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« | Home | »

Dana White vs. Randy Couture

By Jeff Comstock | October 25, 2007

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By Jeff Comstock

I’ll be updating this thread as the news comes in from the dueling press conferences.

Dana White’s conference can be heard on Yahoo live at 4 p.m. ET. To listen in, just click here.

Randy’s conference will be broadcast live at ProElite.com and HDNet at 4:30 p.m. ET.

The TV deal announcement is the Spike deal. The first question asked is from the Canadian Sun newspapers.

The first question was asked if Dana had intentionally scheduled the press conference to compete with Randy Couture’s press conference. After talking around the question, and sounding like an idiot. Dana eventually said that his intention was “not to fuck with Randy Couture’s press conference.”

The new fight deal with Spike runs for the next four years. It includes at least 12 live fight cards per year, 6 more season of TUF, and new shows being developed over the course of the contract, including a new fight series running in 2010 and 2011.

Dana White is being Dana White, a lot of spin. Dana has many several sycophantic journalists throwing him some softballs. I’m moving over to the Couture press conference and we’ll pick up the rest of Dana White later.

ProElite.com is running at it’s usual slow pace for an event, I guess many are joining in to watch. They seem to be having some problems over at the site, I and many others are not receiving the video stream.

We have video!

Couture is laying out the many complaints that he has had with UFC management, including pay, perks and lack of communication. Couture says his lawyer and himself believe that Randy’s contract will expire after the contracts term ends in 9 months.

Randy says he had a face to face with White and Fertitta a few weeks ago with his complaints and received no response from the UFC management. Thus he decided to tender his resignation.

Randy says that off the books, bonus checks are standard practice in the UFC. One of his beefs is that he was paid no bonus for his fight versus Gonzaga.

These off the books bonuses, which are not reported to the athletic commissions, have in a way united fighters, by forcing them to communicate to learn what they actually earn amongst each other, according to Randy.

Randy claims that getting paid a percentage of the PPV is a problem, due to the fact that the UFC keeps these PPV numbers a closely guarded secret. Couture has activated a clause in his contract to audit the PPV numbers from his last fight.

My stream died…

I’ve been unable to reconnect to the ProElite stream so I’m back to the UFC’s conference.

Dana White, calls Randy’s agency “a bottom feeder agency,” and his agent has orchestrated this situation.

A reporter is doing his best to confuse Wanderlei Silva, by speaking like an auctioneer.

The Fedor deal fell apart because his management were concerned about their interests more than Fedor’s and they never seemed concerned with Fedor’s interests, just what they were getting out of the deal. Vadim Finklestein “is a fucking liar” according to White. He wishes Fedor good luck fighting “wherever” because he doesn’t want him fighting in the UFC.

Dana White: The UFC will come to Canada in 2008, “we want to come to Canada worse than the fans want them to come to Canada.”

Brock Lesnar says that he can beat Tim Sylvia…

Dana White: A lot of people are going to be interested to see if Brock Lesnar can really fight and he will bring in many wrestling fans to watch the UFC.

I’ve posted to the comment section by accident twice now, too many tabs open.

Dana White: “You have to be an absolute jackass to take steroids,” Lesnar is audibly shaken.

I did it again! Clarification is made, 12 fight nights cards over 3 years, not per year.

I suck at live blogging!

Dana White thanks everyone for their time and ends the call.

Good god this live blogging stuff is harder than it looks, I’ll have to ask FightLinker how he rolls so smooth. I’ll write a summary of all of the news that came out of today’s press conferences a little bit later.

Topics: All Topics, Press Releases, UFC | 61 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

61 Responses to “Dana White vs. Randy Couture”

  1. dice says:

    “your line of thinking is so delusionally out of touch with reality, it’s hilarious really”

    EXACTLY.

  2. 45 Huddle says:

    No it’s not. The New York Times ran an article on Rudy’s kids…. And that is a legit publication.

    “Yet almost every professional athlete lives in the city where they play and many times they’re family doesn’t live there with them.”

