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Dana White vs. Randy Couture
By Jeff Comstock | October 25, 2007
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 |
Hey DW’s talking about “all of this goofy internet bullshit sites” and dropping F-bombs like it’s going out of style, buddy!!!
12 UFNs per year?
Dayum. Losing HBO = win for fans.
has he said anything about other networks carrying UFC events? As long as it’s just Spike it will not grow into new audiences.
I’d ask white if he was planning on changing the UFC’s production setup one tiny bit in the next ten years. I was watching 5 year old fights that had the same basic setup. meh.
Garth, Dana specifically stated that Spike is not trying to hold the UFC back and have been supportive of the UFC trying to get more TV…..it was stated(paraphrasing) that a broadcast network deal or a premium channel deal would be allowed….
Fightlinker is liveblogging, and they said that a question was asked about exclusivity with Spike, and apparently it doesn’t exist. They could do ESPN, they could do HBO, whatever.
UFC’s got that Fox show running now anyway.
wow…ProElite must be flooded – the site has been loading for the last 2 min.
I guess ProElite doesnt have the bandwidth capabilities that Yahoo! does.
“Dayum. Losing HBO = win for fans.”
Not this fan. I’ve got HBO, so these events would have been free to me, commercial free as well, and likely simulcast on the HBO HD channel.
Nevertheless, that’s a lot of free fights. Its one step closer to regularly scheduled events being shown live on a national level- you know, like a real sport.
Jeremy,
That “Fox show” UFC Wired is a syndicated program that was purchased (in some markets) on a barter basis by the Fox Television Group. FTG is the group of local stations and network affiliates that either broadcast the FOX network or (as is the case of the stations involved in this deal) were part of the old UPN network. When WB and UPN merged, the Fox stations were mostly dropped by the new CW network. So Fox formed MyNetwork TV. And it is those MyTV stations that air UFC Wired.
Bottom line, UFC Wired is aired on some quasi-independent station that are owned by FOX/News Corp. The show was not sold, but is bartered for potential advertising revenue. This is a great way to increase exposure and maybe make a few $$$. But it is very similar to the various filler programs WWF/E (and WCW) distributed for nearly two decades.
Brock just said he’s glad to be out of the WWE with all the guys dying young, he says “I still alive!”. He said his ultimate goal is to be the heavyweight champion and says ifs he’s winning that “shouldn’t take very long”.
Very interested on what this other season-style show will be in 2010.
Filler?? You weren’t satisfied watching Hogan beat up on Iron Mike Sharpe? INTERNET FANS ARE SO DEMANDING, GOSH!
that was “I’m still alive.”
“Dana have you talked to Randy”
“No I left him a message on his phone but I have not talked to randy”
“Randy have you heard from dana recently”
“Yeah I talked to dana and Lorenzo last night”
LOL, Good ole fashion lying by Mr. White. Lying is like a bodily function for him.
And what makes you think that it isn’t the other way around, dice?
Its called history buddy. Find me a quote by Randy where it was shown he lied.
Dana has been shown to lie straight faced numerous times. Welcome to the sport of MMA, we are glad to have ya.
lol at this (from the Fightlinker recap):
“HBO deal again … Dana said he’s looking for ‘partners’ and Spike are partners and HBO didn’t want to be a partner. He implied that HBO wanted terms that would restrict the sport’s growth. Said boxing just doesn’t have many great bouts anymore.”
The hold-up in the HBO deal was that the UFC wanted to maintain control of the production crew, the announcers, etc. HBO wanted it to be like every other major sporting event, where the announcers would have at least a modicum of independence instead of working directly for the promoter. The UFC has tried to argue in the past that this shouldn’t be an issue, but that’s a hard case to make when you have situations such as the UFC’s announcers not saying one word about the BS decision in the Hamill-Bisping fight, or the UFC’s announcers not acknowledging Randy Couture’s resignation from the UFC on the following PPV event.
A reporter is doing his best to confuse Wanderlei Silva, by speaking like an auctioneer.
