Randy Couture’s memoir, “Becoming the Natural: My Life in and out of the Cage,” hit the bookshelves in late July.
Now relatively buried beneath the pile of news articles concerning Couture’s return to the UFC and his berth in the heavyweight title “tournament” between himself, Brock Lesnar, UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Frank Mir, the book is nevertheless a good, quick read for those looking for everything-they-ever-wanted-to-know (and more) about Couture.
The book recounts Couture’s life, from growing up in Washington State to his emergence as one of the top-ranked Greco-Roman wrestlers in the country, and eventually to his foray into mixed martial arts and his journey to becoming a six-time UFC hampion.
And while it has been pitched as Couture’s lifelong search for a father figure as being paramount to his progression into the world of mixed martial arts, the narrative concerns itself just as much with Couture’s countless adulterous trysts and two failed marriages as it does his lack of a father figure.
While I give Couture props for laying everything out on the table, I couldn’t help but feel embarrassed for his lack of restraint regarding his personal life.
Despite me now knowing way more about Couture than I care to, the book was hard to put down. He talks about feeling an opponent “break” in the ring and knowing the end of the fight will shortly follow. Most intriguingly were his accounts of dealing with UFC management (both pre- and post-Zuffa ownership).
Couture’s long-running feud with UFC ownership dates back almost to the beginning of his UFC career. Under former owner SEG, the UFC had pitted Couture up against its would-be future poster boy, Vitor Belfort. The “Phenom” was supposed to win, so that he could then challenge Maurice Smith for the heavyweight title.
The only problem: Couture won, sending then-owner Bob Meyrowitz and top UFC brass into a tizzy.
Without another alternative, the UFC was forced to grant Couture the title shot, and again he upset the heavy favorite to capture the belt. Shortly afterward, the financial entanglements of the struggling SEG had finally caught up with the promotion, which according to Couture, reneged on its contract and tried to offer Couture $25,000 for his next fight — down from the previously agreed on $80,000.
Couture walked, finding greener pastures in Shooto’s Vale Tudo Japan and in the RINGS promotion, where he would be for six of his next seven fights.
While this first brush with the UFC would not be Couture’s last, it does smack of the same “disrespect” Couture has alluded to for the past year in regard to his ongoing negotiations with the UFC. For him, it’s been a culture of disrespect, no matter who was writing the checks, SEG or Zuffa.
This fact alone makes it all the more surprising to me that Couture recently signed a new, three-fight deal with the UFC. And if nothing else, the book sheds a very interesting light on how Couture feels about Dana White running the promotion.
Around the time when the UFC was first taken over by Zuffa, Couture was managed by Battle Management, which comprised Jeremy Lappen — an entertainment lawyer and producer — and Peter Levin, a longtime agent. These Hollywood boys knew what to make of bad deals, namely, Couture’s first Zuffa-made offer following his successful title defense against Pedro Rizzo (a fight Couture calls “the toughest I’ve ever had”):
“The new contract included a clause that handed over the ancillary rights for both my name and likeness to Zuffa ‘in perpetuity.’ These rights included pictures, video, or any other medium containing my face and name for advertising and merchandising, from posters to T-shirts to DVDs. ‘In perpetuity’ means forever.”
Lappen and Levin explained to Couture the dangers of signing away his ancillary rights (which most UFC-signed fighters forfeit). They also didn’t exactly see eye to eye with Dana White on a lot of things, saying that he behaved inappropriately in meetings, “He is so irrational and emotional, screaming and yelling and cussing.”
In an effort to avoid Couture’s management, Dana White tried to reach out to the champ directly.
“Dana started to call me directly to go around my managers. ‘You know what that fucker said?’ he’d ask me. Dana called my managers the ‘hair fags’ because Jeremy had curly hair. I told Jeremy and Peter that Dana was talking to me, and we all agreed to play along.”
While the book strengthens Couture’s arguments that he has long been at loggerheads with the UFC, it doesn’t paint the picture as only black and white. There are indeed a lot of colors to their relationship, and Couture has good to speak of Dana White as well:
“Over the course of (taping The Ultimate Fighter Season One) show, I think I also gained respect for UFC president Dana White. I saw that he had a genuine passion for the sport and the fighters. He invited me and Liddell to his house to watch a boxing match, and his office was plastered with UFC posters and memorabilia. The walls of his son’s room were actually painted with UFC fighters. It was obvious that this was more than just a job for him. I think that was something that we both saw in each other that changed our relationship. We had been adversaries throughout the years of contract negotiations, but this was the first time we were ever on the same side.”