    And those guys are just as bad. The good ones have their family in the same place…. Which means in baseball for 81 home games a year (and some of the off-season) they are home with the kids…..

    “- Who in the world would stay anywhere if they were the company’s top employee and were then offered an insulting low-balled pay-cut?”

    Couture SIGNED the contract. End of discussion on that one.

    I wouldn’t say I am grasping at straws because it’s not like I started this discussion today. As I said, I have stated these ideas before…. Couture the person you all worship is far from the Couture that his track record shows….

    Lastly, the New York Times talked about Rudy’s children…. I would say if a paper that important gives the green light to talk about somebodies person life… Then it is okay in this case too… But then again, those real journalists over there know a little more about this sort of thing then me….

  3. The Gaijin says:

    1.) “No it’s not. The New York Times ran an article on Rudy’s kids…. And that is a legit publication.”
    ————————————————————————————–
    More than likely (never read it, so not completely sure of the context) the article on Rudy has to do with the fact that he’s a republican and the NYT (to the best of my knowledge) is a left leaning publication.

    It’s got as much to do with politics and political affiliations as far as I would hazard to guess…and just b/c the NYT did it doesn’t make it right.

    And again, you have no idea of the factual situation with Couture’s family life other than he’s been divorced and has kids from the marriages. To extend that to him “abandoning” his families is a cheap pot shot with no relevant justification.

    2.) “And those guys are just as bad. The good ones have their family in the same place…. Which means in baseball for 81 home games a year (and some of the off-season) they are home with the kids…..”
    ————————————————————————————–
    Maybe athletes don’t want to uproot a family that has no ties to a city other than the athlete plays there, while they’ve got roots in the city they are already living in (i.e. school, extended family). Not to mention the fact that pro athletes rarely spend an entire career in one city, meaning doing what you’re suggesting would amount to living like an army family. So there’s probably pretty good reasons for many of them not uprooting a family.

    3.) ““- Who in the world would stay anywhere if they were the company’s top employee and were then offered an insulting low-balled pay-cut?”

    Couture SIGNED the contract. End of discussion on that one.”
    ————————————————————————————–
    I’m referring to the first time he walked from the UFC…his contract was up and he was offered a contract that amounted to a low-balled pay-cut. End of discussion on that one.

    4.) “I wouldn’t say I am grasping at straws because it’s not like I started this discussion today. As I said, I have stated these ideas before…. Couture the person you all worship is far from the Couture that his track record shows….”
    ————————————————————————————–
    You’re the one trying to prove that he’s got ‘bad character’, thus, yes you ARE grasping at straws with those weak points to find something bad to say about the guy. And as far as “I’ve stated these ideas before”, I don’t really count the last week and a half of mud-slinging you’ve been doing since he stood up to Zuffa as stating these ideas before. But if it helps you justify it, bully to you.

  4. Annonymous Guy #1 says:

    LOL at 45 Huddle trying to paint Randy’s relationships as sketchy.

  5. So if this all true 45, why did Dana sign a guy who has all the reliabilty of a gnat in Lesnar then? He was unreliable to WWE, he was unreliable in New Japan. What makes him reliable to UFC.

  6. Blocker says:

    Lesnar wants to kick everyone elses ass in REAL fights, thats the difference and he is a real threat, an actual heavyweight. But if the UFC fucks with him Lesnar will leave.

  7. Preach says:

    Well, dice, if you want to insult people and call them trolls: make sure that they haven’t posted here since the beginning.

