Randy Retires....again

[ColdFX]

What a bummer for the UFC, probably the most liked HW champion ever, and he quits.
In the article he explains that the UFC management didnt treat him very well, and since Fedor signed with M1 there is no point for him to fight in the UFC anymore.
I would have loved to have seen Randy vs Fedor, but I would not be surprised if Fedor eventually signed with the UFC, Randy will come out of retirement for a 2nd time to fight in an exhibition match against the Russian legend.

Am I the only one who feels that Randy should not have gotten a title shot right away?
I mean I like the guy alot, but he comes out of retirement just to get a title shot right away, when guys like Vera, have been busting their ass in an attempt to get a shot. I dont even think that Randy is on the same level as Fedor, I mean he beat Tim Sylvia who hasnt finished a fight in quite awhile, and Gonzaga who seemed to get lucky with Cro Cop.

P.S- On a Sidenote Cro-Cop recently had the cartilage in his nose repaired, and said that he is going to come back with a vengence.

Heres the Randy article... (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."

Couture (16-8) is the only fighter in UFC history to hold belts in two weight divisions. The current UFC heavyweight champion, he recaptured the belt in March by coming out of retirement to out-point Tim Sylvia (Pictures). Couture defended the title in August, stopping challenger Gabriel Gonzaga (Pictures) in the third round.

The Sylvia win came after a year away from the sport after Couture suffered the second of two knockouts to then UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell (Pictures). Couture won the first bout in the trilogy by capturing an interim UFC light heavyweight title in June of 2003, stopping Liddell in the third period.

Couture's ledger in the UFC reads like a who's who. "The Natural" first captured UFC heavyweight gold against Maurice Smith (Pictures) in 1997 before doing it for the third time against Sylvia in 2007.

A day after news broke that Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures), the widely regarded top heavyweight in the sport, had apparently declined to sign with the UFC, Couture submitted his resignation.

"I want that fight and would have waited if the fight was offered to me," Couture said. "Knowing what they offered him, I would have made demands to get paid equally or better than him as the champion. Whether or not those would have been met is another question."

Couture will have to wait nine months for his current UFC deal to lapse before he can go after Emelianenko. Over that span Couture said he will concentrate on acting, continuing to franchise his Xtreme Couture training facilities, as well as growing his Xtreme Couture clothing line.

His success outside the ring is proof of his success inside the Octagon. But Couture said it was a lack of respect by the UFC, in particular its president Dana White, that led him to resigning.

"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's rocky history with the Zuffa-owned UFC began in 2001.

"I think what set us off on the wrong foot was that my management [at the time] wasn't willing to give up ancillary rights across the board with no option for some sort of compensation," said Couture, alluding to a reason cited by Emelianenko's representatives as to why the Russian did not end up with the UFC. "All the other athletes at that time were signing those contracts. That created a lot of animosity and got me pulled out of the Carmen Electra campaigns to promote the athletes and the sport and the video game and all that stuff."

Beyond the money, both Couture and his wife Kim stressed Thursday's resignation from the UFC was about respect. It's a move "The Natural" acknowledged could have far-reaching effects.

"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."

Attempts to reach the UFC for comment went unreturned.

[TheFly]

...UFC statement is quite different.

The fact that he asked for and got his wife a job, is saying something about how they treated him.

[i am jovian]

i don't know that much about the business of the fight business,but why not make the guy happy?mma is on a huge surge upward and there is plenty of money out there.they put on the best show in sports,so i say pay that man his money!

[ColdFX]

LOL
Dana White can be pretty funny at times... "He hooked up with some Hollywood agent that I bitch slapped about a month ago, and these Hollywood agents are parasites"

Taken from the UFC website...
Dana White on the Retirement of Randy CoutureInterview conducted by Thomas Gerbasi



President Dana White sat down with UFC.com editor Thomas Gerbasi to discuss Randy Couture’s retirement.

Thomas Gerbasi – Were you surprised when the fax came into your office with Randy Couture’s resignation?
Dana White – No, I wasn’t surprised. I met with Randy several weeks ago and he said that the only thing he had left to prove in his career and the only challenge left out there for him was Fedor (Emelianenko) because everybody thinks that Fedor is the best. And Fedor has that mystique where people think he’s number one, which I don’t agree with. I think that Fedor is completely overrated – he’s fought Mark Coleman and Matt Lindland in the last year, with Mark Hunt being his only legitimate opponent - and I actually think that Randy Couture would have smashed Fedor.

TG – So this wasn’t a surprise, but were you at least surprised at the way he went about it, via fax?
DW – He is shooting a movie right now in South Africa, but yes, I am very surprised by the way he did it. I consider Randy Couture a friend and still do. 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. But, that’s the world Randy wants to be in; Randy wants to be in the movie world now, that’s what he’s working for and that’s his guy right now.

TG – What were the contents of the fax from Randy?
DW – It was just a letter saying that he resigned from his positions at the UFC. He was a color commentator and he was going to do some legislative work with us, helping Marc Ratner and going and talking to other States that we were trying to get sanctioned in.

