Just a little over a week after his historical fight with Brock Lesnar at UFC 91, mixed martial arts legend and five-time UFC champion Randy Couture was the featured guest on MMAmania.com’s exclusive presentation of Pro MMA Radio.
And ‘The Natural’ didn’t disappoint.
It was just two months ago that Randy agreed to make his much-celebrated return to the Octagon to defend the championship belt he no longer wanted following a bitter contract dispute that forced his shocking retirement from the UFC.
Like most break-ups, things started getting ugly after some contractual mud started slinging between the two sides. Couture was painted as a money-grubbing diva, interested only in himself and a superfight with the world’s greatest heavyweight, Fedor Emelianenko.
The UFC on the other hand was portrayed as the evil empire, crushing dreams and fighter bonuses beneath the wheels of corporate slavery. Of course there are always two sides to every story, but as ‘The Natural’ explains, things were problematic from the very beginning.
“It started when Zuffa bought the company, I ended up in a rhubarb with them over the ancillary rights back then. I was one of the few guys that had managers and agents that came from the Hollywood team that understood what those ancillary rights were and what they were worth. At the time I was the heavyweight champion so we weren’t just going to sign and give those things away - and that created an issue.”
Ancillary rights in the case of the UFC are the rights to use a fighter’s name, likeness or image and to promote and profit from that usage. They can be used in the production of spin-off products such as action figures, posters, DVD’s, T-shirts, and even video games - and can be incredibly lucrative (C. Osbourne, 2008).
Ancillary rights are a difficult thing to surrender, because the value of those rights in the long term are often hard to predict, especially in a sport that continues to evolve and become more profitable, like the UFC.
Does the Jon Fitch fiasco ring a bell?
Not rolling over on command didn’t sit well with the Zuffa brass, and Couture thinks that may have been a precursor to future tensions later on.
“I think that set the tone for Zuffa kind of not feeling like I was one of their guys. At that time Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell, Matt Hughes - those were all kind of their guys, they just signed everything over to them and let them do everything. I was still trying to control some of my stuff. I think that kind of irritated them. They pulled me out of that initial ad campaign with Carmen Electra, they pulled me out of the video game at that time, and I think that just set a tone that carried through that I felt like I was operating against.”
Those early roots may come as a surprise to some fans, who felt Randy was leaving because the UFC’s efforts to sign former PRIDE heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko included offering him a blank check. While it wasn’t the sole reason Randy walked, it may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.
“The Fedor thing was a whole other thing. I was offended at that time the amount of money that was being thrown at [Fedor], at Cro Cop and some of these other guys coming from PRIDE. [Those guys] hadn’t really been there knocking it out and selling tickets and pay-per-views for the company for as long as a lot of us other guys had been.”
More than a year after walking out on the UFC, Randy knew that at his age the window for competing at the top level was getting smaller and smaller. The UFC was open to negotiations, and the time was right for both sides to try and make amends.
“At some point both sides kind of had to let things go. I wanted to get back to fighting. I could have spent another year toiling away, spending a lot of money and still not getting to fight Fedor or anybody else. You kind of have to weigh that out. The best idea for me was to try to come back, make amends and compete. You don’t want to cut your nose off to spite your face.”
Couture does not regret his decision to leave, but was concerned about how it would affect his fans.
“I hesitate always to mention money as an issue because then you sound like some spoiled athlete, you start to sound like Terrell Owens.”
No matter. All was forgiven when Randy returned in September to face the UFC’s newest heavyweight heel in Brock Lesnar, fresh off a three-round mauling of talented striker Heath Herring.
Couture went down in the second round after a flying ham-hock put him on his back. He didn’t make excuses, nor does he attribute anything that happened inside the Octagon to his time away from competition.
“I don’t think the time away was an issue. I wasn’t in any position where I wasn’t doing what I trained to do. The outcome wasn’t what I wanted but the performance was. I never felt overwhelmed by Brock. He’s a big, strong guy, no doubt about that. I felt like things were going my way, things were working, not that it was easy. I slipped that right hand but I didn’t slip it enough, he had about another four inches on his reach - and his fist is about three inches wider than most people.
Randy doesn’t remember getting hit. Aside from the stoppage, he didn’t sustain any damage and actually goes against the popular belief that Mario Yamasaki had a “Better-late-than-never” approach to stopping the fight.
“He hit me right behind the ear. It was a flash (KO). One second we were in the flurry the next second I was on the ground and I wasn’t really sure what had happened. I don’t think there was anything wrong with the stoppage. I appreciated that Yamasaki gave me some time to recover.”
Now that Couture is back, the big question is where he goes from here. There has been speculation that he could meet Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell for a fourth time in 2009, but for Randy it’s still too early to contemplate his next move.
“I have two more fights left on my contract. I’m taking it one fight at a time. I don’t know what I want to do. I would certainly like to fight Brock again, but I’m just kind of letting all this settle. I’m sure the inkling and the idea will come to me. I don’t want to make any rash decisions or do anything silly. I just want to see what presents itself and we’ll go from there.”
One of the things that has presented itself is a life outside of fighting. After successful roles in Hollywood movies like David Mamet’s Redbelt and The Scorpion King, Couture has been bitten by the acting bug and looks forward to the challenges that Hollywood presents.
“I’ve got a lot of other things going on, several other movie projects coming down the pike. It’s gonna be a very, very good year this next year. I’m trying to be smart and pick the right kinds of parts and pictures. I don’t want to just be a thug and a fighter. I would really like to play some characters and do some things that are different. I’m very intrigued by the movie process and all that stuff and it’s certainly a lot easier than getting punched in the head.”
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MMA News, Randy Couture, UFC 91