    And if I were you i wouldn’t rely on the IMDB (Inaccurate Movie Data Base) for a startdate of a film. Or anything else for that matter. Just last year a good friend had to discover that he had a co-producer on a series he did in 1993 – and one week later said “co-producer” was a writer on another friends feature. Later on it turned out that this guy was a fifteen year old student, who had added his name to around 60 B-Movies and Documentaries (Hell, he even added his name to a recently deceased actress’ biography as her third husband). And again: i remember more than enough from back then, that’s one of the advantages of living a lifestyle without alcohol, tobacco or drugs. 😉

    As for Randy: one has just to look at the press-conference. I just had the chance to listen to it entirely, and boy, what a bunch of crap he’s talking.
    He contradicted his statements all the way through. Yeah, i left cause there was nothing more for me to accomplish, it had nothing to do with money. They didn’t pay me as much as others. Tim and Matt got signing bonuses, i didn’t. Well, Dana and the Fertittas would’ve given me anything that i asked them for. I will never fight anywhere else. I will fight again. I’ve got a great relationship with Dana and the Fertittas. We had problems from the start.

    Something sounds a little bit off now, doesn’t it? Sure, you might say “Dude, those are contradictions”, but no. In the end, it’s all about the money, and since Randy’s afraid to man up and say so, he’s simply lieing.

    My respect for Randy the fighter is unbroken – as for Randy the man… well, that’s a whole other story…

  8. dice says:

    The troll comment wasn’t directed at you. Sorry you missed that.(and please, I don’t give a f*ck how long you have been here, I call bullshit when I see it.)

    As for imdb, well I am going to have to say that I trust that site a lot more than someones memory from when they were 4. Nice Job on trying to discredit imdb though. Yeah I am sure they are not perfect, but like I said, find something that shows the opening date in germany was different than what imdb says it was, instead of posting some story about a friend of yours and his experience with imdb.

    I think you had trouble understanding randys press conference. I found very little to be contradictory.

    “Well, Dana and the Fertittas would’ve given me anything that i asked them for.”

    I don’t remember this exact statement. I remember he said that he is tired of swimming upstream with the management, which is a much different statement than you just said. If you can find a statement by Randy where he states that the UFC have given him everything he asked for or some documentation that shows he has always gotten what he asked for, then I will concede and say it was a contradiction.(BTW there are quite a few fighters who have had difficulty with the UFC, this is far from an isolated case)

    “Yeah, i left cause there was nothing more for me to accomplish, it had nothing to do with money”

    I do know that he said he only wants to fight fedor. Do I blame him? No, he is 44 years old, its not like he has a bunch of fights left in him. Is there really anything for him to do in the UFC?

    “Tim and Matt got signing bonuses, i didn’t.”

    when did he contradict himself on this statement. Did he end up saying later that he did get a signing bonus?

    I will be honest, this situation doesn’t seem as complicated as I once thought it was. The UFC likes to do backroom deals, they ended up not giving a bonus to a guy who was used to getting them and has helped them build the sport, maybe more so than any other fighter in the history of the UFC, that fighter finds out that other fighters were getting huge bonuses after their fights, fighter asks management about this, they lie and say he is the 2nd highest paid fighter, which he may be on paper, but he is not talking about on paper now is he? He is talking about these behind closed door deals. (MAIN POINT) Its pretty simple, he found out what other guys were making, and he felt he should be getting paid more than them based on his contribution to the company. Thats disrespect. If he was the greedy bastard you are making him out to be, then why didn’t he take the bodog fight?

    Respect=money when it comes to business. Get it yet preach? If he is saying that it isn’t about money, he is talking about how he has turned down more money before and stayed with the UFC.

  9. Preach says:

    Well, if you’re trusting the IMDB your trust surely is misplaced. The Inaccurate Movie Data Base is not a moniker that i came up with, it’s common use in our industry. The only thing the IMDB is good for are IMDB Pro and IMDB Resume, as they’re very helpful at finding actors/crewmembers or for getting in touch with other workers and/or companies. The “normal” IMDB is filled with more errors than Wikipedia (which is why everyone and their mother rather works with print media).

    “I do know that he said he only wants to fight fedor. Do I blame him? No, he is 44 years old, its not like he has a bunch of fights left in him. Is there really anything for him to do in the UFC?”

