Did Randy call this press conference or did the UFC? Maybe Brock Lesner can persuade Randy to come out of retirment again.

I really hope Randy and Dana can come to terms.
And Randy still fights his 2 fights.
And i also hope he fights Fedor.

Randy still has the title. Even UFC’s website today shows he’s the champ:
http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=fighter.TitleHolders&cid=3

Did Randy call this press conference or did the UFC? Maybe Brock Lesner can persuade Randy to come out of retirment again.

First Randy did not retire. Second, these are separate events — Randy called his on his own and the UFC quickly followed suit a few days later to hold its own. More than likely to take some of the focus away from what he has to say.

I don’t know if its true but I heard that the owner of M-1 said that he isn’t going to make his reserve his fighters just for M-1. He also said if Fedor wants to come to the UFC and fight Randy that’s okay with him. Do anyone know if this is true

I don’t know if its true but I heard that the owner of M-1 said that he isn’t going to make his reserve his fighters just for M-1. He also said if Fedor wants to come to the UFC and fight Randy that’s okay with him. Do anyone know if this is true

I meant to say he isn’t going to reserve his fighters only to M-1

I meant to say he isn’t going to reserve his fighters only to M-1

At the press thing that Fedor did the other day, they did say that M-1 fighters are allowed to fight in other organizations.

“We’re not going to reserve our fighters to work just for us,” said Cox. "If the UFC gets Randy back and they call and want Fedor to fight, we’ll send him to the UFC.

So why isn’t this fight going to happen. They have already agreed to let Fedor fight in the UFC. It’s like Dana White is being a little bitch about not signing Fedor.

I hope Dana works things out with Randy and he finishes his 2 fight commitment. I really think that fighters should be on fight to fight contracts. That way they can’t complain on how they got screwed by their contract. Randy just renogiated his contract not to long ago, and is unhappy with it again. Things change so fast in the MMA world, I just think that this would be a good solution.

I hope Dana works things out with Randy and he finishes his 2 fight commitment. I really think that fighters should be on fight to fight contracts. That way they can’t complain on how they got screwed by their contract. Randy just renogiated his contract not to long ago, and is unhappy with it again. Things change so fast in the MMA world, I just think that this would be a good solution.

The UFC is seemingly stingey about their fighters fighting elsewhere, so it would seem that the UFC wants long contracts for their fighters, not for the sake of money, but for the sake of forcing them to stay in the octagon.

Mania, will you be posting a link to the notes from the 4pm conference call? I think bloody elbow usually listens into the calls and does a write up. At least that’s where I’ve seen a link to them from your site.

Thanks,
VM

is the sean sherk steroid thing today.???

Mania, will you be posting a link to the notes from the 4pm conference call? I think bloody elbow usually listens into the calls and does a write up. At least that’s where I’ve seen a link to them from your site.

Thanks,
VM

We’ll link to them. For obvious reasons we’re not allowed on the call.

Great, thanks a lot Mania!

I wonder how Luke was able to get access to those phone calls. Thats a pretty cool previledge!

is the sean sherk steroid thing today.???

I think Sherk’s hearing with the athletic commision is on 10/31.

is the sean sherk steroid thing today.???

31st.

it is kind of sad when m1 will let there fighters fight in other organzations split the profits of the event, and here the ufc and dana are being asses of themselves trying to bully others around, and have it their way no matter what, the randy and fedor match still can happen it would be funny if today they annouce that fedor from m1 will fight randy from the ufc in feb, and that is fedor opponent.

Dana’s Totalitarian rule is coming to an end, FREEDOM !!!!
GO RANDY

I am calling it right now: Randy Couture will be the main guy to get a fighters’ union started. Then, we will see better pay and better conditions for the fighters. Yes, ticket prices may go up a little, but only at first, I think. Eventually, with the fighters having the power, the leagues will have to compete more. That will be better for the fans.

Also, not sure if this has already been asked, but what happened to the rankings? Have you guys decided its not worth it anymore because of all the upsets?

