[quote]Steve4192 wrote:
RagingBull wrote:
Huge news. What a spectacular loss for the UFC.
Where they will really miss him is in his capacity as the face of the UFC. Randy is universally respected and was a great ambassador for the company and the sport.[/quote]
Totally agree and this is what bums me out about it more than anything.
[quote]dragonslayer wrote:
It seems no fighters complain about the salaries unless, one they resign in bad blood like Couture (felt disrespected) or gets shafted like Tito. It’s exposed now. Would like to see how the boxerciser Dana White handles things now.[/quote]
The only thing I’ve seen from Dana in all this is him stating he owns Randy and (most of) Fedor’s highlight reels. Such a punk.
i was totally shocked by this
[quote]dragonslayer wrote:
It seems no fighters complain about the salaries unless, one they resign in bad blood like Couture (felt disrespected) or gets shafted like Tito. It’s exposed now. Would like to see how the boxerciser Dana White handles things now.[/quote]
Meh.
Part of me wants to agree with Randy because he’s Randy freakin’ Couture, but part of me questions his motives.
Randy had no problems with his contract when he signed it back in January. The UFC begged him to come back and basically gave him whatever he wanted. Randy didn’t have a problem until he heard that the UFC was offering Fedor truckloads of money and he wanted to get him some of that Fedor money. That smacks of your typical pro athlete who wants to renegotiate a deal midstream because he outperformed expectations. Randy even stated that if the UFC had signed Fedor, he wouldn’t have taken the fight until the UFC tore up his contract and gave him equal or better money than Fedor.
If it were anyone but Randy Couture, my inclination would be that he needs to shut his piehole and honor the contract that he signed.
So if any is familiar with the infamous BobSappFan, a UG poster who broke Cro Cop going to the UFC, Pride being bought, Fedor signing with M-1, and broke many other stories long before they became public, he just made an interesting post:
[quote]BobSappFan wrote:
-a billion dollar company
-has the word “world” in there new MMA company name
-not Bodog
-not showtime
-not HBO
-not HDfight
-Behind the Couture resignation
-Fedor himself will make the announcement very soon
[/quote]
WWE? It would make sense, they must be loosing fans to MMA and it is not a far stretch from a promotion point of view.
I can’t wait to see Fedor lose via a run-in chairshot while the ref isn’t looking, and then have to join the Vinny Mac ‘Kiss My Ass’ club.
Haha… what people will do for money
[quote]Steve4192 wrote:
dragonslayer wrote:
It seems no fighters complain about the salaries unless, one they resign in bad blood like Couture (felt disrespected) or gets shafted like Tito. It’s exposed now. Would like to see how the boxerciser Dana White handles things now.
Meh.
Part of me wants to agree with Randy because he’s Randy freakin’ Couture, but part of me questions his motives.
Randy had no problems with his contract when he signed it back in January. The UFC begged him to come back and basically gave him whatever he wanted. Randy didn’t have a problem until he heard that the UFC was offering Fedor truckloads of money and he wanted to get him some of that Fedor money. That smacks of your typical pro athlete who wants to renegotiate a deal midstream because he outperformed expectations. Randy even stated that if the UFC had signed Fedor, he wouldn’t have taken the fight until the UFC tore up his contract and gave him equal or better money than Fedor.
If it were anyone but Randy Couture, my inclination would be that he needs to shut his piehole and honor the contract that he signed.[/quote]
Randy has had problems with Zuffa before. That is why he fought in RINGS for a bit.
I have problems with contracts that suspend the time left on a contract when you retire. Guys must resign before there current contract runs out or risk not getting a fight and left out in the cold. Those contracts are not really fair. Guys sign them because they feel they have no where else to go and the UFC knows this.
Dana White calling Fedor overrated now since the UFC was not able to sign him even though they apparently where willing to give him a huge signing bonus and very lucrative contract. In this sense the UFC is a joke, that sort of behavior is not professional. Dana talks way too much and can’t seem to bring himself to generate any goodwill. That sort of thing can result in exactly with what happened with Fedor. They seem like some clique. I can’t really consider them in the professional sports business.
Pride for all its faults let guys fight outside their org, or in kickboxing or grappling tournaments. This is the way it should be. If the UFC really wants to make mma a legit sport and a global sport they need rankings and to let guys fight anybody anywhere.
Also I think Shooto has it right with their class levels, C for amateur, and a B and A class pros. Since it is an individual sport instead of a team sport maybe it should be similar to tennis or golf with a “tour”.
You don’t need to sign an exclusive contract just need to prove that you can fight at that level.
Alright, just in case it hasn’t already been clarified. This whole thing in my opinion is about the establishment of M-1 Global, LLC. Monte Cox has been assigned president and Mitchell Maxwell president of the parent company (Sibling Sports, LLC.) has it out to become a bigger organization than the UFC.
They got the dollars, they held a fight a private fight in Russia with no tickets sold, probably for investors. They are capitalizing on the screwy dealings that the UFC has made with fighters.
They are international and they got the money. I think the Randy Couture thing was a master plan to make this company a success, they got Fedor already, and with the marketing right they can have this fight by Sep. 08.
This company is no joke, I wonder who was invited to that first fight? Anyway their first event is supposed to be Feb. 08. I don’t have details on it, but I’m sure it will be in full swing real soon.
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/NYM06222102007-1.htm
and check SherDog for other info. These dudes are gangsta!
I’m not sold on M-1 yet.
A lot of folks said the same things about the WFA and Bodog, and both of those promotions fell flat on their faces. If you want to talk about a promoter that has oodles of money, nobody tops FEG, yet their lone foray into the American MMA scene was an unmitigated disaster.
