Report: Couture Leaving the UFC, Vacating Heavyweight Title
UFC Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture has quit the UFC according to The Fight Network, citing the promotion’s inability to sign top-ranked heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko as his primary reason for walking away from the UFC and vacating his heavyweight title:
At the height of its power and popularity, the Ultimate Fighting Championship today lost the man many recognize as the face of mixed martial arts. UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture announced his resignation from the Las Vegas-based promotion, leaving two contracted fights, his job as an on-air analyst and his heavyweight crown on the table
“I appreciate this opportunity the sport of MMA and the UFC has given me,” the UFC Hall-of-Famer said. “However, I’m tired of swimming upstream at this stage with the management of the UFC. It only makes sense at this point in my career to fight Fedor Emelianenko, and since he’s now signed with another organization, I feel like it’s time to resign and focus on my other endeavors.”
“Randy’s contract was on a fight-by-fight basis, and that’s the way he said he was always going to take it – fight by fight,” said Matt Walker, Couture’s agent at The Gersh Agency. “His acting career is accelerating at an astronomical rate, and without the support he felt some of his peers were receiving in the fight business, this was the logical choice.”
Yesterday news broke that Emelianenko had signed with the revitalized M-1 promotion backed by a yet-to-be-named American company. After the prospect of the fight evaporated it appears Couture opted to leave the promotion to focus on acting and other projects though specifics on his future plans are not currently known.
Stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com (www.mmafrenzy.com) for more on the situation as this story is developing rapidly and we will likely have several additional updates before midnight tonight.
Tags: Fedor Emelianenko, Randy Couture
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this is horrible new man why did he do that well i hope he atleast gets 2 fight fedor in some othe orginization
so who fights 4 da vacant title now
I’m glad this other organization is getting all this attention. Maybe now Joe Silva won’t say **** like “where is he going to go” when discussing popular fighters wanting new contracts I.E. Arlovski. No more monopoly!
I can’t f***ing believe this! What the hell is going on Zuffa. You guys are really blowing it. I hope someone in television picks up some M-1 brodcasts. Fedor and Randy have got to meet sometime. I am in complete disarray at some of the news I am getting today.
Well said Shay
this is going to get f**in crazy. i didn’t see this coming. get the check books out fertita’s and start paying the fighters….especially the top ones.
Well…Tim Sylvia and Brandon Vera Im assuming should get the nod to fight for the title now, right? Vera would have been a contender had Sylvia of beaten Couture…
I understand why Couture did it, BUT, Fedor is not the be all and end all of MMA!
Can anyone picture a one deal fight for Randy to fight in M-1 against Fedor. If UFC couldnt bring this fight to the table then maybe these two should iron out their own deal. It’s very possible I look forward to see what the future hold for these two.
I am so hurt!!!!!! Zuffa needs to work on it before they lose everything!!!!!!
There are a few scenarios that could play out. On Todays conference call with the media Dana indicated Sylvia, Vera, and Nogueira the top three in the division. The UFC could make Sylvia vs. Vera at UFC 77 a title match or have the winner of that fight the winner of the Nogueira-Kongo fight. It’s really hard to speculate but those are the two most likely scenarios.
Josh (#7) – A Couture-Fedor fight is possible mid-2008. Expect a tune-up for Fedor in late-2007 or early-2008 then Couture-Emelianenko in the summer or fall.
I think that sort of “tournament” set up would be the best idea, except for leaving the title vacant for a few months. If they really want to stir things up, have an 8 man tourney, spred over a few events, and sign Arlovski to at least fight in the tourney. If he wins, it will prove his worth, and they can give him what he wants. I think that all three of these fighters (Vera, Sylvia, and Nog) still need to prove their title worthiness, so a larger tourney would be more fair.
Crazyness…..this is really out of nowhere. Unlike everyone else talking about a “monopoly”…..who cares? I would much rather see fighters get paid and have ONE organization, that way we can really see who is the best.
FixXeR, the monopoly is leading to the fighters not getting paid. That was my initial point. I was directly quoting Joe Silva (the ufc matchmaker) on the Arlovski topic. If that’s the attitude the UFC has taken with its business, a monopoly is surely a bad thing. The UFC IMO is making bad decisions in their matchmaking and contract negotiations. Rampage himself said “they did their champion bad” when referring to his 2nd victory in the octagon when he faced Liddell. I don’t care if Liddell asked for him or not, there needs to be a clearly defined “ladder” the fighters climb. Why are fighters, world class or not, coming in to the UFC and automatically getting a trump card to the top of their divisions? Sure everyone wants to see the best fight the best, but is that the logical thing to do? IMO NO. Think of this hypothetical situation for a minute… What if Cro Cop had been propelled to title contention immediately? The UFC is making matches in unprofessional manors. The UFC IMO is trying to make as much money as fast as they can (by making these “big draw” fights) and I believe its raping the integrity of the sport(along with killing the future potential match-ups that could be made). Fedor is the number one ranked HW and should get a title shot right? Well Shogun was the number one ranked LHW and we all know what happened to him when he faced a seemingly overmatched opponent in Forrest Griffen. If these fighters are what they seem, where is the problem in letting them work their way up the chain? No, no, no… They give these new fighters bigger and better opportunities. Joe Silva and Dana White don’t take the same approach or attitude when they consider Fedor who will “get an immediate title shot when he signs” as they do with their current underpaid and underappreciated and might I remind you LOYAL talent who have stuck it out through the PRIDE years. The attitude they chose is where are the Arlovskis & and Tito’s to go? So yes monopoly is a TERRIBLE thing in this sport with the way the UFC conducts its business. Competition between “brands” will only make MMA a more professional and exciting sport to watch.
i agree with fixxer one organisation not as many problems.look at boxing to many champs not enough big fights.
I agree belly that is a problem in boxing. But like I said in my previous post, the way the UFC handles its affairs makes me want competition between brands. This is just my opinion, take it with a grain of salt.
thats a fair point shay maybe competition is good but is does cause confusion as far as who is the real champion at a given weight.
Yeah I agree 100 percent with you there belly.