The UFC is seemingly stingey about their fighters fighting elsewhere, so it would seem that the UFC wants long contracts for their fighters, not for the sake of money, but for the sake of forcing them to stay in the octagon.

I think we all can agree that the poo-poo will hit the fan today. Just exactly who it hits will be the thing. Both sides need to tread lightly. The UFC and MMA in general is getting so big that any dirty laundry that used to be kept internal can now do some serious damage to the sport.

The UFC conference call better be over at 4:30, cuz that’s when I tune in to Randy.

The UFC is seemingly stingey about their fighters fighting elsewhere, so it would seem that the UFC wants long contracts for their fighters, not for the sake of money, but for the sake of forcing them to stay in the octagon.

rearnakedslam—Besides, if a fighter went on a losing streak like say, CroCop or Liddell. A fight-by-fight renegotiation wouldn’t work out so well for said fighter. So that may not be the solution anyway.

rearnakedslam—Besides, if a fighter went on a losing streak like say, CroCop or Liddell. A fight-by-fight renegotiation wouldn’t work out so well for said fighter. So that may not be the solution anyway.

DON’t FORGET THAT RANDY IS AN AMBASADOR TO THE SPORT OF MMA!
What does that mean?

He, Randy C. and a guy from the ufc have spent the last year
speaking to state athletic commissions and governments about how safe mma is…..this year, thanks to RAndy very much and his clout and decent mannar have gotten i believe 12-13 states to sighn in on mma in ther respective states, and 4 are in the works of signing…
GO randy , he has done so much for this ma sport even under the surface and he doesn’t speak so highly of himself meanwhile u got guys like chuck liddell who would rather party and chill
Randy does deserve more money, sorry!!!
Randy has way more potential in mma than any of us know due to his modest Approach.
AND D.WHITE DOES NOT SEEM to RESPECT RANdy as DANA CALLS A PRESS CONFERENCE 30 MINUTES BEFORE RANDY’s THATS NO RESPECT WE all knew of RANDY’s CONFRENCE like a week ago …this is low of the ufc someone who has helped you in so many ways

thanks for the info about the sherk appeal..

anybody think he is guilty or what? (steroids sean sherk)

I say, among other things, Randy calls out Fedor and tells him to put his money where his mouth is. Otherwise, I couldn’t care less about his financial dealings and contract issues.

but what happened to the rankings? Have you guys decided its not worth it anymore because of all the upsets?

Mania ?

hey Mania…….

Can you repost after the Couture interview what were the main points? Im at work so I cant exactly blast te speakers in my cubicle. lol. I cant wait to hear what he has to say about this whole situation.

it is kind of sad when m1 will let there fighters fight in other organzations split the profits of the event, and here the ufc and dana are being asses of themselves trying to bully others around, and have it their way no matter what, the randy and fedor match still can happen it would be funny if today they annouce that fedor from m1 will fight randy from the ufc in feb, and that is fedor opponent.

Well if you look at it from the UFC’s perspective, Proelite, WEC and IFL and many other Org. wouldnt even exist if if wasnt for Dana and the Fratietas going out on a limb and taking a major gamble financialy by exposing MMA on basic cable with TUF 1.

They feel like hey we started this and if anyone should reep the rewards its us, but now everyone wants a piece of the pie. Its just a damn shame that the purchase of pride was the end of pride. They should have kept pride going and Have a Pride and ufc event each month. Well UFC owns the rights to pride so if they want to start pride events I guess they can if thats what they choose to do.

The UFC conference call better be over at 4:30, cuz that’s when I tune in to Randy.

Jess, will you be on the call?

I really can’t wait to hear Randy address Dana White’s comments. I wouldn’t want anyone to say that they ‘own me’. He has 2 fights left on his contract, Dana says he can’t resign from his contract and has to fight the 2 fights. Other sources were saying that after X amount of months, the contract is null and void and he can fight in another organization. The X ended up working out to August ’08. There is NO WAY that Dana will let Randy fight in M1, so the only hope is that he will allow Fedor to fight in the UFC against Randy – this would satisfy everyone, except for Dana because he will have to share the profits. Well, too bad Dana, get it done!