Spike TV has already contradicted several of the things that the UFC said in the press conference. The new contract, according to Spike TV, is NOT for at least 12 live events per year. It’s for at least 4 live events per year, over the course of three years, for a total of a 12-event minimum. Obviously there’s a big difference between 4 live events per year and 12 live events per year.
Also, according to Spike TV, the new deal still calls for Spike TV to be the exclusive basic cable home of the UFC. It remains puzzling that the UFC continues to say things like, “Spike TV doesn’t mind if we do live events on ESPN,” given the fact that it’s an exclusive-for-basic-cable contract, it has always been an exclusive-for-basic-cable contract, and it’s still going to be an exclusive-for-basic-cable contract in the renewal.
Dave Meltzer predicted that Randy would say he got no bonus for the GG fight. Meltzer pointed out that it generally takes a while to get the final numbers and that ppv checks general are paid 60-90 days after show.
How long is White going to talk? I need to pee.
from the fightlinker recap:
“Dave Meltzer pitches his gaylord ‘Superbowl halftime special’ idea. Dana says it’s stupid.”
Why would Dave Meltzer be pitching anything to the UFC, or any other MMA organization? He’s a journalist, not a UFC employee. It makes no sense that he would “pitch” specific ideas to any MMA promotion.
FightLinker is funny as hell.
Well, now Spike TV says that it’s not an exclusive contract anymore. So that would mean that the UFC could legally be on other cable networks as soon as the previous contract expires, which was in mid-to-late 2008.
Yeah, right. And you know that Randy never lied because of what? Oh, yeah, that’s right, you DON’T. And i could get into a matter where Randy obviously lied, but that would touch his personal life (and this situation has been documented before, so i won’t be getting into this).
And thanks, but MMA had me since i saw Inoki vs Mildenberger back in ’78…
Dana White: “You have to be an absolute jackass to take steroids”, Lesnar is audibly shaken.
Clarification is made, 12 fight nights over 4 years, not per year.
Closing remarks upcoming…
Oh man I give up…
Good job Jeff 😀
# lynchman Says:
October 25th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Dave Meltzer predicted that Randy would say he got no bonus for the GG fight. Meltzer pointed out that it generally takes a while to get the final numbers and that ppv checks general are paid 60-90 days after show.
I believe that Randy stated that the biggest part of those bonuses are paid immediately after the event, , most of the time the same night. I remember Dana stating in an article that Babalu had a huge smile on his face (despite being stretchered out at the time) on receiving his bonus check after his second fight with chuck.
Dan White is such a cocky jerk. I am sure Vadim wanted a lot but in the end Dana was not willing to compromise to the larger community of MMA, us, the fans!
Vadim has the bidding power, and I really can not say what happened regarding the negotiations because I was not present for them. Russians are stiff businessmen but Dan White is no friend to anybody that does NOT want to get stiffed.
My only hope is that someone kept a running f-bomb tally of Dana’s presser.
Yeah, we have already addressed whether this has anything to do with his personal life. Check Arnolds previous post. Thats a whole different ballgame and the fact that you even have to mention it shows that you are grasping at straws in trying to discredit randy.(are you a republican?)
So I will say it again, because it looks like your a little slow on the uptake. There is no documented case where randy was asked a question PROFESSIONALLY and he lied. Dana is a whole different story.
The burden of proof is not on me to find statements of randy telling the truth. The burden is on you to find statements where he is lying.
Congrats on being a fan since 78, according to your blog that would have meant you were 3 when watching that event. Nice memory LOL
[…] now, go check out FightOpinion’s coverage of Randy’s blog. They got a few details before ProElite.com cocked out on […]
Just to clarify it is 12 UFC Fight Nights over 3 years, not 12 per year. Dana mis-spoke. I have complete notes from the UFC call on UFCDaily if anyone’s interested in some more material on the call.
