Newws alert!

[Mr.Freeze]

dont miss it!

[Shogun]

****ing Dana White is such a baby hes actually like a dumped school girl

[Strateg0s]

lol

[mandarb11]

I would like to see him get kicked around. He is a ****ing geek/loser that was put up as the president and now he tries to act like he was always cool. Guy was probably a virgin still before he got the job! lol

I hate hearing him talking tough to the different fighters throughout the Ultimate fighter seasons. Does he not realize that if one of them just didn't give a **** what they could do to him!

[St]

Oh i missed it,what the hell happened?

[MIAGIONJUS]

i missed it but i hear that randy wants to be an actor?? correct me if im wrong but wtf would he wanna hang up the gloves to be in (lets face it) shitty movies.

[St]

I just went to the www.ufc.com site and it talked about how much coins that he was paid for his fights.
He wants more coin,and does get paid well.

[Shogun]

This is what Randy said at his last press confrence about it, seems like theres a lot of money thrown around behind the scenes they dont report.



Randy Couture kicked off his press conference on Thursday saying, “I guess this is my opportunity to tell my side of things.”

And tell his side of things, he did.

Couture addressed many of the issues surrounding his recent resignation from the Ultimate Fighting Championship, in every capacity, and made it apparent that the moment had been a long time in the making.

“I’ve had issues with Zuffa and the company since they bought it,” said the UFC heavyweight champion.

“Got off on the wrong foot over the ancillary rights in my contract and signing away my name and image, which then led to the video game and having myself pulled out of the video game, pulled out of the ad campaigns with Carmen Electra and all those things.

“Because I wasn’t willing to just sign those things away like most fighters had done to date at that point, I think that immediately put me on the outs with the manager, with Dana and the people that own the company.”

Of course, everything always comes back around to money, but Couture was adamant that the zeros on his checks were not the end game in his decision to leave the promotion that he spent so many years helping to build.

“This was never a money issue,” he said. “It’s been a prevailing feeling of respect that wasn’t being given.”

Couture also addressed a recent report from Kevin Iole on Yahoo! Sports that indicated he was to be paid “between $13 million and $15 million” for his current four-fight contract.

He handed out his bout agreements for his last two fights, which indicated his pay for those bouts, but did not include pay-per-view bonus money. For the recent fight with Gabriel Gonzaga, he was paid a base amount of $250,000.

He then proceeded to state that for his last fight against Chuck Liddell and his return bout against Tim Sylvia, those pay-per-view bonuses “amounted to about $500,000” per fight and that the numbers had not come back yet for the recent Gonzaga bout.

According to his presentation, he stood to make roughly $750,000 per fight on his current contract.

But again, he circled back to saying that those numbers were not the whole of his decision. He did not discount that money was a factor though, saying that the last straw for him was when Fedor Emelianenko was offered more money as a signing bonus than he has ever made for a fight.

“I am tired of swimming upstream,” said Couture. “I am tired of swimming against the current.”

[Shogun]

And heres what the UFC had to say in the press confrence

LAS VEGAS – Heavyweight champion Randy Couture abruptly resigned from the Ultimate Fighting Championship on Oct. 11. He followed up with a press conference from his Xtreme Couture gym in Las Vegas on Oct. 25 detailing the reasons for his resignation.

“This was never a money issue,” he said. “It’s been a prevailing feeling of respect that wasn’t being given.”

However, much of the information doled out at that press conference centered on various facts and figures related to Couture’s compensation.

On Tuesday, UFC president Dana White, co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta and Chief Financial Officer John Mulkey held a press conference from Zuffa, LLC (the UFC’s parent company) headquarters in Las Vegas to “address some statements that Randy Couture made about the UFC and his pay that are false,” according to White.

"I sat back and watched his press conference last week on TV, on Thursday, and I have to be honest with you,” added Fertitta, “I felt that the statements that he made had so grossly misrepresented the facts that I felt that we needed to protect ourselves because I felt that the statements were made in a way meant to hurt us. The fact is you can only sit back and be silent for so long. The facts are the facts. We have the facts.”

The UFC refuted much of what Couture said, producing checks cashed by him, both in reference to a disputed “signing bonus” and total monies for pay-per-view bonuses indicating that the heavyweight champion did receive an amount differing from his presentation.

