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Getbig Misc Discussion Boards => Mixed Martial Arts (MMA/UFC) => Topic started by: Bluto on October 11, 2007, 01:36:00 PM
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The Fight Network has just reported that Randy Couture has quit the promotion, vacating his heavyweight title and leaving his job as a color commentator.
Couture, who works for The Fight Network itself, so there is no way they are going to miss on this story, wrote a letter from South Africa where he's filming the Scorpion King movie, to Dana White.
Not getting a match with Fedor Emelianenko played a part in his decision. The decision was made when it became clear the match with Fedor wasn't happening.
It is known Couture was one of the top UFC fighters who was unhappy when reading about the huge money guaranteed in the company's offers to Emelianenko, because he felt he and a few others were the fighters who helped build the current popularity and they weren't getting guaranteed income for fights anywhere near that level, particularly since they were bigger drawing cards.
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Again the Super brings you the latest news - first - to the MMA board!
Here's more:
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.
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Hate to break the news to you, big guy, but this was all over the UG before you splashed it here. So if this is the only information source for some, then you did do something of merit.
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if this is the only information source for some, then you did do something of merit.
Thanks. That's the idea.
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Why couldn't Fedor and UFC come to an agreement? What was Fedor's sticking point? Money? What?
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Why couldn't Fedor and UFC come to an agreement? What was Fedor's sticking point? Money? What?
Fedor is the best Sambo fighter on the planet for years now. He wanted to do the Sambo championships in Russia each year as well as something else if I recall and they wouldn't let him. So he signed with M1.
THERE'S A NEW BIG DOG IN TOWN!!!! Let's see what Cuban has up his sleeve. This is exciting. hahahaha, can't believe Randy resigned either. Good shit. I'd love to see the UFC empire torn down.
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Fedor is the best Sambo fighter on the planet for years now. He wanted to do the Sambo championships in Russia each year as well as something else if I recall and they wouldn't let him. So he signed with M1.
THERE'S A NEW BIG DOG IN TOWN!!!! Let's see what Cuban has up his sleeve. This is exciting. hahahaha, can't believe Randy resigned either. Good shit. I'd love to see the UFC empire torn down.
I hope that Cuban isn't in bed with Vince McMahon like it has been alluded to.
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I hope that Cuban isn't in bed with Vince McMahon like it has been alluded to.
Cuban is a die hard sports fan and an amazing businessman. He respects every player on the Mavericks and has turned that team into the NBA's most valuable franchise. I'm sure he's going to work his magic with M1. He also owns the Continental Airlines arena or whatever the Mavs home court is, so he should be able to hold events there for chump change.
I'm just hoping they go with Pride rules outside of the US for their events. :o
Either way, it's intriguing. I'd love to see Cuban kill the UFC.
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I think he will, Everything he does puts full investment into....didnt he just buy something else big to though???? Like the chi cubs???? What big free agents are out there for him to still get???? Franks Shamrock(Only had 2 fights on his contract and he fought um already)Would like to see him fight unsigned Dennis Kang in M1's first p.p. View...
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Randy is right, he got f*cked! Chuck last year got between $3-400k per fight including cash bonuses and he got a brand new F430 Ferrari Spider that was purchased by Dana for $320k as a "gift" along with other mortgage payment "gifts"! Don't believe me, go to San Luis and see for yourself!
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I here there's talk that M1's negoitating deals to sign KIMBO,Monson & K. Randleman, I hope they don't consider them Top Material for Fedor(even though randleman did put one of the best suplex's ever on him)
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Randy meant a LOT to UFC's success over the years. Big mistake to fuck him.
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Randy meant a LOT to UFC's success over the years. Big mistake to fuck him.
After all this is Vegas and Vegas was built on one thing from day 1 and now....
GREED!!!!!!!
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I say Fedor and Couture still end up fighting, just will be at least a yr from now,and its if fedor stays undefeated long enough for couture to finish his movie and be out of the ufc legal mumbo jumbo...
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He should fight NOG and then call it quits....they were suppose to meet in the RINGS tourney.... only Randy had to mess up by losing to a can. >:(
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Breaking News: Randy Couture Quits The UFC
who knows maybe randy has plans of shippin over to M-1 also which is gonna give that organization More credibility fresh out of the gate,either way the UFC heavies are gonna be clouded wondering if they really do have a true champion with randy leaving .
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who knows maybe randy has plans of shippin over to M-1 also which is gonna give that organization More credibility fresh out of the gate,either way the UFC heavies are gonna be clouded wondering if they really do have a true champion with randy leaving .
I don't know much about M-1 or what kinda financial muscle they have behind them, but I do think that some competition will only be healthy for the sport and there can always be "superfights" arranged between competing organizations 8)
As long as there's not a dozen different federations, rules, weightclasses like in Boxing - MMA should be fine.
