Couture blasts UFC management on the way out the door, felt disrespected

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The split between former UFC heavyweight champion and Zuffa, parent company of the UFC, may not have been as amicable as some, I.E. Emperor White would like you to believe.

At least it isn't after these quotes from Randy Couture were published in this article at Sherdog.

On his motivation for leaving at this time...

"The motivation for the decision is two-fold," he continued. "I know Fedor (Emelianenko) just signed with another organization and that's the only real
fight that makes sense for me at 44 years old as the heavyweight champion of the UFC. That's the fight I wanted and if that can't happen it doesn't make
sense for me to compete with all these other guys. And then obviously that's not going to happen now. And, two, I'm tired of being taken advantage of,
played as the nice guy and basically swimming against the current with the management of the UFC. I have a lot of other things going on in my life that
I'm doing just fine with. I don't need the problems. I don't feel like I get the respect I deserve from the organization, and that's motivation No. 2 for
the letter of resignation that was sent today."

Wanted to fight Fedor and can't, tired of dealing with Management and their disrespect. Seems clear so far.

"I want that fight and would have waited if the fight was offered to me," Couture said. "Knowing what they offered him, I would have made demands to get
paid equally or better than him as the champion. Whether or not those would have been met is another question."

So money is a factor, and to be honest I don't begrudge him for wanting more given what his presence has meant for the company especially this year. You could make a case that Couture should've been the top paid guy in the promotion or at worst second behind only Chuck Liddell.

"I think the final straw for me was meeting with Dana and Lorenzo (Fertitta, UFC co-owner) where they claimed I was the No. 2 paid athlete in the organization, which I know is a bold-faced lie," Couture said. Polling other athletes, said Couture, he learned that his compensation -- some $250,000 a fight with pay-per-view bonuses, according to the Couture camp -- was nowhere near what other top UFC fighters were making.

"All us athletes are all pretty tightly intertwined," he said. "You hear what other guys were paid signing bonuses and what other guys were paid on the
record and off the record with bonuses. I've heard Chuck's numbers. Tito's numbers. Hughes' numbers. Quinton's numbers. Cro Cop, Wanderlei. I heard what they were offering Fedor, and it's insulting."

Some will criticize him for focusing on the money, but I will not be one of those people. Sports is a business and the athletes are the businessmen. Each businessman wants to make as much as he can while he can and so if that's true in the regular business world why not athletics where the window of time is considerably smaller? Plus, if he was told he was second highest-paid and that turned out to be a lie it isn't hard to imagine why he'd feel disrespected.

More of this story will be revealed over time you can be assured.

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