The only thing that is going to come out of this war of words between White and Randy is an eventual match with Fedor involved. Right now is all about getting the bullshit in the open. Watch, in a years time we will see Randy and Fedor fight.

“We’re not going to reserve our fighters to work just for us,” said Cox. "If the UFC gets Randy back and they call and want Fedor to fight, we’ll send him to the UFC.

So why isn’t this fight going to happen. They have already agreed to let Fedor fight in the UFC. It’s like Dana White is being a little bitch about not signing Fedor.

Because Dana doesn’t want a non UFC fighter taking his belt. Then what…Then the real world champ belongs to M-1… How does that make sence?? I agree with Dana..He is running the Business as it should be. If you owned a a pro sports team, you not going to allow your players to play in weekend tournaments..etc… to risk injury and what not.

dana has probable called (or had someone else call) every fighter and person close to randy to find out what he is going to say. i wouldnt doubt if dana takes a couple jabs at randy and spoils whatever randy is going to say. dana has to protect his business nomatter what but randy is well respected by most fighters and i would cross that kind of man.

randy is in a much better place then the ufc is and all he wants is fedor. fedor is willing to fight randy, randy is willing to fight fedor. the only problem is that the ufc doesnt want to let that fight happen. it doesnt make any sence for the ufc to have this fight except for the hardcare fans which arent going anywhere anyway. and most of the hardcore fans i know just download all the mma ppv anyway since you can watch them about an hour after the ppv’s are over. its a lose lose deal for the ufc to have this fight unless both fighter are ufc fighters.

as a fan i blame the ufc for not letting this fight happen because of money or haha pride rofl. but really it doesnt matter as long as the fight happens in the us in 2008 everyone i know will be happy and im sure randy vs fedor will happen this year.

randy’s contract means nothing, it just a paper. the courts will tell dana that they cant stop randy from making a living and the ufc or zuffa will have to come up with a release amount that will have to be paid so randy can be released from his contract. i dont even think its an issue right now.

randy and fedor want to know who the better fighter is and depending on where it happens will most likely have alot to do with who has a better chance of winning.

they are both good at defending what the other is good at but when it comes down to reasoning with myself its simple.

randy has never looked as good as fedor ever.

i hope randy wins but until he does fedor is the p4p best mma fighter in the world.

DON’t FORGET THAT RANDY IS AN AMBASADOR TO THE SPORT OF MMA!
What does that mean?

He, Randy C. and a guy from the ufc have spent the last year
speaking to state athletic commissions and governments about how safe mma is…..this year, thanks to RAndy very much and his clout and decent mannar have gotten i believe 12-13 states to sighn in on mma in ther respective states, and 4 are in the works of signing…
GO randy , he has done so much for this ma sport even under the surface and he doesn’t speak so highly of himself meanwhile u got guys like chuck liddell who would rather party and chill
Randy does deserve more money, sorry!!!
Randy has way more potential in mma than any of us know due to his modest Approach.
AND D.WHITE DOES NOT SEEM to RESPECT RANdy as DANA CALLS A PRESS CONFERENCE 30 MINUTES BEFORE RANDY’s THATS NO RESPECT WE all knew of RANDY’s CONFRENCE like a week ago …this is low of the ufc someone who has helped you in so many ways

Randy didn’t just do all those things for the UFC, he did all those things for himself as well. With those efforts he wouldn’t be making the money he is today…He didn’t do for the UFC. He did it so he wouldn’t be waitering at Denny’s.

i hope randy wins but until he does fedor is the p4p best mma fighter in the world.

How do you people figure?

Fedor’s biggest wins are decision wins against Minotauro and Cro Cop, and a submission win over Mark Hunt that took him about 4 times longer than it took Barnett to finish him. Other big fights include Randleman, Coleman, and Lindland. It is true that his only loss is a cut stoppage, and that he very rarely gets in trouble during any fight, but I do not think that he has gone as far as Couture.

