The Natural retires at 44

[Matt Schumann]

Just read on yahoo nes that randy coture (sp?) retired... First Fedor goes to m1 now this..... really disapointed but he definitly went out on top and fim thankful for getting the chance to watch his last few fights... they were memorable

[Kurt Hessenbruch]

Hmmm... I feel like I've heard this before.

[JohnCook]

Hmmm... I feel like I've heard this before.


Yeah, I'm not convinced either.


More or less, I think he's stepping back for a second due to a combination of mistreatment by the UFC and the fact that his chance to fight Fedor just went out the window (for now).


I'm keeping my fingers crossed that after the smoke clears we see Fedor/Couture in an M-1 ring.

[Nicolette L.]

lol Guess you beat me to it. I will erase my thread on the same topic. LOL

[Nicolette L.]

Yea wait until we see where his acting jobs take him. I am sure we will see him in another 9 months. Or maybe he will surprise us and beat his record from the last time he retired.

[Matt Brouse]

Just read an interview with Bas where he mentions Randy still going strong, I'd bet he comes back for at least one.

[Matt Schumann]

SOrry nicolette, didnt know you already posted... yahoo is my homepage it i kind of saw it by accident and just posted.

I dont know if you guys noticed but at the last UFC ppv Randy had a cast on one of his arms, so maybe it might be injury related. But it is suprising that this was annouced after fedor.

Im suprised at how random it is... i would think he would do it in the octagon after his last fight

we'll see what happens

[dronga]

COUTURE QUITS UFC

MMA Icon Walks Away From Promotion In Stunning Move

By Brian Knapp

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.

In South Africa shooting scenes for his lead role in the upcoming feature film “The Scorpion King – Rise of the Akkadian,” Couture made the announcement official in a letter to UFC president Dana White. The UFC’s inability to land PRIDE heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko played a prominent role in the decision to walk away, according to Couture.

“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.”

His abrupt departure deals a significant blow to the world’s most visible MMA organization. Couture was not only a beloved competitor – White once called him “the greatest fighter in UFC history” – but also a revered spokesman for a company that had long struggled to gain mainstream acceptance.

“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.”

A three-time All-American wrestler at Oklahoma State University, Couture won four national championships in Greco-Roman wrestling and made four attempts at qualifying for the Olympics. He made his MMA debut at UFC 13 on May 13, 1997, where, at age 33, he won a heavyweight tournament, defeating Tony Halme and Steven Graham on the same night. Just seven months later, he toppled famed kickboxer Maurice Smith in Yokohama, Japan to win the UFC heavyweight crown for the first time.

Over the course of the next decade, Couture emerged as one of the most decorated mixed martial artists in history. The UFC’s only six-time champion, he captured the heavyweight belt three times, the light heavyweight title twice and an interim light heavyweight title, as well. Couture remains the only man to win UFC championships in two weight classes.

His run through the promotion included a memorable trilogy with light heavyweight rival Chuck Liddell, the only opponent to beat Couture twice. Following his third bout with Liddell in February 2006, Couture announced his first retirement.

As 2007 dawned, his desire to compete returned, and a four-fight contract with the UFC – which included the opportunity to fight Tim Sylvia for the heavyweight strap at UFC 68 in March – was presented to Couture. He accepted, and the wheels for an historic comeback were set in motion.

Couture floored Sylvia with an overhand right seconds into the bout and punished the 6-foot-8 giant over five rounds. Playing to chants of “Randy!” he regained the heavyweight title for an unprecedented third time in front of 19,049 fans at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. Five months later, at the age of 44, he defeated rising contender Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 74, stopping the young Brazilian by third-round TKO despite suffering a broken left arm. It would be his final appearance in the Octagon.

Couture (16-8) leaves behind an unrivaled legacy in the sport. Fifteen of his 24 career bouts were title fights, and he bested six former UFC champions – Liddell, Vitor Belfort, Tito Ortiz and Sylvia among them. Always willing to meet a challenge, Couture consistently tested himself against the world’s premier fighters. The 19 men he fought (he squared off with Pedro Rizzo twice and Liddell and Belfort three times each) hold 357 victories between them.

[Keith Stenerson]

http://www.sherdog.com/news/news.asp?n_id=9455


Randy Couture (Pictures), the face of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and one of mixed martial arts most revered fighters, notified the UFC via fax from South Africa at 11 o'clock Thursday morning that he has chosen to resign from the UFC, "The Natural" confirmed with Sherdog.com.

"I sent the letter of resignation to the UFC today, resigning not only from my position in the company as a commentator and as an ambassador, but also as the heavyweight champion," Couture said over the phone from South Africa, where he is currently filming a movie.

"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."

Couture (16-8) is the only fighter in UFC history to hold belts in two weight divisions. The current UFC heavyweight champion, he recaptured the belt in March by coming out of retirement to out-point Tim Sylvia (Pictures). Couture defended the title in August, stopping challenger Gabriel Gonzaga (Pictures) in the third round.

The Sylvia win came after a year away from the sport after Couture suffered the second of two knockouts to then UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell (Pictures). Couture won the first bout in the trilogy by capturing an interim UFC light heavyweight title in June of 2003, stopping Liddell in the third period.

Couture's ledger in the UFC reads like a who's who. "The Natural" first captured UFC heavyweight gold against Maurice Smith (Pictures) in 1997 before doing it for the third time against Sylvia in 2007.

A day after news broke that Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures), the widely regarded top heavyweight in the sport, had apparently declined to sign with the UFC, Couture submitted his resignation.

"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."

"I'm not surprised at all by Randy's decision," UFC president Dana White said in a statement published on UFC.com. "I talked to Randy several weeks ago and he said that if he couldn't fight Fedor, then he has nothing left to prove in the sport of mixed martial arts."

According to Couture, nine months remain on his current UFC deal. However, White said Couture "is still under contract with me, and I'm ready to promote him" if he chooses to fight again."

"As we all know, Randy retired before," White said. "The landscape in MMA changes every day."

Until he is in a position to fight Emelianenko, said Couture, he will concentrate on acting, franchising Xtreme Couture training facilities, and expanding the Xtreme Couture clothing line.

His success outside the ring is proof of his success inside the Octagon. But Couture said it was a lack of respect by the UFC, in particular its president Dana White, that led him to resigning.

"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."

Couture's rocky history with the Zuffa-owned UFC began in 2001.

"I think what set us off on the wrong foot was that my management [at the time] wasn't willing to give up ancillary rights across the board with no option for some sort of compensation," said Couture, alluding to a reason cited by Emelianenko's representatives as to why the Russian did not end up with the UFC. "All the other athletes at that time were signing those contracts. That created a lot of animosity and got me pulled out of the Carmen Electra campaigns to promote the athletes and the sport and the video game and all that stuff."

Beyond the money, both Couture and his wife Kim stressed Thursday's resignation from the UFC was about respect. It's a move "The Natural" acknowledged could have far-reaching effects.

"Certainly there's personal motivation for resigning and taking a stand for myself," he said. "If it sets a precedence that down the road requires athletes to be treated better then that's the icing on the cake."

[Daniel Atchison]

The guy is a class act. He is a master fighter, and a godly wrestler. I had the honor to meet him years ago at a wrestling camp. His training edict was like nothing Id ever imagined, it was tough.