Actually i was 4 when my uncle (who trained with Mildenberger in his youth) took me to Frankfurt for that fight, and yeah, i remember enough from that fight, thank you 😉 ( I also remember seeing “Pete’s Dragon” two or three weeks later…)
If i wanted to discredit Randy i would’ve written what happened now, wouldn’t i? But obviously you weren’t able to understand what i meant when i wrote that i will not go into this territory.
Oooh, “Republican”. Was that supposed to be some sort of insult? Sorry, but – no Republican. My membership book is of an entirely different political party, most probably because i’m german. But then, you should know that if you took a peek at my old blog, but like i said: understanding doesn’t seem to be your territory.
Sheesh, what is it with the recent influx of Sherdog-trolls on F.O.? Lame attempts at insulting people, one-sided Pride or UFC nuthuggery… aren’t there any other places you could go? Like… Fightsport?
Ivan,
HBO wanted to treat the UFC as a second rate sport by putting them on with midnight shows, will still showcasing their boxing in prime time. I wouldn’t take that deal either if I was the UFC.
Moving along to other topics….
1. Dana White is a politician to the end. But for people to also think Couture is more credible have to be lying to themselves. The guy has left the UFC title twice now. And since political debates can talk about candidates relationships (Guilianni), I think it is at least fair to mention Couture’s private life (since he is a public figure). From my experiences in life, the people who I know who have had 3 marriages are fun guys to be around, but are about as trustworthy as a used cars salesman. And a man who leaves their children in another state to pursue a career isn’t much of a man at all. And that just isn’t Couture. CEO’s of big companies who basically leave their children at home to tend to 80 hour work weeks are just as bad. Maybe it is the Italian talking in me, but there is something about deserting your children & family that doesn’t make anybody seem like a reasonable man.
So for people to spout of that Dana White is some kind of greaseball….. And yet let Couture get off scott free…. When if you put the pieces together, that just isn’t the case. I don’t care if Zach Arnold gets pissed off at me for posting this. I hope this post can stay. It is the truth about Couture. Nothing in here is a lie. I said this stuff a few years ago as well, so it’s not about jockriding Dana White. Couture’s history as a PERSON is COMPLETELY relevant here. People are judging this case by White’s & Couture’s CHARACTER. One person has 5 examples of running (2 titles, 2 marriages, and kids)…. And one has a history of sticking by his fighters through losses, steroid scandals, and all kinds of other issues….. The fact that most of you fans haven’t put those pieces together makes me wonder….
2. I think the SpikeTV Deal is more about agreeing to future reality shows and a few live events. I am sure the UFC could put on more live events if Spike wanted them to.
3. I have a feeling we will see the UFC on ESPN at some point…. At least before that contract is up….
KennyP,
I just checked my listings and it does look like it’s MyNetworkTV.
However, the local outlet that shows it is not owned by Fox and never has been. Wikipedia shows an abundance of MNTV affiliates:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_MyNetworkTV_affiliates
Isn’t this the same network that airs IFL on a barter basis?
WoW, like I said, what a great memory. Not only did you remember that fight (quite vividly I am sure), but you remember seeing pete’s dragon 2 or 3 weeks later (are you sure it wasn’t 4 weeks later? The inoki fight was on Nov. 11, 1978, Petes dragon didn’t open in germany until Dec. 14, 1978. You must have seen an advanced screening, I am sure its not your faulty memory (and yes I am a stickler when it comes to facts,LOL)). Quite impressive I must say.
As for your profile, I noticed that it said your location was germany (and buttfuck and absurdistan, Haha, you are funny). Does that automatically make you german? My Uncle has lived for 6 years on base in germany and he is a republican. Your english and grammar was pretty good, so I thought you might actually be an american living in germany (you know, just because you live in a certain country doesn’t mean you are a citizen of that country).
As for randy, yeah most of us know what you are referring to. And like I said before, if it has anything to due with his personal life then I see little or no relevance to his professional life. So yeah I was able to understand you, can you understand me?
If you have something you want to say, that will discredit him in the PROFESSIONAL(2nd time now, lets not make it a third) sense, then say it.
ps Nice little comment on the influx of trolls, funny I was just thinking the same thing.
