many of the top athletes can opt out of their in baseball

Eric- Sorry I wasn’t clear, I was responding to UKmmaBOY, not comparing to the UK.
In response to your statement, at least ARod can play against the Red Sox. They are connected within the same league. Salary and pay is competitive within baseball itself. The UFC says, “we got you, and as long as you remain HW Champion, your exhisting contract is renewed automatically at the same rate. If you have a fight left on your contract and choose not to renew, we’ll just bench you until the time period lapses on the contract”. It’s a pretty crummy deal in my opinion, and with the way that the UFC treated Andrei Arlovski by sitting him out for over a year until the time period on his contract was up was pretty ridiculous. And just becouse AA wanted to become a free agent.

No they can’t. You are talking about ‘player options’ and that is basically at the end of a contract so the player can either take the money that is his to choose or get out and try to get more. Stupid comparison, Billy.

Eric, excellent comparison. Randy took his a** out of retirement and got a gift contract from a friend (let’s not forget he and Dana were on good terms when he got his money and undeserved title shot). He did well, let his new “buddy” agent in his head (who played him like a fiddle), and walked out on an agreement. That is what a contract is. If he didn’t want it, he shouldn’t have signed it.

Another example: If Chad Johnson sits, he doesn’t earn a year toward free agency, i.e. if you don’t honor your current contract, you don’t get a shot at a better one when it’s over. How is this different from Randy? It’s not.

The only reason the contract was not made with UFC was that UFC wishes to retain ridiculous ownership over their fighters (e.g., Fedor couldn’t do the Russian combat sambo). Dana acts like he did Randy this huge favor, when Randy sells the tickets. People that don’t watch UFC are interested in and willing to pay money to watch Randy. So in reality, even after the losses to Chuck, it wasn’t a real big favor. Now Dana talks about “bitch slapping” Randy’s agent, and what Randy so doing is “pussy shit.” Walk into a closed door room with him, lock it up, and the person that walks out under his own power wins. Bottom line, UFC can make this fight, and it’s the fight everyone wants to see. Randy has one or two more fights in him, or maybe none. But he’s been around a long time and fought everyone, so wanting to fight Fedor over Nog ain’t asking too much.

UKmmaBOY- the UFC does not let go of its champions. Contracts are automatically renewed. Fedor fight would not have happened if Randy stayed. And hype would have dwindled if he lost. It might not happen anyways.

I know this, but so did Randy. I agree with your comments about Fedor and UFC wanting ownership of fighters but this is typical of every aspect of business. Ford or Microsoft or Nike will always want total control of their respective products as will the UFC. The difficulty with this case is that BJ, Pulver, Shamrock & Bustamante all retired as Champs and new Champs were crowned. Was this before or after Zuffa purchased UFC? I wasn’t following MMA at this time so will have to plead ignorance on this, I just want it resolved so Randy, UFC and the fans can move on.

You’re kidding yourself by thinking Angle can’t hang with Couture grappling. His level of wrestling and talent displayed in wrestling is higher than Couture’s. He has done submission work for years but hasn’t jumped into MMA fully because he knows his striking is way behind. Despite the WWE label, he is a real athlete that understands athleticism and knows what it takes to compete at a top level.

you’re talking about this guy? Whatever…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIT6UnBiu-I

WWE feeling the pinch so now they’re faking mma lol.

This is interesting though. Kurt on “Inside MMA.” Mentions he is training, and would be ready in 6 months. Still I’ll believe it when I it, could just be all talk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YCLWgp69qg

He can’t take a fight with Fedor because he’s still under contract with the UFC. if that happened, two things would come out of this:

One; UFC would sue Randy for fighting for another organization while under UFC contract.

Two; UFC would sue the organization Randy and Fedor fought under because Randy is still under contract to UFC.

That’s the reason Randy won’t all the sudden fight Fedor, he can’t.

Now you’re right about not letting some companies sponsor randy or allow randy to corner some of his fighters in other promotion is just dana being a d*ck. But just because I lost respect to Randy doesn’t mean I agree with everything Dana does.

if he fights in russia, who can sue? UFC has no authority in russia

Ummmmm, hello? They can sue Randy since he would be the one breaking contract. They may not be able to sue another organization for promoting it, especially if it is a foreign org, but the man they have the contract with could be held liable.

they can sue an organization in Russia, international litigations happens everyday. Not so long ago the UFC filled law-suit against the previous owners of Pride, and vice versa.

