Couture "Grossly Misrepresents" Contract Figures says UFC's Dana White

At a UFC press conference this afternoon to address remarks made by Randy Couture, Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta flatly refute the claims made by the Heavyweight champ. The details are certainly interesting for example the signing bonus.

Randy wanted a half mil signing bonus which the UFC wasn't ready to give up front in case of injury or something like that. Randy stated that he didn't get that bonus when in fact what Dana agreed to do was front 250k right then and the balance after the Sylvia fight which he got, that all works out to 500k. So it is indeed strange that he would claim not getting the bonus when he clearly did.

The press conference goes into a bunch more detail about the contract, meetings they had etc. There were also a number of interesting nuggets about the UFC like PPV buy numbers, fighter contract details, and fighter pay. I was surprised to hear that they pay discretionary bonuses to fighters also for excellent performance, great fights and the like.

Like Dana says, only time can tell how this one will turn out but for now he considers the matter settled and promises not to speak on it again after this press conference.

Mike
(MMA Fanatic)

Ultimate Fighter Episode 5

Kind of a tame episode this week some of that due to Paul Georgieff getting news from home that his 19 year old cousin had died. I’m glad Dana didn’t make him sweat a choice between being there for his family and competing on the Ultimate Fighter. It was also nice see his team mates there to back him up and offer support.

Mac Danzig seems to have a problem with Blake Bowman and the fact that he hasn’t “sacrificed” himself with years of dedication to the sport and is a relative newbie. Why that makes any difference to Mac is beyond me, whether he belongs there or not was not his decision to make, that was done by Dana and the producers. Take comfort from the fact that one, he’s not on your level and two he’s already lost and injured to boot. What threat does he pose to you? Pipe down…..

Plus he was also pissed because his boy Andy Wang lost his fight against Blake’s boy Cole Miller and Blake was commenting on it. I thought Andy was a loser when he appeared on TUF and I wasn’t impressed with him at all.

So Dana will let Paul go home to attend services for his cousin and come back but he has to fight before he leaves. That puts Hughes in a pinch because he has to change his game plan at the last minute and they decide to put him up against Troy Mandaloniz.

I knew this was going to be trouble for Paul even if he wasn’t dealing with a death in the family. Troy has a ton of heart, heavy hands and an intense desire to win his fight. Once the fight starts Troy lands a couple shots and Paul pulls him down into guard.

Once in guard Paul made several good submission attempts including a triangle and a kimura that looked good for a minute until Troy got it loosened up. Troy brought the fight back up to their feet and within 30 seconds landed a couple hard shots and then one right on the button folding Paul up like and accordion.

Not to long after that we got to see Hughes acting like a jerk off. Paul is sitting in a chair in the octagon and Hughes is saying “Standing up with him wasn’t part of the plan, blah blah blah.” Then he was saying the same kind of stuff to his other fighters. How about nice try Paul you gave it your best etc etc. Dick….

However Matt Serra came up to him and gave him a pat on the shoulder and some words of encouragement like the class act he is.

Looks like next week Matt Hughes will again take the loss out on his team instead of looking in the mirror where the problem really lies.

Couture to retire again and pursue an acting career.

UFC president Dana White announced yesterday that Randy Couture has resigned from the UFC as commentator and potential lobbyist and will retire again. Randy has decided to pursue a career in acting and is in Africa right now filming The Scorpion King: Rise of the Akkadian.

Randy was looking to fight Pride’s Fedor Emelianenko but the UFC was unable to bring Fedor into the fold and he has now signed with some nebulous Russian MMA organization. Since Randy wasn’t going to be able to fight who many consider the best heavyweight fighter in the world this was a good time to bow out and concentrate fully on an acting career.

More details can be found on the UFC website here, and the Sports Illustrated site here.

Mike
(MMA Fanatic)