People love Randy Couture.
Honestly, we’ve reached the point where that’s not just conjecture–that’s fact. In other news, sun comes up in morning, water discovered to be wet.
Hacks like myself have written thousands of words and worn out all of the old faithful clichés describing Randy’s tenacity and competitive spirit, and there doesn’t seem to be a single peer of his who has anything bad to say about him. His mainstream profile is higher than ever, and after two wins over younger, bigger opponents who were supposed to leave him as a smear on the mat, his legend grows bigger every day. At this point, no beating could dent his reputation, and no opponent could overshadow him.
So why quit when you can’t lose?
Fedor Emelianenko recently announced that, after a long courtship with the UFC, he was signing with M-1, a heretofore-unknown MMA promotion; like a nasty combination to the face, Randy’s subsequent retirement instantly deprives American fans of their two favorite heavyweights.
Everyone else either has or will probably offer their two cents, so here are mine: Randy claims that he has nothing left to accomplish now that Fedor has essentially refused to fight him, while Dana White claims that Randy’s left because of everyone’s favorite root of all evil–money.
Randy says that it’s the lack of competition. Dana says that it’s a pay dispute. I say that it’s probably a little bit of both.
Looking over his career, Randy’s opponents read like a Who’s Who of UFC stars. Check the names: Liddell, Belfort, Ortiz, Barnett, Rodriguez, Randleman, Rizzo, and Sylvia, among others. All of these men held a championship title at one point or another, and Randy was all too happy to relieve more than a few of them of those titles. Beating Chuck Liddell in his first fight at 205 changed him forever from well-respected ex-heavyweight champ into Captain America, the king of the upset, and after that, he dominated and humiliated Ortiz, the brashest of UFC stars, and avenged his loss to Vitor Belfort.
Even so, when he retired in 2005, he was coming off his second straight knockout loss to Chuck Liddell, and at the time–I’m not going to lie or revise history here–it seemed like the right move. Randy was 42 and coming off two decisive knockout losses in his last two fights to the light heavyweight champion; in a nutshell, he had done his part for king and country and seemed ready to move into the less brutal phase of his career. You know, something where he wasn’t getting punched in the face a lot: UFC representative, trainer, color commentator, and ambassador for the sport.
Of course, Randy had other ideas.
He decided to not only make a comeback, but come back to a weight class where he hadn’t fought in nearly five years. And oh yeah, he was going to fight the defending champ, who had five inches, 50 pounds, and 13 years on him.
Some people, like myself, met this with surprise and concern for his well-being, while others, like a lot of the online haters, met it with scorn and disdain. Still, Randy made fools of us all yet again by running right over Tim Sylvia.
We still weren’t believers yet, though. As none other than Randy himself pointed out, Sylvia had holes in his game that a smart fighter like Randy could drive a truck through; before we could adequately judge Randy’s comeback, he needed to get in there with someone a little more well-rounded. Someone like, say, Gabriel Gonzaga, who’d already punctured Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic’s invincible aura with one legend-killing head kick.
Cast in his familiar underdog role, Randy mauled Gonzaga in every way possible, forcing a third-round stoppage. So what’s next? Yeah, Randy could fight Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera, but Noguiera’s debut against Heath Herring left a lot to be desired. He could take on the winner of the fight between Sylvia and Brandon Vera, but even that’s a bit of a step down: Randy’s domination of Sylvia not only devalues Sylvia in the fans’ eyes, but also devalues anyone who beats Sylvia. He could try and fight Arlovski, but Arlovski’s snoozefest win over Fabricio Werdum may have actually been more damaging to his career than an exciting loss would have been.
And of the guys who aren’t in the UFC? Ricco Rodriguez is MIA, though Saul Soliz swears up and down that he’s ready for a comeback, and even if he resurfaced, he’s not at Randy’s level right now. Josh Barnett famously claimed that Randy couldn’t be the real champ without beating him first; of course, Randy could just as easily reply that Barnett couldn’t be the real champ without putting the steroids away and beating him first.
Long story short? Fedor was the big-money match, and the dream match that would have cemented Randy’s reputation as one of the greatest heavyweights ever. The first time he retired, he went out on a low note; this time, he’s going out on top, and he may not want to change that.
Now to Dana’s claims: my dad always told me that rich people don’t stay rich by throwing vast amounts of money around, and the UFC is notorious for keeping its fighters’ salaries low.
Now, from what everyone’s insinuated, Randy heard through the grapevine what the company was paying Chuck and what it was willing to offer Fedor and was more than a little cross, and rightfully so, in my opinion. If a player has a particularly noteworthy season in basketball, the player and team often renegotiate the player’s contract, if for no other reason than as a show of appreciation and good faith. Again, the UFC’s notorious for taking a fairly hard line in regards to their fighters’ contracts, but here’s a case where a little extra money (especially considering that they’re practically minting money right now) could have saved them a lot of extra grief.
Sure, Randy was legally constrained by his contract, which he did negotiate and sign himself. But he’s done so much for the company and the sport over the years that I’m very surprised that the UFC would just let him walk away without sweetening his deal.
Even though Dana’s known for being (ahem) tact-deficient, he seems to have cooled down a little in his official spin session with Tom Gerbasi at UFC.com. He’s smart enough to know that a prolonged PR snipefest with his most beloved fighter is probably not the best thing for business, and he’s left the door open for Randy’s return, essentially blaming the whole thing on Randy’s ‘scumbag Hollywood agent.’
If Randy wants to pursue an acting career, then I can’t really blame him for not wanting to take a pounding on a daily basis. If his previous acting gigs are anything to go on, he’s going to need a lot of practice, but if he approaches it with the same intensity that he approaches MMA, he might be able to pull it off. And hey, Schwarzenegger started off with Hercules in New York, right?
I have my doubts that we’ll ever see Randy in the octagon again as a fighter: these sorts of things usually take a while to iron out, and–even though it’s been said a million times before–Randy is 44, after all. He doesn’t really have the time to waste on a particularly long contract dispute, and I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for Zuffa to apologize for anything. So in the end, I think we’ve seen the last of Randy as an active UFC fighter.
Of course, I’ve been wrong about Randy before. For my sake, and for the sport’s sake, I hope he proves me wrong again.