Sorry if you felt insulted by my posts.
45 Huddle is coming out of his shell.
“From my experiences in life, the people who I know who have had 3 marriages are fun guys to be around, but are about as trustworthy as a used cars salesman. And a man who leaves their children in another state to pursue a career isn’t much of a man at all.” (a tear from 45’s eye hits the keyboard as he finishes the last stroke of key for this sentence)
Just let it out man, let it all out. (let’s just hope you didn’t offend any multiple divorcee’s around here)
“I don’t care if Zach Arnold gets pissed off at me for posting this.”
Whoa, Badass alert.
Well that does it, you have proved everybody wrong. Dana is obviously telling the truth (as always) and that bad father son of bitch Randy Couture as been exposed for the lying cheat he is. You da man 45!
ps You realize that point 2 and 3 of your post lose their impact when you place them behind the stirring and powerful point 1.
How can you say that a person life and professional like are two separate things? Those two portions of Randy Couture are about as intertwined as they come. It was his PERSONAL life that he blamed on his loss to Chuck Liddell. He also left for Vegas (Xtreme Couture) to get away from his PERSONAL problems in Oregon. See how the two things go together?
And there is a message across BOTH portions of his life that speak a message about the PERSON who is Randy Couture. Because right now, there isn’t much fighting going on. There is a PERSONAL FEUD between Couture and White/Fertitta’s.
1. This is a fighter who has vacated a UFC Title on two occasions.
2. This is a fighter who has vacated two training camps, and at least one time to get away from his person issues.
3. This is a person who has vacated his children’s lives on two occasions.
4. This is a person who has vacated his wives on two occasions.
5. This is a person who has vacated the friendships of two people (White & Fertitta) due to not getting money he was never promised to begin with.
See how this is all entwined? See the trend of ‘Captain America”? Couture’s press conference basically talked about MONEY. Yet he signed a contract for certain amounts that he is now complaining about.
Sorry, but this guy has a LONG history of leaving when things don’t go his way….. The personal life that “cost him” his 2nd fight with Liddell is the as that professional fighter…. And that is a guy who has a hard time keeping relationships beyond the buddy/buddy (fighter/fighter) ones…..
“HBO wanted to treat the UFC as a second rate sport by putting them on with midnight shows, will still showcasing their boxing in prime time. I wouldn’t take that deal either if I was the UFC.”
Not true. That was an issue early on, but it was later agreed that it would be in late primetime (as in 10:00 PM or so). The issue that held up the deal was who would be in control of production and who would be in charge of hiring the announcers.
45 is on fire. Can’t stop this kid.
Amazing, just amazing. You are just killin it son, you really had a lot you needed to get off your chest. Keep it coming, don’t be afraid to tell the truth.
Was I too honest? lol
Like I said, I posted this line of thought a while back (different forum). It was between UFC 54 & UFC 57…. Around the time that the UFC let go of Lindland… As I was fired up about both of these topics… Probably more Lindland as I thought the UFC had really screwed him. And I know it is hard to believe, but I actually skipped a few UFC PPV’s because of my anger over the situation. So this has little to do with Dana vs. Couture….
But the facts slowly started to come out about Couture that painted a very different picture then the one the UFC had. Somebody made a comment on the Underground that Couture left his wife and 1 year old child…. I didn’t know the age of the child, but I knew it was young….
“1. Dana White is a politician to the end. But for people to also think Couture is more credible have to be lying to themselves. The guy has left the UFC title twice now. And since political debates can talk about candidates relationships (Guilianni), I think it is at least fair to mention Couture’s private life (since he is a public figure). From my experiences in life, the people who I know who have had 3 marriages are fun guys to be around, but are about as trustworthy as a used cars salesman. And a man who leaves their children in another state to pursue a career isn’t much of a man at all. And that just isn’t Couture. CEO’s of big companies who basically leave their children at home to tend to 80 hour work weeks are just as bad. Maybe it is the Italian talking in me, but there is something about deserting your children & family that doesn’t make anybody seem like a reasonable man.
