huge rich franklin fan but i think anderson silva is gonna tool him just like he did the first time.

the commentary is not like driving a bus, but i like to listen to what is happening. Bas was great on the mic for pride. joe used to be great. lately though, he stutters a lot. he can't get his words out and that...
i don't like it.

check these out

www.youtube.com...
www.youtube.com...

rogan talking about being wrecked and sensory dep tanks.


edit*






bwuahahahahah

[edit on 12-10-2007 by Boondock78]

[edit on 12-10-2007 by Boondock78]

[edit on 12-10-2007 by Boondock78]

randy on phone with sports center

tells whats what

mmafightvideos.blogspot.com...

i'm still not digging it.
he wants to fight fedor, yeah...of course.
but he keeps talking about that money.
HE signed the contract. i just don't like the way this went about this.

of course dana came off like a tool talking about this giy randy hooked up with and how he 'bitched slapped him'..what a prick...that was dana

still. i think randy should have hung in there and took his fight.

he is talking like he is the greatest thing since sliced bread.
he is 16-8
came of two knockout losses and was handed a title shot right off the bat. he won and then defended it once.
whats the big thing here?

i also think dana is a prick by saying that fedor never did anything(but he offered him over a mil) and saying randy would destroy him, but you have randy, ufc's 'best' saying he wants to fight the best and thats fedor.

now all of a sudden people are saying that fedor has fought cans but that is not the case.
he demolished everyone.

randy is great but i think he is being put up on this pedestal.
he put himself there or someone else did and he thinks he is there...

i am not really smart when it comes to these things but why not work the contract. fight nog or arlovski, then, negotiate to fight fedor as a 'free agent'?

what keeps popping up is he is making a lot of money without actualy fighting, and, if he fights either of those guys and loses, especially to nog, then his drawing power goes down the tubes.

BD, no disrespect, but you have no idea what RC's contract stipulates. I think it's inappropriate to say things like 'he signed and he should stick'.

In fact it may have a clause allowing him to take additional fights or not and it just state that during the time of the contract that if he fights it has to fight for the UFC, or else there can be a monetary penalty. Such contracts are actually quite common and so is breaking them.

If he finds a better venue for more money, he can break the contract and just pay damages. Often times, it's more profitable to pay the damages and take the other fight, which might pay more.

i guess we just disagree then
the wholw point here is he resigned while under contract.

either way, i feel how i feel.

hopefully we get to se the two fight SOON.
i'd love to see randy tap