Couture DOMINATED Sylvia for 5 rounds, and probably took him down more times in that fight than Sylvia had been taken down in his whole career. He completely mauled Gonzaga, a BJJ World Champion. Basically, ALL of his wins come from top level competition- Tito, Chuck, Vitor, Rizzo, Randleman…

Randy could not have made it more clear that he wants to fight Fedor next. I’m not so sure if Fedor has the same interests though. I think that Fedor’s biggest weapon is his ability to stick to a gameplan, and when he sees that ability in Randy, he knows how close a fight between them would be, and he would probably rather not fight Randy and just remain the #1 ranked fighter in the world.

We may find out soon, but until then, I say that Randy is the best.

Jess, will you be on the call?

In my dreams……….

In my dreams……….

Now its on Yahoo for everyone to listen, YES!!!!!!!!

I think that Fedor’s biggest weapon is his ability to stick to a gameplan, and when he sees that ability in Randy, he knows how close a fight between them would be, and he would probably rather not fight Randy and just remain the #1 ranked fighter in the world.

Fedor’s biggest weapon is the ability to move his body like water.

HA HAAA. The first question in the press conference was whether Dana was f#cking Randy by having the press conference at the same time. Of course Dana said no, but we all know he is!
Dana sounded pissed.

I can’t believe that mania seems to be doing exactly what the ufc wants , instead of randy’s press conf. being more important thus 1st on this blog it is no longer…
i don’t want to hear chuckk i don’t want to hear brock…i want to hear randy…
i guess most of you mma’ers are going for dana’a tricks?!?!?!?!

did you know about these things that randy is/was doing behind the scenes?
so what it’s for him and mma both are true my point is you don’t hear about many other fighters doing this..Chuck liddell was he a gresat ambassador for the ufc, in all his years of being ontop, um NO!
Chuck needs AMy winehouse too, REHAB

Randy didn’t just do all those things for the UFC, he did all those things for himself as well. With those efforts he wouldn’t be making the money he is today…He didn’t do for the UFC. He did it so he wouldn’t be waitering at Denny’s.

DON’t FORGET THAT RANDY IS AN AMBASADOR TO THE SPORT OF MMA!
What does that mean?

He, Randy C. and a guy from the ufc have spent the last year
speaking to state athletic commissions and governments about how safe mma is…..this year, thanks to RAndy very much and his clout and decent mannar have gotten i believe 12-13 states to sighn in on mma in ther respective states, and 4 are in the works of signing…
GO randy , he has done so much for this ma sport even under the surface and he doesn’t speak so highly of himself meanwhile u got guys like chuck liddell who would rather party and chill
Randy does deserve more money, sorry!!!
Randy has way more potential in mma than any of us know due to his modest Approach.
AND D.WHITE DOES NOT SEEM to RESPECT RANdy as DANA CALLS A PRESS CONFERENCE 30 MINUTES BEFORE RANDY’s THATS NO RESPECT WE all knew of RANDY’s CONFRENCE like a week ago …this is low of the ufc someone who has helped you in so many ways

The ProElite site is down. I’ve been on there for 30 minutes and now I guess everybody has got on there to watch the press conference and it’s not built for all the traffice. Way to go ProElite!

RAndy is talking now, Dana White HAS DECLINED INTERVIEWS REGARDING THE COUTURE SITUATION!

Randy’s press conference won’t load at my work WTF!!!!!!

Randy WAS DENIED A SIGNING BONUS!

I can’t get onto the f’n site!
Someone give us updates please!

Blocked at work for “Provocative Attire/Sports” :(

They must be getting overloaded because up until 4:30, I had no problems getting on the site.

If you login first, then go to the download it works better.

I can’t even log in

We can’t get on, either. We’ll post the video or link to it in a little bit.

Randy says that pretty much everything Dana has said is BS

what site is it on guys?

Randy brought copies of his contract fights with Tim and GG, and they state that he was paid 250K! for each fight. He said that the final straw was the money offered to an outsider (referring to Fedor), he said how would you feel if you have given 11 years of you life to an organization then here comes some new guy that has done nothing for it and off the bat is offered an amount of money you yourself have never been offered, THAT IS DISRESPECTFUL AND HURTFUL.