I’m going to wait for M-1 to put on a couple of shows before I pencil them in as the next great MMA promoter.
A lot of people seem to be confused about Randy saying it wasn’t about the money, but rather about respect, but then going into detail about how he wasn’t paid certain bonuses, or as much as other fighter, etc. The bottom line is, it WASN’T about the money itself. As a Wall Street headhunter who deals with people who are often making several million dollars a year and are offered significant increases in compensation for multi-year deals to go elsewhere, I have a little insight into how the mentality of people at that income level works.
After someone attains a certain amount of wealth, it’s not “about the money” in the sense that a bit more money would remotely change their lives. They already have (sometimes numerous) nice houses, can afford any kind of car they’d like to drive, take lavish vacations, live a luxury lifestyle, etc. and still have plenty of money in the bank to pay for their kids’ college educations, be able to retire early and live in comfortable fashion, etc. So they don’t need more money and really don’t desperately want more money just for the sake of having more dollars.
What they DO want is to be respected for what they’ve accomplished and what they’re worth, and what they are PAID is the system of measuring that. Think of the dollars as just points, if you will. If you’re an investment banker and one of your colleagues is not producing as much revenue for the firm as you are, yet he’s getting paid more than you, you’re going to be pissed. Maybe he’s tighter with upper management whereas you just don’t have as chummy a relationship or something, but you’ve actually, truly produced more, so you take getting paid less than him as a slap in the face. Even if you were paid $5 million for the year. If the guy that produced less was paid $7 million, you’d feel insulted, and rightfully so.
I think it’s fair to argue that since his comeback, Randy Couture was THE draw in the UFC, THE calling card for the whole organization, even moreso than Chuck Liddell, especially given Chuck’s last couple of performances and the emergence of a star-quality personality in his weight division (Rampage) who won the title from Chuck.
Randy also has a history going back many years, dating to the early, early days of the UFC, and can honestly say that he truly helped build the whole thing into what it is today. So if he sees CroCop come in and get offered a much bigger contract (just for example – I don’t know what kind of deal they gave CroCop) or Fedor getting offered much bigger dollars than him – especially with Fedor being relatively unknown in the U.S., whereas Randy puts asses in the seats – from a pure respect angle Randy would want to be paid at least as much as those guys, if not more. He’s completely in the right in that regard.
Also, Randy said that the post-fight, unannounced bonuses that were given to top fighters after a fight, which had been par for the course for him, were NOT given to him after the Gonzaga fight! He got a $500,000 post-fight bonus after he fought Tim Sylvia and then got zero post-fight bonus after the Gonzaga fight?! THAT’S a slap in the face. That is clearly a case of Dana and the UFC thinking they could take advantage of Randy and pay the the lowest amount possible and still have him around.
The UFC organization makes millions and millions per year. They need to pay their top fighters accordingly. The good thing about the advent of M-1 is that it will (hopefully) create some legit competition in the marketplace, which will bid up the pay of these top fighters over time.
I remember reading about a study - i forget whether it was done by psychologists or economists - in which the participants were given two choices. They could live in a world where they made $20,000 and everyone else made $10,000 OR they could live in a world where they made $50,000 and everyone else made $100,000. Here’s the kicker - goods and services would cost the exact same in both worlds (ie, your 50,000 would buy you exactly 2.5 times as much as youor 20,000 would. no worries about having to adjust for inflation, etc)
Most men chose to live in a world where tehy were making $10,000. Even tho they’re quality of life would be lower - they wouldnt have as nice of a car, or as big a house as they would if they chose the world in which they made 50,000 - the more important factor was that they would be making twice as much as their neighbors rather than half as much.
Status was obviously held to be more important than material wealth.
Very interesting post, damici.
It’s always good to get a bit of insight into someone else’s possible frame of mind.
Randy isn’t exactly acting rational.
Here is a breakdown of the whole thing
If you download the MP3, listen to minutes 14:00 - 18:00
There are a lot of people who weren’t even aware that Bodog had offered Randy 3 million dollars to fight Fedor, but instead Randy went ahead and signed a contract that in hindsight he “didn’t like” and then fought Sylvia instead.
I just listened to it. What I wrote above is born out by that MP3. Randy isn’t acting irrationally at all. The reason he didn’t accept the Bodog offer was because he felt loyalty to the UFC and felt that, if he ever were to come out of retirement, he’d do it with the UFC (which he ultimately ended up doing). That’s where he’d built his career. He didn’t accept Bodog’s $3 million dollar offer precisely because he’s NOT solely money-motivated.
He signed a rather weak contract with the UFC, which he admitted to signing without the advice or oversight of an agent or manager, which probably led him to accept less (both in terms of money and various other terms) than he would’ve gotten from them had he had an agent/manager work the deal with him, but he wanted to try to keep things easy and avoid too much confrontation (he discussed all of this in his press conference), which in hindsight led to him taking a worse deal than he probably should have.
But my overall point from my previous post stands.
[quote]EmperialChina wrote:
Randy isn’t exactly acting rational.
Here is a breakdown of the whole thing
If you download the MP3, listen to minutes 14:00 - 18:00
There are a lot of people who weren’t even aware that Bodog had offered Randy 3 million dollars to fight Fedor, but instead Randy went ahead and signed a contract that in hindsight he “didn’t like” and then fought Sylvia instead.[/quote]
I just hope we somehow get to see Randy vs. Fedor, in some organization, before Randy becomes too old and is past his (second) peak.
It would be a great fight to see, but after just watching a few videos of Fedor’s fights again, I don’t see how Randy could possibly deal with him.
Fedor vs. Randy must happen somehow. This fight would have to be the biggest ever for hardcore M.M.A. fans. I’d give the edge to Fedor. They are both classy though, I respect them so much.