Randy explains his decision

Underground
#1

From Sherdog.com:

Randy Couture (Pictures), 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."

Read the rest here.

#2

good for Randy, I wish him nothing but the best.

TT

#3

The UFC will never be the same.........wow, just wow.

#4

There's some pretty explosive information in that article.

#5

Holy shit, good job Dana...

#6

Damn-stupid, stupid, stupid Zuffa.  Should have done ANYTHING to sign Fedor.

#7

Couture will have to wait nine months for his current UFC deal to lapse before he can go after Emelianenko.

#8

Should have done ANYTHING to sign Fedor.

Read the whole article. It's not just the Fedor thing.

#9

Edit: This doesn't sound like the Randy we know at all!

#10

ttt

#11

ttt

#12

Well that is pretty unambiguous. Nice work, management.

He's right about being "played as the nice guy." 99% of fans are going to presume Randy is 100% right here because he's super classy.

#13

so Randy wants a different contract in terms of what he allows them, but he wants more money then everyone else, and instead of spending the next 9 months defending a title, he'll spend it doing not much of anything

this sport makes me so sick sometimes

#14

I smell the UFC monopoly dying. It didn't last long.

#15

whether it dies or not, what kills it won't be a 45 year old guy who can't fight for the next year, come on

#16

I thought that was the most damning part of the article too, WPB.

#17

Wow... I don't even know what to say. I can't believe that there are that many more fighters in the UFC being paid more than Randy is. If that's true, then that was definitely a low blow by Dana.

#18

i figured ufc took great care of randy. for sure he was paid well. this is a big surprise

#19

it sounds to me like Randy is trying to move on from this, he has been in the game a LONG time, he has busted his and beatin the best out there.

UFC couldn't provide what he wanted so he left, I am more than certain he other business ventures going on and he doesn't need the UFC especially if they aren't giving him what he wants.

TT

#20

"I would have made demands to get paid equally or better than him as the champion."

RIGHTFULLY SO