He can fight in Russia, he can earn money in Russia, but if he brings it back here, the UFC can take it. Also, the IRS will hold him liable for the taxes on the earnings regardless of where they are earned, so even if he makes his money in Russia and takes it to the Caymans, he’s still liable for the taxes.

ok my bad

Kevin, you’re wrong about it being ridiculous for companies to control who sponsorships come from. As far as I know, every single major sports league in the world does that.

maybe they control it to an extent, but you really think the nba cares what sneaker a guy endorses? As long as it’s relevant…is the condom depot more relevent than a clothing line??

You don’t know (none of us do) what a 4 fight contract means.

Does it mean you must fight 4 fights in the UFC regardless of the outcome?

Does it mean you must fight as many times as the UFC asks you to fight up to 4 times?

Does it mean both fighter and the UFC can decide to fight any number of fights up to 4?

I don’t presume to know the answer but many bloggers on here do. You need the contract to state this definitively and even then, it needs a judge to interpret it.

“You don’t know (none of us do) what a 4 fight contract means.”

- it means you fight 4 times.

“Does it mean you must fight 4 fights in the UFC regardless of the outcome?”

- not really, the ufc can release you from you’re contract depending on your performance, as we’ve seen twice this week.

"Does it mean you must fight as many times as the UFC asks you to fight up to 4 times?"

- yes

"Does it mean both fighter and the UFC can decide to fight any number of fights up to 4?"

- no, ufc can decide, couture can’t (this is Ultimate Fighting Championship, not Extreme Couture Championship, it’s the UFC that holds more power than the fighter, as it should.

"I don’t presume to know the answer but many bloggers on here do. You need the contract to state this definitively and even then, it needs a judge to interpret it."

-the only hole in this contract is the duration which is what randy is going for, the judge will need to interpret this, but as far as a 4 fight contract, it means 4 fight contract. There is no way around it. The only thing the judge will interpret is if the duration of the contract that expires on September (I’m not sure if it’s September) will automatically cancel out the remainder two fights that Couture owes the UFC. Couture received 500k as bonus to sign the new contract, at the time he was old. He signed to fight four more times. He beat Tim and he was old. He beat Gonzaga and he was old. Now he says he’s too old and only has one fight left, but he’s been old forever now. He knew how old he was when he was signing the contract with the UFC to fight four more times, and he did not honor it. I’m far from what someone would call a UFC lover, in fact I hate Dana, but I agree with him on this. Couture should just man up and take care of his responsibility. Even if he wins the court case (which I really hope won’t happen), he has lost the respect of many including myself because he won’t honor his contract.

A murderer could go to trial and be declared not guilty by a judge or by his peers, but that doesn’t mean he’s innocent.

Let’s say everything you say is 100% true and accurate. We still don’t know what a 4 fight contract fully means.

Does a 4 fight contract expire or is it indefinite?

This is civil (contract) law not criminal law. This has to do with the interpretation of a contract. There is no guilty person/party here, liability is decided not guilt.

If we all had a copy of the contract it would be possible to have an informed opinion. Since this isn’t possible, instead of having an uninformed decision, I prefer to give Randy the benefit of the doubt and reserve my judgment until a judge looks into the matter.

rhv, the problem we’re having in this debate I believe is that we’re really talking about two separate things. I’m only explaining why I’ve lost respect to randy and you’re trying to defend that randy might be right in the legal department. I replied first to duece 4 explaining why I’ve lost respect to randy, in my own judgment you don’t just sign a 4 fight contract when you’re retired and came out of a loss in one division and all of the sudden you have a title shot because you asked for it and receive $500k ahead as bonus before any fights takes place. Then you win that title and only defend it once and all of a sudden there is no one worthy of fighting anymore besides fedor… That to me really took the wind out of my gut, I used to respect Randy more than anything but he made a 180° and lost all the respect I had.

You can wait to find out if a judge sees it his way or the UFC way before you make a judgment yourself, but all I’m saying is he’s already lost the respect of many such as myself and we don’t need a court ruling to make up our minds. Just because something may be uplifted in court doesn’t mean its right. Randy is the one who signed the contract, why should I feel sorry for him? He’s an adult, he should know what he does and he should be responsible and liable for everything he does and all the decisions he makes.

lol free t shirt

LOL, that would be a classic fight, Starns that won’t stop running against Lutter that will gas running after Starnes.