UFC responds to Randy Couture
UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta, UFC President Dana White, and UFC CFO John Mulkey held a press conference today to respond to Randy Couture's statements about pay that were made last Thursday. White emphasized that much of what Couture said about his pay last week was false, and UFC provided proof in the way of forms detailing financial transactions between the promotion and Couture.
Here were the highlights of the press conference:
- Couture did indeed receive a signing bonus with his new contract (contrary to his claim). The bonus totaled $500,000 -- half of it was paid upon signing the contract and the other half was paid after his UFC 68 fight against Tim Sylvia.
- Couture was also paid a salary of $200,000 per year as a UFC employee in 2006 and 2007 as well as $56,000 per year for his commentating gigs for the promotion.
- At UFC 68, Couture's purse was $250,000. His pay-per-view bonus was $936,000.
- At UFC 74, Couture's purse was $250,000. His pay-per-view bonus is calculated as $787,000. And he received a $35,000 bonus for fight of the night.
- Mulkey estimated that Couture's pay this year is just under $3 million to date.
- White said that none of UFC's payments to its fighters are "off the books" as Couture had implied.
- White would not discuss Couture's contract and would not say whether there are two fights left or if the contract expires in nine months.
- White considers Couture to still be the UFC heavyweight champ and said that he will offer Couture a title defense fight this week to be fought early 2008. He said that fight will likely be against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. If Couture turns down the fight, he will be considered retired and the No. 1 and No. 2 contenders will fight for the title.
- White also said he doesn't consider Fedor Emelianenko to be the No. 1 fighter in the world and only wanted to sign him to a UFC contract to satisfy Couture's desire to fight him.
- White and Fertitta don't consider this a "he said, she said" scenario and White said this will be the last time he will publicly discuss the Couture matter.
- White also revealed that UFC has 200 fighters under contract as well as 100 staff employees at the company.
Comments
There is no way a smart guy like Randy would think he could get away with lying when it could so easily be proven he got paid what he said he didn't. Lets wait until the whole story comes out. I guarantee when all is said and done Dana "F-Bomb" White and not Randy will be shown to be the lair, the shyster or spin doctor.
Posted by: Eddie | October 30, 2007 7:32 PM
Just a couple years ago, Dana and the UFC honoured Randy Couture as the first inductee into the UFC Hall of Fame. Now, all of a sudden, Dana is painting Couture as a "has-been" who wants to be an actor. Dana is the biggest p*** I've ever seen. He knew that there was no way Tito would box him cuz he's the president of the company. It would be like Mike Tyson fighting Don King. That whole side story of the "Ortiz-White" fight was a joke. Isn't Dana a girl's name?
Posted by: Couture Supporter | October 30, 2007 9:24 PM
Wrong....Randy was the 4th inductee into the Hall of Fame.
Posted by: MMA_Authority | October 31, 2007 10:58 AM