"When he signed and executed the promotional agreement he was awarded a signing bonus of $500,000 of which half was to be paid upon signing and half upon the completion of his first fight which was UFC 68," stated Mulkey.

The UFC did produce a letter written by White to Couture dated Jan. 12 detailing the signing bonus as well as a cashed checked signed by Couture dated Jan. 30 for $250,000.

Although the letter only indicated a $250,000 signing bonus, an additional check for $250,000 dated March 3, 2007 and referenced as “UFC 68 Bonus” was issued to Couture, which would seem to back up the $500,000 amount referenced both by the UFC and Couture.

The biggest difference here seems to be that the UFC considered the $500,000 a signing bonus, with the letter from White backing up at least half of that amount, and Couture calling it an “off the books” bonus and the $250,000 check in January an “advance” on that bonus.

For the first time in it's history, and probably the last, the UFC opened its financial records to the media showing the signing bonus, as well as his bout pay and pay-per-view revenue.

The numbers cited by Couture last Thursday during his press conference were clearly in contrast to the documents presented at Zuffa headquarters on Tuesday. Couture estimated that he received a half million dollars from pay-per-view sales following the bout with Tim Sylvia at UFC 68, while the numbers, including check receipts, produced by the UFC totaled $936,000 based on 540,000 buys.

UFC documents also project buys for the Gonzaga fight, at UFC 74, at 485,000, which would mean $787,000 to Couture according to his pay-per-view bonus scale.

Not including his $500,000 signing bonus, the UFC indicated that Couture’s pay for the Sylvia fight totaled $1.186 million and $1.072 million for the Gonzaga fight, some of which is indicative of the pay-per-view estimates and a $35,000 “Fight of the Night” bonus for the latter bout.

In addition to fight-related pay, Mulkey also stated that Couture had an employment agreement with the company that paid him $200,000 per year, as well as approximately $56,000 for commentating fees.

Couture last week stated that he and his lawyer interpret that his current contract will expire in nine months.

The UFC disputed that claim, White saying, "We'll find out. Randy Couture got a half a million dollar signing bonus eight months ago to sign this contract with us and we're going to do everything in our power to make sure he honors it."

Asked if there would be any legal action taken against Couture, Fertitta responded, "That's up to Randy.

"From our perspective, Randy Couture is still under contract with the UFC, and we will do whatever we have to do to continue to protect our rights."

White added, "I hope not. I don't want to play this out in court.

"If Tito Ortiz and I can work things out, I'm sure Randy Couture and I can."

He also revealed that the UFC plans to offer Couture, possibly later this week, a fight with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira for early 2008.

“As far as I'm concerned here today, Randy Couture is our heavyweight champion, and we're going to figure this thing out."

[Mr.Freeze]

you know why he says that cuz now hes fvck cuz fedor wont be coming over anymore and he need a big name to make money with pay-per-vie and advertising!

[trykillthis]

Dana White makes me feel slimy, I don't like him

[champcar99]

I think it's in the best interests of the UFC to shut up and make Randy happy..Everybody loves the guy and he is FUKIN great ambassador for UFC ..I think when the UFC holds a press conference to make their side of the story clear,all it does is puts distance between randy and the UFC , also If they have a contract with randy and he quits, I hope randy knows whats hes doing, because paying back money in hundreds of thousands is a bitch...Randy is a hero too many ...Dana is a punch in the head away from reality and he need a reality check......sooner than later

[Sniven]

I don’t know how many fights Randy has left in him…At this point in his career he probably only has 1 or 2 chances at a big money fights. Right now in the UFC who is Randy going to fight where he can make the kind of money he would make with Fedor? That is the fight everyone wants to see and I don’t blame Randy for chasing the $$$ he is about to retire and that can really put things into perspective…Plus I heard he is afraid of Brock Lesnar :)

[champcar99]

How many pro fights has Brock Lesnar been in ?

[Mr.Freeze]

i think just one!

[champcar99]

Lesner would would have to get in a good lucky shot to the head "I believe" to get a win on Randy

[Mr.Freeze]

Randy would be all over Lesner! it would be a great match!:D

[Sniven]

I hope you do realize I was kidding with the Lesnar coment...he is just a WWE side show circus act....