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Couture admits to main reason as to why he settled with UFC
By Zach Arnold | September 2, 2008
“The biggest part of my decision was communicating with Lorenzo [Fertitta] and Dana [White] and clearing up things I was feeling,” Couture said. “The second part was getting tired of the legal sytem, throwing money at the legal system and lawyers with no resolution in sight. The best place where I fight is a cage, not a courtroom.”
Remember — Thursday was supposed to be a day in court to determine whether or not Couture would be able to get a jury trial against Zuffa LLC. After that ruling, a trial would have been set for May 26th, 2009. Was Couture lacking that much confidence in winning in court against UFC? It’s strange — he spent a year fighting UFC in court and could have defended himself with one more year out of competition. Impatience, panicking, call it what you want, but it’s certainly curious.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 13 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Zach,
This is not curious – it’s logical. If the UFC was willing to see Randy’s points and Randy feels on an emotional level that he’s respected, what’s the point of legal action?
Initially, Randy felt that he would get no satisfaction from the UFC (he mentioned a breakfast with Lorenzo after which he got no response). At that point, he resigned to go elsewhere. If the UFC met his “demands” then a jury trial of any kind would be useless.
NOW, the BIG question is, what did Randy forgo in terms of his “demands”? The cost of the legal system was a deterrent to some extent – he weighed what the UFC was offering/negotiating and made the decision that it was worth more than fighting to the end in court. What was that concession, if any? PPV %? Salary? Signing Bonus? Maybe he got everything he was asking for? Who knows?
I’m sure the UFC is thrilled to have him back and with a new multi-fight contract. I’d be surprised if they didn’t give Couture a raise to accomplish that.
Also I think we have to remember, say he gets that May court date and it ends up dragging on and on through Appeals. Randy’s running out of time to get these big fights. His clock is ticking and the longer he wastes in a court room, the less of a chance he has to capitalize on a few of the big name heavyweights that he can still earn some paydays on.
It is a little strange though that UFC is going to throw Lesnar in with Couture right away when he could still use a few tune up fights to get better. He can wrestle and use his weight and power to dominate and keep a guy down but he has only had three fights and hasn’t KO’d anyone with a serious chin or legitimate credibility.
I do think he has some in cage developing yet to do and it feels like they’re rushing this fight to capitalize on Couture’s name when really it might be better to do Mir-Lesnar 2 and have Big Nog and Couture decide the title.
If Lesnar’s the real deal and Couture wins against Nog, that fight would be that much bigger.
And yes I remember how UFC haven’t had that much luck getting big names to win and earn berths into bigger fights, although in this one case, Brock needs to get that extra fight to get some seasoning and frankly to enhance his abilities so when he gets that huge main event fight he is not just a more talented Kimbo Slice, overpushed in the eyes of many casual fans because of charisma and appeal.
Rp
Robert: while Lesnar/Mir and Couture/Nog makes sense from the sense of the HW belt, it makes a mockery of the next season of TUF. And the UFC ain’t gonna do that unless they have no choice at all.
sense of the sense? I gotta proofread better.
Possibly but let’s also remember that interest in either Nog or Mir will not be excessively high for this season and neither have the explosive personalities to make it personal enough to care (ala Shamrock-Ortiz).
They could swap the coaches right now and I don’t think it would hurt the show one bit. In fact if they went with two fighters that have a legitimate beef with one another, even if they’re not top level guys, the prolonged resentment would build both to an awaited match that would draw money.
In that instance you can take two midcard guys and create a co-main event people would pay to see.
Rp
That’s the most simple and obvious explanation. Admirable of Randy to just flat out give the reasons for his return.
He did leave out a very important factor that helped re-consummate his relationship with the UFC….. MONEY!
he is going to get a huge payday with the Lesnar fight which in all likelihood will be BIGGER than a potential Fedor fight. Not only that but he is assured of 2 more paydays (winnable fights) before he retires as the most decorated UFC fighter ever.
Ninja
dncworldwide.com
I’m not sure what you’re saying, Robert, as the next season has already been filmed. Mir and Nogueira are the coaches, for better or worse, and the season was filmed around the notion of them competing.
“Winnable fights” my ass. If Couture beats Lesnar, he has Nogueira and a fourth fight with Chuck next. If he loses to Lesnar, he will go down to LHW and fight Franklin and then maybe Chuck again or Forrest.
For years he has used his limited skills to produce mass amounts of cash for himself.
Bravo once again Mr Couture.
I think this is simply about his age. If he was 10 or 15 years younger he might have had the time to wait, but he realises that he is in his final run and has to make the most of the cards in front of him. Legal costs so far will no doubt be high. He could risk more costs and lose, then be retired with his cash gone, or just fight for the UFC and try to go out on top.
What most people forget is that the VAST MAJORITY of civil suits in this country settle. That’s what happened here. Often it because one side is willing and able to rack up legal costs in order to bankrupt/bend the other side into submission.
Couture could have had his day in court, but who know when that would have been and how much that would have cost?
I’m gonna have to go ahead and make the most insightful comment ever:
No one has ever been overhyped as much and had such extreme layoffs as Couture. Most sane people, like I, are really tired of waiting for fights we should already have seen.
Fuck the UFC!
Fuck Dana!
FUCK COUTURE!