More Randy Couture Post Press Conference Anaylsis

On one of the MMA Yahoo groups I belong to, Extreme Fighting Fan the group moderator Kensei Neiko posted some nice analysis of the fighter contract data that was released to the press:

Okay, so reading over a "standard UFC Contract for top guys" Randy is
screwed!!! Here is why:

First off we have that Retirement clause that some are saying is a
pain for Randy but more just a word challenge for him to over come:

Quote:
"If at any time during the Term, Fighter decides to retire from mixed
martial arts or other professional fighting competition," the clause
begins, "then ZUFFA may, at its election, (i) suspend the Term for
the period of such retirement; (ii) declare that ZUFFA has satisfied
its obligation to promote all future Bouts to be promoted by ZUFFA
hereunder, without any compensation due to Fighter therefore; or (ii)
elect to provide Fighter with notice of an Acceleration."
For all practical purposes, sub clause (i) allows Zuffa to retain the
rights to a retired fighter in perpetuity. Sherdog.com has confirmed
that this clause does not appear in every Zuffa contract; it is
believed to be reserved for top fighters.


In laymens terms if he "retires" Zuffa can extend the contract till
he comes back....No shocker here so lets move along!

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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)

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)

UFC 68, one for the record books

The fans really got their $50 bucks worth for UFC 68! There was no way this could be a bad card with the likes of Hughes, Franklin, Sylvia, and Couture all on the same night.

All of the stars showed up to fight... Matt Hughes takes a hard earned 3 round decision to Chris Lytle. The majority of the fight was spent on the ground with a lot of good grappling and jiu jitsu skills on display.

Rich Franklin defeats Canadian Jason "The Athlete" MacDonald for the win after Jason’s team throws in the towel at the end of round 2 after Franklin delivered MacDonald and end of round beating.

Surely the best fight of the night had to be Couture VS Sylvia. The performance that 43 year old Randy Couture put on last night in his complete domination win over Tim Sylvia was amazing to say the least.

For a man of his age to come out of a years retirement and utterly overwhelm a fighter that’s taller, heavier, and stronger than him was simply stunning.

Hardly anyone knew what to expect from Couture going into this fight, he had so many challenges stacked against him. But challenges can be overcome with a good fight plan and that’s exactly what Randy did. Tim even said afterwards that Randy had kept him guessing the whole fight.

The most prominent feature of the fight was Couture’s ability to land strikes at will on Sylvia. Randy also successfully employed a bob and weave upper body movement to keep Sylvia’s big hands off his face.

The striking, effective ground and pound and a smart fight plan employed by Couture is what won him this fight. That fight will have to go down as the greatest UFC fight of 2007 and certainly one of the top matches of all time.

Mike
(MMA Fanatic)