He said he sat down with Dana and Lorenzo Fertita about 2 1/2 weeks before leaving to Africa and that he told them everthing that he has been saying since he resigned, and that they did nothing about. He also stated that he has not RETIRED, that he RESIGNED from the UFC.

Pro Elite seems to be running now but the audio is awful.

who cares if its hurtful? he’s better so he gets paid more. there are tons of people who have been at the ufc forever, that doesn’t entitle them to more money than better fighters ;)

who cares if its hurtful? he’s better so he gets paid more. there are tons of people who have been at the ufc forever, that doesn’t entitle them to more money than better fighters ;)

You can’t really fault either side completely. Randy is the champ and is probably the most widely recognized fighter in the organization. That would seemingly entitle him to quite a big payday. Couple that with the fact that he feels he has been lied to about where he ranks as far as pay in the organization, I would be unhappy.

The UFC is in a tough position as well. They want the best fighters to fight for them, and were not willing to budge on the particulars of Fedor’s contract. Instead, they tried to offer a huge contract.

Both parties are really just looking out for their best interest and that puts them at odds with each other.

did anyone see the video? i just got home and there’s no news about it anywhere

You can’t really fault either side completely. Randy is the champ and is probably the most widely recognized fighter in the organization.

If by “recognized”, you mean how well known a fighter is, it’s Chuck Liddell by far. Just walk down the street and ask 50 random people, more people will know Chuck.

Mania,

When are you going to post the major points of the events today, as well as your thoughts.

Randy brought copies of his contract fights with Tim and GG, and they state that he was paid 250K! for each fight. He said that the final straw was the money offered to an outsider (referring to Fedor), he said how would you feel if you have given 11 years of you life to an organization then here comes some new guy that has done nothing for it and off the bat is offered an amount of money you yourself have never been offered, THAT IS DISRESPECTFUL AND HURTFUL.

No it isn’t. That’s business, and business is never personal. Randy should know that. He should have approached Dana and renegotiated his own contract. If that happened and Dana wouldn’t budge, then I’d say that Dana is probably a prick and deserves to lose Randy and Fedor and watch the UFC slowly begin to crumble.

RANDY DID TRY TO RECTIFY HIS ISSUES BUT THE UFC DOES NOT BUDGE…DANA SO BRASIN AND BRASH THAT HE SAID," I’VE NEVER SAID NO TO RANDY C."

YOU DID more than say no RANDY MET WITH THE UFC AND DANA 2.5 weeks before gong to africa but the ufc would not budge…they don’t want randy so bad afterall…
gotta suk if your randy

I think what a lot of people are forgetting is that a significant portion of a UFC fighter’s paycheck comes from “under the table” bonus payments. These are payments outside the scope of a contract, which don’t have to be reported to NSAC, CSAC, etc. and I believe that is what Randy is referring to when he’s talking about fighter salaries. So this isn’t strictly a contractual issue…Randy may in fact have one of the largest contracts in the UFC, but may not be necessarily be paid the most, when bonuses are taken into account.

Mania,

Is it true Randy’s contract expires in 9 months? If it is that could be a major blow to the UFC.

If by “recognized”, you mean how well known a fighter is, it’s Chuck Liddell by far. Just walk down the street and ask 50 random people, more people will know Chuck.

I would have agreed with you 6-8 months ago, but right now I would definitely say it is Randy. He is being interviewed every other day on the news or ESPN. They have really bombarded us with the fact that he is 95 years old and now the heavyweight champ. He has become the face of the sport in some ways. He just had an A&E documentary dedicated to him, and he is starring in a major role in an upcoming movie.

I just saw the conference online with Randy C. He’s pretty much saying what we already knew, Dana was a little shifty in his last interview with ESPN saying he and Randy haven’t talked, apparently they did, and certainly I would believe Randy far before I would Dana, Randy’s extremely articulate, sharp as a tack…his memory is not impaired.

