RESIGNATION
By Jack Encarnacao
It is quite a twist that the UFC has fought tooth-and-nail the last seven years to attract mainstream media attention, yet one of the biggest frenzies to date is centered on losing one of its top stars.
In an unexpected move, Randy Couture resigned from all professional association with the promotion yesterday, which included two contracted fights, an on-camera analyst’s position, and his heavyweight crown.
UFC president Dana White tagged Couture’s decision a “retirement,” citing the 44-year-old’s departure from the sport in 2006 before returning in March 2007 to reclaim the heavyweight title from lumbering 6-foot-8, 265-pound Tim Sylvia.
“It’s not a retirement,” said Couture Friday, who also works as on-air analyst and ambassador for The Fight Network. “It’s a resignation from the UFC organization.”
Couture would not elaborate on his future plans, though he's currently on the movie set for “The Scorpion King – Rise of the Akkadian” in South Africa, of which he has a lead role. Tucked away from the Internet uproar, the soft-spoken fighter seemed unaware of the commotion his defection has caused. “You know I’m not much for talking,” he said. “I let my actions speak louder.”
The news of Couture’s move has created a flurry of analysis and questions in the MMA community, and has made a splash in the larger sports media. ESPN, Sports Illustrated, MSN, the Associated Press and Yahoo! all treated the move as a top story on their websites Thursday alongside major league baseball playoff stories coverage and the latest Britney Spears tidbits.
White, for one, has tried to downplay his promotion’s greatest exit to date.
“This is just another day in my life,” White told Yahoo! Sports Kevin Iole. “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.”
The quintessential favorite and a figure credited with professionalizing mixed martial arts to the highest degree, Couture (16-8) is beloved in all circles, something that even the sometimes abrasive White understands.
“I’m sure Randy Couture and I are gonna be friends for a long time,” White said in an interview with UFC’s Thomas Gerbasi published on UFC.com. “Randy Couture is a guy who I’ve said publicly a million times and I’ll say publicly right now who I feel is one of the guys who helped us get here.”
White’s praise hasn’t extended to Couture’s confidantes though, which includes Couture’s agent Matt Walker, of the Los Angeles-based Gersh Agency.
“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,” White said. “Apparently Randy’s upset about something, and the timing of this thing is a typical Hollywood agent move while Randy’s out of town.”
Couture says White’s reaction is typical of the problematic attitude the athlete shunned yesterday.
"He doesn't respect anybody unless he controls them," said Couture. "Disrespecting my agent Matt is insulting to me because it says I'm not intelligent enough to make a decision on my own or surround myself with quality people. It's all about respect, something they've never given me or anyone representing me."
Couture has had superlatives heaped on him since May 1997, when he first stepped into the Octagon an unknown wrestler four times shy in his bid to reach the Olympics. Defying the odds became his specialty. In 2003, at the age of 40, he dropped to light heavyweight and toppled Chuck Liddell in what was at the time one of the bigger upsets in the company’s history.
His fight against Sylvia in March drew the largest paying live crowd yet to see mixed martial arts in the United States, and the prospect of the 44-year-old battling mother nature and the odds in title defenses to come almost guaranteed lucrative pay-per-view cards.
For such a commodity any fight promotion would clamor to acquire, White told Yahoo’s Iole he never said no to anything Couture wanted to do. Couture doesn’t agree.
“If he had given me everything I wanted, we wouldn’t be where we are today, now would we?”