TG – Some are saying that the timing is funny on this announcement given Fedor’s recent signing to another organization the day before…
DW – Yeah, but Randy is still under contract with the UFC. Apparently Randy’s upset about something, and the timing of this thing is a typical Hollywood agent move while Randy’s out of town. But he told me he wanted to retire anyway if he didn’t fight Fedor, and he can’t fight Fedor in another organization because he’s under contract to me. I’m very confident though that once Randy gets back in town, if we see each other we’ll work this thing out. Not saying that Randy wouldn’t stay retired, because that’s what he wants to do - he wants to act, he wants to be on TV shows, that’s his goal - but I’m sure Randy Couture and I are gonna be friends for a long time.

TG – What kind of efforts were made by the UFC to get Fedor in the organization?
DW – The thing that I’ve been trying to do for years is get the two best organizations in the world together. And the only two organizations that matter are PRIDE and the UFC. All these other ones are minor leagues, full of guys trying to fight their way up. What I wanted to do for years is get the best in every weight class together and let’s find out who is the number one fighter in the world. That has been my goal for the last five years and we wanted to make that happen. And I was extremely confident that Randy Couture would win against Fedor, and I still am. But we weren’t able to get that fight, we weren’t able to get Fedor, and I had to deal with these crazy reps he had – everything they said made no sense and the whole deal was crazy. It seemed like it was all about their managers and not about Fedor. So the deal didn’t happen and Couture let me and Lorenzo (Fertitta) know that without that, there was nothing really to accomplish anymore. In mixed martial arts he had accomplished everything, and I didn’t disagree with him. I said I completely agree, and I think Randy is looking right now at moving on and accomplishing his goals in acting.

TG – There have been reports that Couture’s fight contract with the UFC will expire in nine months; is there truth to those reports?
DW – Absolutely not.

TG – Were you hurt by some of the comments Couture has made regarding a perceived lack of respect from the organization?
DW – Of course we’re hurt by that. 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. If you want to call me a liar, people think a lot of bad stuff about me anyway, but to call Lorenzo Fertitta a liar, the reason the sport exists right now is because of him and his brother (Frank). They’ve done nothing but good things for this sport, and I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him and his brother. You ask anybody in Las Vegas about the reputation of the Fertitta family; they aren’t liars, they are great people. So for him to say that about Lorenzo, it’s not like Randy Couture. It’s not like him.

TG – Had he brought some of his concerns to your attention before, or was today the first time you had heard them?
DW – We had a breakfast a few weeks ago and he told me that he was upset about things and he felt like other fighters were getting paid more than he was and that he didn’t have the best contract in the UFC. And I assured him that he had the second best contract in the UFC with Chuck Liddell having the best.

TG – He negotiated this contract, correct?
DW – He did. It was the contract that he negotiated and that he was very happy with once we were done negotiating it.

TG – Until he perceived that someone else was making more money.
DW – Right. He thought that other guys were making more money than him, and we assured him that he had the second best contract in the UFC.

TG – How does Randy’s departure hurt the UFC heavyweight division?
DW – I don’t think it affects the division at all because after what we’ve seen over the last couple of years, anybody can win or lose on any given night. It’s what makes this sport so exciting. And now it’s like this big shocking news that Randy Couture retired. He’s 44 years old, he’s not 24. Is everybody really that shocked that Randy retired? Randy Couture has had an amazing career, he’s an incredible athlete, he’s pulled off more upsets, and has been the underdog so many times, what’s really left out there for him? I think he would have put a stone cold beating on Fedor, and he would have walked away with the same thing that he’s walking away with now. He’s walking out on top, and walking out on top is a smart thing to do. And it’s perfect for his acting career.

TG – Randy, to a lot of people, is the face of the UFC. How does this affect the organization?
DW – People were saying to me four months ago that Chuck Liddell was the face of the UFC. Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell are two of many faces of the UFC. The UFC has the greatest fighters in the world, and Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell might be two of the best known fighters in the UFC, but everybody pulls their weight in this company and everybody works hard for it. Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell, Matt Hughes, Rich Franklin, Joe Rogan, these are guys who were with us early on who I credit for helping us get to where we are today. Is Randy Couture the face of the UFC? No, he’s one of many faces of the UFC, but he is one of the guys who helped us get here. I love him, I respect him, I still consider him my friend and just like any friendship, we don’t see eye to eye all the time, but if you’re true friends, you work it out, and I consider Randy Couture a true friend, and I honestly believe that when he comes home from filming, and when his scumbag Hollywood agent isn’t around, we’ll talk and we’ll square away our friendship. And as far as his retirement and him wanting to retire, I have nothing but respect for him and I don’t

[joker13]

Dana White is the classic telephone tough-guy. I highly doubt he bitch slapped anyone. And Randy is a class act so i am sure it was about more than we know. Sad day for MMA and the UFC.

[KPCJH]

And he will come back.. Again!