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I dont think he can fight in M1 right away because he has to wait a certain time, to fight anywhere else, cuz he still had two fights left in ufc, and hes in the middle of filming the new scorpian king movie,but hell i dunno im no lawyer....and i belive c.kongo and nog have already agreed to fight, so that would have put that fight out a good while for randy.....but with Mark Cuban on bored running M1 they have the finances to steal alot of peeps, but i think cuban knows buisness and will most likely buy out the other organizations as well(elitexc,bodog etc.) to try and setup a powerhouse
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I don't know much about M-1 or what kinda financial muscle they have behind them, but I do think that some competition will only be healthy for the sport and there can always be "superfights" arranged between competing organizations 8)
As long as there's not a dozen different federations, rules, weightclasses like in Boxing - MMA should be fine.
I think contractually the only chance of super fights is if one fighter leaves either organization with a title and goes over to the other organization, like in this case randy (if he's allowed to fight in m-1) or in the case of Hendo as pride became history....
I kind of doubt we'll see much "inter organization" fights with guys under active contracts because it's totally a conflict of interest between dana and whoever this M-1 guy is (I'm assuming cuban at this point)
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I'm hoping for something like back in 2003 when Chuck went over to Pride to fight Overeem and Rampage.
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(UPDATE)
White responded to Couture’s retirement saying, “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.”
Haney said that Couture “is very excited to embark on a promising career in acting” and that “he’s currently shooting a lead role in Universal’s ‘The Scorpion King – The Rise of the Akkadian’ in South Africa and has more offers on the table.”
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the biggest thing i see is that randy said hes "resigning" from the UFC. didnt say he was retiring from fighting.
im guessing he goes and fights elsewhere.
either way..big loss for the UFC
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In Translation I think he meant, im not suprised at all the randy couture realized I have been abosultley fucking him on $, and getting top competitors for him to fight, and Im gonna keep the door wide open in hopes that one day again I can fuck him over in the future, and hopefully he will have made good money doing movies and wont care,so will come and fight anyway....In turn making me richer*without dishing the dough as usual...
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Clearly Dana has some money to spend... he should've distributed it better... Cro Cop comes to mind
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Think Chuck Liddell comes to mind too. All those years spent building him up and what does he do once the UFC hits mainstream? Gets wrecked twice. Talk about a poor business investment!
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This is a horrible photo of Randy they use at Sherdog, he reminds me of Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th WITHOUT the mask! ;D
(http://www.cdn.sherdog.com/_images/news/2007_10/9462.jpg)
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All find the link, and post as soon as I can, but the M-1 Management Team will be holding a Press Conference in NYC on Friday Oct.19th 2007 with Fedor's Management discussing his Future, The Organization's Future, as well as who His first oppent will be, when the fight will be, and also they will be annoucing the new American Investors, notice they say Investors, not Investor, and All have to find the other link, but Cuban, and the Mcmahons have both said that they are not the investors behind M1, But cuban said he does intend to make his currently owned org. HDNET Fights a contender with them both....Any thoughts on who the investor might be???? My guess is the guy who Was the top Investor in Pride as well as there president before he left them and inturn ended up suing them, he built the pride empire and hes an american with lots of money???who could it be, a polish website reported it was bill gates(but i see that as total bullshit) It will be interesting to see, but hopefully one wk from now time will tell.Personally I belive randys game plan is alot based around pressin in the cage, with dirty boxing, and dont think without a cage hes a contender..
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No idea who the investors might be, but since MMA is becoming more and more popular, more and more people wants to be involved...
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Maybe Vince Mcmahon? or Ted Turner???
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Reprinted from Yahoo! Sports with permission)
Dana White may be the man most responsible for the meteoric growth of the UFC. It has a national television contract, it does ever-larger pay-per-view sales, it routinely sells out major venues and it has one of the most passionate fan bases in sports.
Much of that is due to White’s grit, guile and cunning.
But White, the UFC president, has a challenge before him, the likes of which he has never faced in his seven years at the helm of the world’s most successful mixed martial arts promotional company.
Though White hardly seemed upset by UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture’s announcement Thursday that he is retiring as a professional fighter and severing all ties with the company, how he handles the situation will determine whether the company will continue its rocket-like ascent toward mainstream acceptance or whether it will return to the netherworld of niche sports status.
Couture quit for the same reason that No. 1 NFL draft pick JaMarcus Russell didn’t sign with the Raiders until after the regular season began, for the reason why Alex Rodriguez is probably going to opt out of his contract with the Yankees: Money.
The UFC has played hardball with its fighters for so long because it has been the only game in town. And, despite the emergence of a slew of promotions like the International Fight League, Elite XC, Strikeforce and, new this week, M-1 Mix Fight, it remains the only viable alternative for most fighters.
