MMA Blog

Why Fedor vs Randy would sell

As Randy Couture leaves the UFC to pursue a bout with Fedor Emelianenko, pundits and hardcore fans alike are left wondering whether the fight will be a financial success. Will this be the first bout in MMA history to draw casual fans away from the UFC in significant numbers? No event to date has managed it, so why should this matchup be any different?

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Add comment October 23rd, 2007

Couture quits the UFC. Holy crap.

The Fight Network broke the news at around 3pm ET on Thursday that Randy Couture has walked away from the UFC.

In saying goodbye to Couture, the UFC is losing it’s most recognisable personality, it’s biggest draw and their self proclaimed “greatest champion of all time”.

More importantly, Couture is a role model to many young fighters and his public vote of no confidence in the UFC could well be a watershed moment for the Company.

This will be an extremely difficult incident to spin. Champions don’t just disappear and whatever reason they give for his departure, the UFC and it’s management are going to look incompetent. Even if they made something up, Couture can speak for himself and when the mainstream media approach him for his side of the story, I doubt he will sugar coat it. He will state that the UFC failed to sign the best competition in the world and he will mention Fedor by name.

Generally the mainstream UFC fans are lazy and uninterested in the other organisations, but if Couture speaks they listen and this may well prick their ears enough to take notice of that pudgey Russian… “Feder Amliko or something… whut did he say?”

More importantly, this is the type of story that the mainstream media love. Termoil from within and what amounts to little more than backstabbing from Couture. No matter how frustrated he may be with the organisation, they have made him a household name and a very rich household name at that. If he really wanted to retire he could have done it more honourably than this but he chose to air his dirty laundry in public and take a swipe at the UFC management in the process. That says a lot and when you see some of the reasons why, it’s certainly hard to judge him for it!

“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 don’t feel like I get the respect I deserve from the organization

I think the final straw for me was meeting with White and Lorenzo (Fertitta, UFC co-owner) 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

Assuming Couture has a no-compete clause, meaning he can’t go to another organisation, then this is a manageable mini-PR-disaster. If Couture is somehow able to sign with another organisation, this is potentially the single most important event in the history of the sport and a living nightmare for the UFC.

I hope it is the latter but I would be very surprised if that is the case.

For the last year or so, whenever I think of the UFC’s management and in particular Dana White, I think of My Name Is Earl, along with the catchphrase “Karma - I’m just trying to be a better person”.

I am no hippy loon but I do believe in the concept of karma and I’ve always wondered whether Dana’s constant badmouthing, untouchable self confidence and balshy attitude was ever going to come back and bite them in the butt. Well for me this is the first indication that all within the UFC isn’t as rosey as they would have us believe.

Dana frequently states that “we look after our guys” but when one of the highest paid stars publically dismisses your company and walks away, that’s a huge kick in the teeth.

What’s more, whilst Dana frequently calls other organisations a bunch of amateurs, his own company is starting to look like a complete mess. With Sean Sherk’s positive drugs test, the UFC are now paying twofold for a complete lack of rankings and structure within their weight divisions. Two of their five divisions are Championless and neither have a clear #2 and #3 to fight for the title.

For years the UFC have done a very good job of managing on the move, throughout their immense growth. It appears that their house of cards, whilst lofty, is wobbling furiously. No doubt they are still the biggest and the best but that house of cards could do with a firmer footing and without the need for metaphors, perhaps Dana White should stop calling everyone under the sun a moron or a joke and start building relationships, instead of breaking them.

“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.”

Let’s hope so.

1 comment October 11th, 2007

UFC 69 Video Previews

Video previews for the upcoming UFC 69 card.

UFC Card in full
Georges St. Pierre Vs. Matt Serra
Roger Huerta Vs. Leonard Garcia
Diego Sanchez Vs. Josh Koscheck
Yushin Okami Vs. Mike Swick
Alan Belcher Vs. Kendall Grove
Brad Imes Vs. Heath Herring
Thales Leites Vs. Pete Sell
Marcus Davis Vs. Pete Spratt
Josh Haynes Vs. Luke Cummo

UFC 69 Promo Videos- Note all videos removed due to copyright violation. When the UFC put up the official version, we’ll add them here.

Josh Koscheck vs Diego Sanchez & Georges St Pierre vs Matt Serra video

2 comments March 25th, 2007