Couture also spends a significant amount of time reflecting on his last fight before retiring from the ring — UFC 57: “Liddell vs. Couture 3″ on February 4, 2006. While Couture eventually would come out of retirement a year later to reclaim the promotion’s heavyweight title, it was a big moment in his life, and one where the UFC again showed its support.
After the tough loss to Liddell, Couture was met in the locker room by his wife, Kim, and several of his teammates from the Las Vegas gym. Shortly thereafter, UFC brass stopped by:
“Lorenzo and Dana came in and asked to speak with me privately. We walked into the showers in back, and they gave me a huge bonus check for hundreds of thousands of dollars, the first I’d ever gotten with the promotion. They said it didn’t matter what I did; they wanted me with them. I was shocked and surprised.”
When Couture did decide to return to the Octagon a year later, he tried to do so on his own terms:
“On January 11, I met with Lorenzo Fertitta to sign a new four-fight contract. I stipulated that I would take each fight one by one, and Fertitta agreed that I would have no obligation to complete the quartet of bouts. Hearing that many of the fighters were getting signing bonuses, I requested one as well. Lorenzo told me he couldn’t offer me that, but that they planned to give me the same bonus I’d gotten after my third fight with Liddell, win or lose against Sylvia, so he would take half of that and give it to me up front.”
After a one-year layoff, Couture re-emerged from retirement to challenge UFC Heavyweight Champion Tim Sylvia for the belt at the ripe young age of 43. After his win, the Couture story was the biggest it’s perhaps ever been, which only helped the sport gain even more attention in the eyes of casual sports fans.
However, as documented by Couture, the hits kept coming. While Couture tirelessly made television appearances in an effort to promote the sport and himself as the promotion’s new heavyweight champion, more and more mainstream media outlets were starting to take notice, including ESPN The Magazine and Sports Illustrated.
“Later I got word that Sports Illustrated had selected me for the cover of their first-ever feature on MMA. I was honored. But a week before the cover was scheduled to come out, I heard they were going with the much younger Roger Huerta. Apparently Dana had herded the Sports Illustrated staff away from selecting me. I had nothing against Huerta, but the situation was hurtful and disappointing.”
Around the same time, Couture had heard rumors that Dana White had been up in arms over Couture appearing on Spike TV’s “Pros vs. Joes” program, according to Couture, because White “wasn’t sure that (Couture) was the one he wanted representing the UFC on the show.”
Listing all of the “insults and disrespect” that Couture does in his book would take too much time, but suffice it to say, he details a decent case against the promotion. On October 11, 2007, he resigned from the organization after it failed to sign Fedor Emelianenko. At that stage in his career, Couture says, it was the only fight that made sense for him, and if the UFC couldn’t make it happen, he felt as if he had the right to try and make it happen on his own.
As we’ve all read, what followed was a year’s worth of contract negotiations and threats of litigation. But at one point, Couture even offered a new deal: he was willing to never fight again for any other promotion if the UFC would shorten the one-year, non-compete period and forever be done with him. He was willing to give up his dream of fighting Emelianenko, if it meant avoiding litigation.
That’s how badly Couture wanted to be done with the UFC “once and for all.”
At the time the book went to press, Couture was still awaiting the court’s decision, and that’s pretty much where the book leaves us.
What happened in the time since to make Couture change his mind, what precise negotiations occurred between Couture and the UFC, is anyone’s guess. But it appears clear — especially after reading his memoir — that “Captain America’s” clock is ticking, and desperate times call for desperate measures.
At age 45, if Couture ever wants to fight Emelianenko — and be done with litigation brought forth by the UFC — the only alternative seems to be to keep his mouth shut and play ball.
No matter what side of the debate you lean toward — the UFC’s right to protect its product, or a fighter’s right to call his own shots — Couture’s memoir only makes his current situation sound all the more desperate.
And for that, here’s hoping he satisfies his new contract, the UFC butts out, and Couture gets the chance to fight Emelianenko once and for all.
That would be the storybook type of ending that he more than likely would have preferred to close “Becoming The Natural.” Who knows … maybe he’ll pen a sequel.