So for people to spout of that Dana White is some kind of greaseball….. And yet let Couture get off scott free…. When if you put the pieces together, that just isn’t the case. I don’t care if Zach Arnold gets pissed off at me for posting this. I hope this post can stay. It is the truth about Couture. Nothing in here is a lie. I said this stuff a few years ago as well, so it’s not about jockriding Dana White. Couture’s history as a PERSON is COMPLETELY relevant here. People are judging this case by White’s & Couture’s CHARACTER. One person has 5 examples of running (2 titles, 2 marriages, and kids)…. And one has a history of sticking by his fighters through losses, steroid scandals, and all kinds of other issues….. The fact that most of you fans haven’t put those pieces together makes me wonder….”
1. You also know UFC was under different management and when he was champion they offered him some shitty low-ball offer that amounted to a pay cut right?
Probably not.
Getting divorced rarely would lead to the conclusion that someone has “bad character”…that’s such a retarded statement. The fact that someone has been divorced might show what a stressful life being a professional fighter really is…the guy loves the sport that much and is so dedicated to it that his relationships deteriorated b/c of that dedication. The part about his children is just a straight up chickenshit cheap shot, that has ZERO relevance.
And the whole Dana ‘the Saint’ is effin’ hilarious – he’s been loyal to guys he considers personal friends or that are champions (i.e. Sherk) and guys that make him money. Everyone else he pitches to the side the second they’re seen as being a burden.
Yeah you were great man. Just speaking the truth. No Fear.
I now see what was right in front of my eyes the whole time. That Randy’s personal issues are directly correlated to him lying about this whole thing. I bet Dana did give him a bonus after the GG fight, and Randy is just lying about because he wants to make Dana look bad in front of everyone.
So let me get this right, you stopped watching the UFC for a brief period because A) you were upset about the lindland situation(I agree btw) and B) You were upset at how randy was handling his personal life?
You are straight up comedy. LOL
PS You wouldn’t by any chance be Tricia Couture (former that is)? You sound as though you have intimate knowledge of this story.
The divorces alone aren’t bad… But it shows the overall story…. So do the kids…. So does the vacant belts (under two different managements)…. It all adds up to a bigger story. So yes, each part has much more then ZERO relevance. And that is…. Randy Couture is to blame for this fallout…. He is the one who has time after time after time after time done the same thing in other situations in his life. Whether it be fighting or personal related….. And that is how they are relevant…. Typically I would NEVER bring up a fighter’s family…. But Couture has decided to talk about this stuff in his OWN INTERVIEWS…. and when a celebrity does this, they open the door for it to be talked about. If he didn’t want that, he would have never used his divorce as an excuse for losing to Liddell.
And Dana White is far from a saint…. Did you listen to the UFC Conference Call? The guy is a pure BS artist…. Nothing else… At least to the media he is…. But he is not the one who is not fulfilling a contract….
Couture getting a divorce had nothing to do with my skipping of the PPVs. It had everything to do with the Lindland situation. Sorry if that was not made more clear.
Sorry, I am not Tricia Couture…..
^ your line of thinking is so delusionally out of touch with reality, it’s hilarious really.
– 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?
– Someone’s status of being divorced means they’ve got a “history” of walking away from things?
This all despite the fact that you have NO CLUE about the details of their divorce…maybe he wanted to stay together and the wife wanted a divorce b/c he was always training and fighting?
– You accuse him of “walking away from his kids”, b/c as a professional he is training and running his gym in the place where most of his work takes place.
Yet almost every professional athlete lives in the city where they play and many times they’re family doesn’t live there with them.
All of your arguments for his poor character are f#cking flimsy and weak…you’re grasping at straws so desperately at this point to find something bad about him that one can only shake their head and chuckle at how foolish you look.
As for using the fact that he mentioned his family life in an interview in passing as a green light to talk about this ridiculous shit…..I don’t even need to comment.