UFC heavyweight Champion Randy Couture dropped a bomb on the MMA world on October 13 when he, from South Africa (where he was shooting a feature film), resigned from the UFC. And so when he returned to Las Vegas this past week the rumblings and shockwaves were still so intense that he decided to hold a press conference at his gym, Extreme Couture, to clarify a couple matters.
In essence, that he was leaving for two reasons—the UFC’s failure to sign Fedor Emelianenko, widely considered MMA’s pound-for-pound king and the only fighter left whom Couture, 44, wishes to engage, and its failure to show Couture the appreciation he feels he deserves after dedicating the last 11 years of his life to the organization.
“I’m tired,” he said. “Something needs to change.”
As evidence of the lack of appreciation, Couture cited two issues, money and communication, which, interesting enough, are the two criticisms that have hounded UFC president Dana White ever since his fighting organization began to effloresce three years ago. Watching from the outside, experts from the dysfunctional sport of boxing have long held that the UFC could not endure with the salaries its fighters were purportedly receiving—some as little as “two to three thousand a fight, which is a shame,” according to Couture when he broached the topic, and others, like Couture himself, $250,000, which is a mere fragment of the revenue the shows he has headlined bring in. But “purportedly” is the key word, because White has ensured that nobody knows for certain what his fighters make—not even their own peers—due to what Couture called “locker room” bonuses given informally and arbitrarily to fighters after an event.
“I don’t think Dana’s a bad guy,” Couture said. “I just don’t think he’s always the most conscientious.”
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The UFC had lost the Emelianenko sweepstakes to a Russian promotional company called M-1 Global, who’ve made it well known that they will live or die by their sole superstar, Emelianenko, 26-1 in MMA competition and the heavyweight champion of the defunct Pride Fighting Championship. As of now, things look promising, as multiple MMA websites have reported that HBO, ESPN and HDnet are interested in airing Emelianenko’s fights for American audiences. Plus, as M-1 Global President and CEO Monte Cox, a fight promoter with 13 years of experience, says:
“There are three things that bring a man or an organization down: women, greed and arrogance. We don’t have any of these.”
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Thirty minutes prior to the scheduled start of Couture’s October 25 press conference, White held his own to discuss several topics relating to the UFC—none bigger than the announced December 29 fight at the Mandalay Bay Events Center between legends Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva. It’s been a long time coming. Yet, when the lust for the match initially began, two years ago, both fighters were at the top of the MMA world, and a potential fight would determine the top dog. Now, with both Liddell and Silva coming off successive losses, the match could determine whose fighting days will come to an immediate end.
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Just like Couture, Emelianenko, Liddell and Silva, the WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber holds a spot in that class of special MMA athletes. His next fight, on December 12 (at a venue to be determined) against veteran Jeff Curran, will be one to watch.
Joshua Longobardy is a staff writer with Las Vegas Weekly