It has the most money, the most fans and the best fighters under contract. If you’re a fighter and you’re looking to increase your exposure and your bankroll, you sign with the UFC.
Couture’s sudden retirement changes the dynamic remarkably.
Former light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell, who according to White is the company’s highest-paid fighter, has lost two straight and has conceded that thoughts of retirement have wafted through his head.
Couture, whom White said was his second-highest paid fighter, retired on Thursday.
Matt Hughes, who fights Matt Serra for the welterweight title on Dec. 29, has said on The Ultimate Fighter reality show on Spike TV that he’s only going to fight two or three more times before quitting.
Rich Franklin will lose a lot of his luster as a drawing card if he gets manhandled again by Anderson Silva when they meet for the middleweight title at UFC 77 on Oct. 20.
Tito Ortiz, who is down to one fight left on his UFC contract, is nowhere near the invincible force he seemed about five years ago.
And for as many great athletes who dot the UFC’s roster of talent, none, with the possible exception of light heavyweight Forrest Griffin, have the capability of filling an arena like Couture and Liddell did.
White blamed what’s becoming his personal whipping boy – MMA web sites and forums – for spreading phony rumors about fighter pay. Couture, who is in South Africa filming a movie and couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday, released a statement in which he said he was retiring because the UFC didn’t sign Fedor Emelianenko and no other fight mattered to him.
He also said he was upset with UFC management for what he believed was low pay. He made that point in a breakfast meeting last month with White and UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta.
“He felt he was not getting paid as much as Mirko Cro Cop, as much as this guy and as much as that guy,” White said. “We told him he was our second-highest paid fighter, but he didn’t believe us. Chuck’s the only guy who makes more, but he kept hearing all these rumors and he wouldn’t believe us.“
White then launched into a tirade against what he called “the rumor mongerers on the Internet,” whom he said are, “the lowest of the low.“
He said fighters read those sites and believe them to be true, causing friction at the negotiating table.
“This business is like a beauty salon,” he said. “These guys are all the toughest guys in the world, but they’re like (expletives) in a beauty salon. They pass along rumors and gossip, which has no basis in reality and they believe all the (rumors) they hear. The Internet is very powerful and one of the best promotional tools we have, but it’s a crazy place.
“They hear these rumors and they believe them and then they get insulted like (expletives) after we try to talk reality with them. They’ll say, ‘Well, this guy is getting this much,’ but when I ask where they heard it, it’s never a contract, it’s always, ‘I read it on the Internet.’ It’s crazy.“
The Yankees won the World Series after Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and Reggie Jackson retired. The Lakers won NBA titles after Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson quit.
There is plenty of precedent in sports for teams and organizations succeeding after losing their biggest stars.
But those were established teams in established leagues with long records of success. MMA as we know it has only existed since 1993. And as recently as less than three years ago, few mainstream media paid it any mind.
Griffin and Stephan Bonnar helped change that with a slugfest in the finale of the first season of The Ultimate Fighter on Spike TV that was the equal of any held in boxing.
With a reach of 90 million homes, a fight which was like MMA’s equivalent of the legendary Marvin Hagler-Thomas Hearns middleweight title brawl, forced a lot of people to begin tuning in.
There have been few bumps in the 30 months since that epic battle.
But if you believe – yep, Internet reports – then White has two major bumps he must hurdle. Several web sites have reported that Emelianenko has signed with a Russian promoter called M-1 Mix Fight.
White, who has been negotiating feverishly for the last six months in a bid to sign Emelianenko and match him with Couture, wasn’t sure if the reports are true.
He demeaned Emelianenko, who is ranked No. 1 in the Y! Sports MMA poll, as a fighter, saying Couture would destroy him, and said Emelianenko’s representatives were nearly impossible to work with.
“The negotiations with those guys were so nutty, that at this point, I don’t give (an expletive) if he ever comes with us,” White said. “If there were real rankings out there, he wouldn’t be the No. 1 fighter in the world, believe me.
“Randy Couture is the top heavyweight. He’s proven it. He’s fought real guys. Who has this guy fought? Mark Coleman and Matt Lindland, who weighs 185 pounds. He’s (an expletive) middleweight. My philosophy has always been to sign the best guys and make them fight, but you see that this guy didn’t want to fight the best because he was impossible to deal with.“
If Emelianenko had signed with the UFC and then subsequently defeated Couture, he would have been Couture’s obvious successor as a drawing card.
On the other hand, had Couture, as White predicts, destroyed Emelianenko, it would have exponentially improved Couture’s drawing power for as long as he wanted to stay around. Now, White is forced to find replacements for two high-level talents.
White isn’t the coolest guy in the world, but he plays one on TV and he tried to pass off Couture’s decision as one of those things that happen in the fight game.
