I’m sure Zuffa is equally if not more guilty of fucking guys over and firing them in the same way

I’ve had people disagree with me over many things. Eventually they come to pass and people admit I was right. Everyone that is even mildly intelligent knows that Randy/Fedor will draw in any organization and get a Rampage/Liddell ESPNpush because its the biggest fight that can be made. That may be hard for some to accept, but its true. Now, just wait awhile and see what happens if a guy like Forrest Griffin decides to check out on Zuffa when his contract comes up in ‘08….

I actually agree with D.

I’m sure Zuffa is equally if not more guilty of fucking guys over and firing them in the same way.

Depends how you want to argue that. Randy won *ALL* of them. How undeserved can they be when he does that?

many times did he not earn being marketed, and was anyways?

He was one of the biggest stars in the promotion’s history. Who else should they have marketed instead?

How many times has he left the UFC when it was no longer convenient for him to be there?

Once? Before Zuffa?

Oh, and while we’re on the topic of respect, is it respectful to resign, by fax, from another continent while you play being an actor?

If he’s not getting paid what he feels he is owed, he can do whatever the hell he wants. I’ve resigned via letter before from jobs. So have most people in life.

I never said it was a “panic”, merely that I wondered how much money they paid him. I’ll bet his bargaining power increased significantly in light of the fact that they didn’t sign someone who they’d been openly hyping as the best HW on the planet and the guy that was their champion, who they’d been pushing as the challenger for guy A – which would be “one of the biggest HW fights ever”.

But don’t be totally naive…they lost out on two big HW’s, one being their most marketable and reliable PPV draw and the other a HW that could have been portrayed with a huge invincible aura that could have drawn huge ratings (with proper promotion) as the “Drago” challenger or champion for their HW’s to topple. This signing is most likely related to their now suddenly shallow HW division – which was spurned by their inability to retain the two – and the hopes that they can market a guy with the look and credentials that he has to fill the void.

I totally see where you’re coming from on this end…he likely did get a pretty good deal his last go-around, that appeared to be a top end contract at that time. And its hard to tell who said what and when in the contract negotiations, but one thing is sure and it appears that Randy feels grossly slighted to be doing what he did. Maybe they were claiming “poor-broke” and he took less cash b/c he loves to fight and wanted the challenge of getting back in the ring, only to find them doling out huge guaranteed deals to a dozen other fighters. Maybe he feels he’s being ripped off on his PPV %ages, since these numbers are rarely openly released. He has always been the model of sportsmanship and a great steward for the sport – its hard to imagine he’s doing this out of sheer greed.

The reality of the situation is that in pro sports athletes re-negotiate their contracts (while they are in place) all the time. It’s true he has a contract, but its also pretty apparent that he was being paid far below market value in comparison to the contracts being given to other fighters, many who had not stood with the UFC through it all and even more who were NOT the proven PPV revenue generators that he has been. And I honestly do believe that in failing to sign Fedor, coupled with Couture’s age he believes he only has a few fights and wants to fight Fedor to determine who is truly #1 at HW.

As someone a wise person once said, there’s two stories here and the truth lies somewhere in between.

Yes, it is true that Randy Couture has only appeared to be a gentleman to the public. But public perception can be extremely fake. In all honesty, nobody knows anything about these fighters. A guy like Tim Sylvia, who comes off like a tool, could be the nicest guy in the world. A guy like Randy Couture, who comes across as a true gentleman, could be a wife beater for all we know (not saying he is, just making an example).

My point is that you never know how somebody truly is by the way they are shown in the media.

I look back and only remember Randy being a gentleman. Looking back at Dana, I just remember all these tough guy tirades and arrogance.

At most that’s anecdotal and more than likely it’s your own personal opinion. I’ve seen nothing one way or the other showing who the fans are siding with.

I apologize for being vague. I didn’t mean to imply that people were universally against him, but I was very surprised that bloggers, message board posters and even callers on the Beatdown were not universally supporting Randy given his “nice guy” status.

As for the pay/respect, whether you want to believe Kevin Iole’s report or not, we’ll never know the numbers for sure as far as who was getting what, but we do know that Randy got what he wanted on his current contract with the UFC since the UFC desparately needed a HW contender, he never complained prior to this and the UFC not taking care of one of its biggest stars makes very little sense. I’m just fining it harder and harder buy Randy’s side of it.

He doesn’t even rank yet.

If UFC was worried about getting another guy from the rankings, then they would have gone on bended knee to Barnett.