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)

Great Week For UFC Fans

MMA Fans get a big fix this week from the UFC with 3 upcoming events. Tonight is Ultimate Fight Night Live followed by the season 6 premier of The Ultimate Fighter and then to top the week off Saturday night is UFC 76 Knockout.

If the previews tell us anything this season of TUF promises to be the wildest one yet and I for one am looking forward to it. I like Hughes but I root for the underdog a lot so I'm pulling for Serra to win the team competition and successfully defend his title when he meets Hughes in the ring.

Tonights UFN card has some great fights that I'm looking forward to, Florian vs Thomas is one of them. Florian gives up a huge edge in experience to Thomas but Kenny has looked very impressive in his last 2 wins after rededicating himself to the fight game.

Another match up I can't wait to see is Nate Quarry vs Pete Sell which promises to be an exciting fight. Quarry hasn't fought since he became highlight reel material when Rich Franklin crushed his nose and then laid him out flat. Now that he's recovered from back and nose surgery Nate's back in the Octagon to make his way back up the middleweight ranks.

I'll post my thoughts on UFC 76 later this week. Until then MMA fans.....

Mike
(MMA Fanatic)

UFC Welterweight Champ Matt Serra at the NYS Fair

On September 1st I got a chance to meet UFC Champ Matt Serra at the New York State Fair in Syracuse. I'm originally from there and live in Raleigh NC now but I had planned a vacation to see some family when a friend told me he would be there.

Needless to say I'm pretty stoked as I love the UFC and I also like Matt, not to mention this is the first UFC fighter I've ever met in person. My wife and I got there 15 mins early and were the 3rd people in line.

So Matt gets there and says hello to everyone (about 30 people by this time). He was very friendly and approachable and spent a few moments with each fan for pictures, autographed photos and few words. It was the highlight of my vacation. By the way the UFC belts are heavy, each of the pieces you see on there are what seem to be solid brass, very solid.



The pics above are of me and my wife and the ones below are of a couple other people that were in line.

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)