Randy continually used the words Resigned,,, I don’t know what the terms of his contract are, I wish he would have went more in-depth as to what that means? What does his contract allows him to do in the fighting scenerio, Randy doesn’t say retire? Dana says he can’t resign? Sometimes contracts are tricky, they allow a clause for one thing, but then another clause inhibits the other clause.

Would like to hear much more on that.

No it isn’t. That’s business, and business is never personal. Randy should know that. He should have approached Dana and renegotiated his own contract. If that happened and Dana wouldn’t budge, then I’d say that Dana is probably a prick and deserves to lose Randy and Fedor and watch the UFC slowly begin to crumble.

There’s always a human element in there, unavoidable. Randy said he talked to Dana and fertitta bros 2 1/2 weeks ago with all the same issues he brought up in his conference, and they didn’t give an answer, basically no. So Dana probably is the PRICK you suggested afterall.

Randy was ready to eat Dana’s soul. Awesome.

“WHITE LIES”?

‘GRRRR, i’d sure like to see what that freakin’ contract says about “4 fight in 18Months.”

Did WHITE get caught with his hand in the cookie jar, telling little ‘white’ Lies.

1. “Never said no to Randy Couture” Said no to a bonus right? No to extra tickets for family and friends to attend UFC events..lol. damn Dana is a CHEAP BASTARD. lol.
2. Dana said Randy was happy with his contract, Randy said he was not happy.
3. Dana said he hadn’t talked to Randy, Randy said he talked to Dana 2 1-2 weeks before he left to film and laid everyting out he said at the conference. Dana and the brothers did not respond. That’s basically no.
4. "Randy is 2nd Highest paid fighter? Maybe? PPV he got 500k.

NOTE: FALSE
-Yahoo Sports, Couture negotiated and signed before his comeback fight against Tim Sylvia in March is for four fights and between $13 million and $15 million, which puts him behind only Chuck Liddell, at four fights and $17 million, in the UFC salary pecking order. Those numbers are believed to include percentages of pay-per-view money.

Any other white lies I missed or didn’t get quite right on Couture/White?… if so… just add on.

Any lies Couture made?… forget the honoring contract part etc… just verbal public lies.

“WHITE LIES”?

‘GRRRR, i’d sure like to see what that freakin’ contract says about “4 fight in 18Months.”

Did WHITE get caught with his hand in the cookie jar, telling little ‘white’ Lies.

1. “Never said no to Randy Couture” Said no to a bonus right? No to extra tickets for family and friends to attend UFC events..lol. damn Dana is a CHEAP BASTARD. lol.
2. Dana said Randy was happy with his contract, Randy said he was not happy.
3. Dana said he hadn’t talked to Randy, Randy said he talked to Dana 2 1-2 weeks before he left to film and laid everyting out he said at the conference. Dana and the brothers did not respond. That’s basically no.
4. "Randy is 2nd Highest paid fighter? Maybe? PPV he got 500k.

NOTE: FALSE
-Yahoo Sports, Couture negotiated and signed before his comeback fight against Tim Sylvia in March is for four fights and between $13 million and $15 million, which puts him behind only Chuck Liddell, at four fights and $17 million, in the UFC salary pecking order. Those numbers are believed to include percentages of pay-per-view money.

Any other white lies I missed or didn’t get quite right on Couture/White?… if so… just add on.

Any lies Couture made?… forget the honoring contract part etc… just verbal public lies.

white bald lies.

Just finished watching the Couture press conference. Randy handled himself with honor and integrity, he truly is the class of the sport and a great ambassador, he is Captain America!