    The question you have to ask then is: Why did he sign a multi-fight contract in the first place, not knowing if Fedor would ever be a part of the UFC? Randy surely thought that there’s a bunch of fights left in him, otherwise he wouldn’t have taken the deal, or at least only a one-shot deal against Tim, opting to retire in case he’d win the title. But he didn’t, which means that he though there’s something left. And to be honest, there is. He could’ve fought CroCop, Pride’s HW GP Champion. Even though he lost his last fight against Kongo, a Randy/CroCop fight would’ve been great. Or Randy/Nog (as was planned). Randy against the man who was Pride’s Heavyweight Champion when Randy was the UFC’s.

    “when did he contradict himself on this statement. Did he end up saying later that he did get a signing bonus?”

    He contradicted himself in stating, that if he sat down with Dana and the Fertittas in person, they’d give in to his demands. So, why didn’t they then? And more importantly: Why did he sign the contract in the first place if he didn’t get the bonus he obviously wanted? He came to the Zuffa brass and wanted the title fight, it’s not as if they pressured him into it, with a gun up to his head. If he knew that guys like Tim and Matt got bonuses, he demanded it and didn’t get it – why sign anyway?

    “they lie and say he is the 2nd highest paid fighter, which he may be on paper, but he is not talking about on paper now is he? He is talking about these behind closed door deals.”

    Has it ever come to your mind that he might actually be the 2nd highest paid fighter? And not only on paper? If Randy gets 250k base and PPV percentage, and Nog gets 300k and NO PPV percentage – who’s earning more? Sure, it’s nitpicking, but i think it’s more reasonable to assume that they’d give a proven commodity like Randy, Chuck or Tito a PPV bonus, rather than someone who’s unproven in the UFC and already gets a rather large base salary. And in the end, neither Randy, nor us know who makes what exactly. Like you said: backroom deals. It’s a case of he said/she said.

    And to be honest, i think the UFC hasn’t disrespected Randy one bit (even though he may see it differently). They kept him on their payroll when he retired. He continued to work for them as a spokesman, they put him on their PPVs as a commentator, they put him as a guest on TUF and their other shows, which is much more than they’ve done for any other talent of theirs. They kept him in the spotlight, when his time was over, they kept him in the eyes and thoughts of the fans (which in turn led him to getting movie and tv-roles). And you can bet that they paid him good money for that. They didn’t need to do that, but they did. And they didn’t need to give him a title shot for his comeback – but they did.

  10. dice says:

    “Well, if you’re trusting the IMDB your trust surely is misplaced. The Inaccurate Movie Data Base is not a moniker that i came up with, it’s common use in our industry. The only thing the IMDB is good for are IMDB Pro and IMDB Resume, as they’re very helpful at finding actors/crewmembers or for getting in touch with other workers and/or companies. The “normal” IMDB is filled with more errors than Wikipedia (which is why everyone and their mother rather works with print media).”

    LOL, you are really grasping at straws. First, you must not be reading my posts. I said that IMDB is not perfect, but when it comes to picking imdb or your memory as a 4 year old, then I choose IMDB.

    “Why did he sign a multi-fight contract in the first place, not knowing if Fedor would ever be a part of the UFC? ”

    Um, well lets see, a lot has happened in that time span. He wasn’t coming off of 2 victories over top 10 guys. He probably was thinking the same thing 9 months ago as he is now. Things change, so do peoples opinions. As far as knowing if fedor would ever be part of the UFC, well if he was listening to dana then he probably thought fedor would be part of the UFC. Because all dana kept saying was “how he is going to get the best fighters out there”, I am guessing that would include the best, fedor.

    I could refute more of your post but it useless, we have gone back and forth on this imdb issue and I am beginning to notice that you are not even reading my posts. But your last comment really cracked me up.

    “And they didn’t need to give him a title shot for his comeback – but they did.”

    You seem to forget history. They didn’t have a definite number one contender and the division looked very weak. Randy did them a big favor by coming out of retirement and giving the UFC a big ppv event (way more buys than any other heavyweight could have given them). If you haven’t noticed, the UFC heavyweight division was weak then and is still weak now (they are missing half of the top ten and 3 out of the top 4).

  11. dice says:

    *wasn’t thinking

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