“No matter how great they are, fighters come and go, but it’s the sport that survives,” White said. “Randy Couture retired once before and we didn’t collapse, did we? I love Randy Couture and what he represented.
“He’s a great guy and was a bad dude in that octagon. He’s the kind of guy I want to associate my company with, but I also know that as a fighter, he wouldn’t be around forever no matter what. We’ll survive. This is just another day in my life. Believe me, as much as I would like to be promoting another Couture fight, it’s not the news that is going to kill the UFC.“
White is going to need all his cunning and guile to survive this one, though.
He said Thursday he’s not certain he’s going to go ahead with the long-rumored Liddell-Wanderlei Silva fight as the main event of UFC 79 on Dec. 29 and said he may just headline that card with Hughes challenging Matt Serra for the welterweight title.
In part, that could be a way for White to make up for the loss of a Couture-Emelianenko fight at UFC 80 on Feb. 2. He can slide Liddell-Silva into that slot as the main event on one of the biggest MMA weekends of the year and hope that the fight captures the public’s imagination.
But until those drawing cards emerge to replace Couture, Liddell and Hughes, it’s going to be difficult for the UFC to escape niche status and convince the Fortune 100 companies it craves as sponsors that it has reached the mainstream.
It’s going to be White’s greatest challenge yet.
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The shocking news of Randy Couture’s exit from the Ultimate Fighting Championship hit like a tidal wave on Thursday. MMAWeekly caught up with Ron Frazier, one of the head trainers at Xtreme Couture, after the news hit to get his comments on Randy’s monumental decision.
“I wasn’t really surprised that much in the news,” Frazier stated. “With the option of not being able to fight Fedor, with the movie career going so well, and with the opportunity to spend much more time with his wife and his family, it wasn’t surprising. At the end of the day, good for Randy.”
Couture stated emphatically in his letter to the UFC that losing the fight with current top heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko was a major reason for his exodous. Frazier also stated that without that fight, Couture has little left to prove.
“You always want a fighter to go out on top and when he fought Chuck Liddell [the third time], we all knew a couple months ahead of time that he was going to retire after that bout, win or lose,” said Frazier.
“Unfortunately he lost, but we wanted him to go out on top. What better way? He came back. He shocked the world. He beat two guys no one thought he could beat. There’s no great challenges left, except for fighting Fedor. So why not ride off into the sunset?”
The opportunity to fight Fedor really did seem like the last major hurdle for Couture to leap and with the recent announcement of his alleged deal with M-1 in Russia, it seems for now like that possible match-up is dead.
“Knowing him personally and working with him for almost three years now, I knew he thrived on challenges and so if he couldn’t fight Fedor, it wouldn’t surprise me if he called it a day,” Frazier said about Couture’s desire to fight Emelianenko.
While the MMA community continues to dwell on the loss of Couture in the UFC, Frazier points out how tough it has become for the legendary fighter to even take time for a full training camp to prepare for a bout.
“He really has to clear out his calendar to fight now,” said Frazier. “When we want to make an eight-week training session, all the appearances, all the stuff he does for all the Xtreme Coutures all over the country, kind of has to come to a stand still. He doesn’t have to do that anymore.”
Couture mentioned his new career in the movie industry, but his team at Xtreme Couture has become one of the premiere camps in the world and Frazier is assured that he will continue his role there.
“He’ll still be very active in the fighters we have going there,” said Frazier about Couture’s involvement at the gym.
The biggest question on everyone’s mind is regardless of the UFC is will we ever see Randy Couture fight in MMA again?
“You learn with professional athletes to never say never,” Frazier said about a possible Randy Couture comeback.
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The big news today is that Randy Couture has left the UFC because of the way that he felt he was treated, that he was underpaid and the fact that the UFC didn’t sign Fedor Emelianenko. Any thoughts?
Frank Shamrock: I saw it coming. Yesterday I was talking with a guy that said Randy was going to continue to dominate in the UFC and I told him that Randy was going to walk away the first chance that he got. At the end of the day the UFC is promoting the UFC and not promoting the talent. Their job is to build their brand and its good business for them but bad business for the sport. I am sure that is how Randy saw it and he wanted a chance to solidify his legacy with a fight against Fedor. The UFC decided to argue over peanuts; if want the best than you pay for the best and you don’t worry about the rest.
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Cuban is a die hard sports fan and an amazing businessman. He respects every player on the Mavericks and has turned that team into the NBA's most valuable franchise. I'm sure he's going to work his magic with M1. He also owns the Continental Airlines arena or whatever the Mavs home court is, so he should be able to hold events there for chump change.
I'm just hoping they go with Pride rules outside of the US for their events. :o
Either way, it's intriguing. I'd love to see Cuban kill the UFC.
Way off topic here but in no way are the Dallas Mavericks the most valuable franchise in the league. WOW!