When I watched Dana’s ESPN interview, even though he was a lot more professional than usual, I couldn’t help but think he was trying to paint a rosy picture or just flat out lying about a few things. I don’t think the UFC having that conference call overlap Randy’s press conference showed much class on their part either. Not much of a shock though I suppose, considering the source. I found it interesting that Dana made a point of saying that he had never said no to Randy Couture, and that they had been friends for eight years. What kind of friend says no to a few comp tickets for one of his star employees, not to mention simply failing to show Randy the respect he deserves. Not that it surprises me at all, Dana seems to push his fighters to promote the UFC with those stupid dating shows and other public appearances. I remember him being critical of Chuck’s recent training habits, yet I doubt he was complaining while Chuck was off making appearances promoting the UFC. Dana is just too damn full of himself to recognize the contributions that the fighters have made in promoting this sport. It was also interesting to note that according to Randy, Dana asked him if he wanted to fight Tim Sylvia for the heavyweight belt when Randy had the offer for $3M from Bodog to fight Fedor. Hearing Dana talk about, he acts like he gave Randy the title shot out of the goodness of his heart. If it’s not obvious already, I don’t put any weight in anything Dana has to say. After hearing reporters ask Randy about forming a fighter’s union, I couldn’t help but think the best move the Fertita’s could ever make is backdooring Dana and putting Randy in his place. He would make a much better liason between the UFC and it’s fighters, and I think just be a much better representative in general.

For some reason, I am not able to watch the video on Elite’s site on IE or FireFox, and I uddated my Flash and Quicktime and turned Pop Up blocker. I WANT TO WATCH IT. All I saw was a 6 minute clip of it they have up on youtube. You can find that video here: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=randy couture press conference&search=Search

If anyone can find the entire video, not from Elite’s website, PLEASE post it here.

Thank you,
VM

fairly well spoken. Brings about many questions about how the UFC would be best run.

Begs questions of whether one man can appropriately run an organization like UFC, but I guess Vince McMahon has been successful doing so

But still seems to be a bit of a dog and pony show right now. A lot of clamoring for appropriate piece of pie and always “lack of respect” issue among highly paid athletes.

Randy is the one to respect here as his press conference was honorable all the way around.

He addressed the comments made about the money, people said, " you signed a contract and were happy about the money why is it different now?"

RANDY: I wasn’t happy about the money when they offered me the Tim Silvia fight. I wanted a signing bonus but they said NO. I told them that I was offered 3 million to fight Fedor in Bodog to which I told them NO because I am loyal to the UFC. I have been fighting here for 11 years. I told the Fertittas and Dana what Bodog offered. I took the Tim Silva fight only because I wanted to fight again and it was the best deal I could get INSIDE of the UFC.

He addressed the rumor that he didn’t “resign” properly…

RANDY: I spoke with the Fertittas and Dana face to face two weeks before I went to Africa about my issues and they basically said nothing. I already had my resignation letter ready to deliver not long after the Gonzaga fight because I felt that they were not offering the best deal they could to me when they are offer Fedor more money than I have ever made per fight.

He addressed what the main factor was in the resignation….

RANDY: Principle. The fighters in this sport are not getting the respect they deserve but I am only speaking for myself. I know that for 11 years I have done everything to be an ambassordor to the sport and yet some guy who hadn’t built the UFC can come in and make significantly more. The way you show your fighters that you respect them is how you pay them so we can’t get away with this issue without talking about compensation.

There is more but I have to jet to work.

Listen, anyone who doubted Coutures character is foolish. I would trust Couture with my Pin number way before I would trust Dana. Dana is who he shows himself to be and Randy is who he shows himself to be.

Boycott the UFC?

Randy Couture is the greatest UFC champion in history. More important is the fact that he is the most beloved UFC champion ever. His David versus Goliath defeat of Tim Silvia was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my otherwise ordinary life. Randy wants to fight because it is his passion. All he asks is to be paid what others of similar stature are being paid in the UFC. For him to accomplish what he has, it is insulting to watch as the UFC pays lesser fighters ten or more times what he is being paid. Now, he wants what everyone else wants—to fight Fedor for the world championship. The UFC either needs to:

1. Pay Randy as much as the highest paid fighter in the UFC or

2. Allow Randy to fight Fedor for his big pay day while Randy is under contract with the UFC or

3. Let Randy out of his contract.

Randy could call for a boycott of the UFC and bring them to their knees. But, he is a consummate professional and would never do so. Therefore, if the UFC does not come to terms with Randy, I think we should organize a boycott on his behalf. Imagine a pay-per-view with no one in the seats and no one paying to watch the broadcast…..