The great Brian Kenny interviewed Randy Couture on ESPN after Couture made the shocking announcement that he would retire from UFC, and as with everything Brian Kenny does, this interview was insightful and enlightening:
Couture reiterated that he's retiring for two reasons: First, Fedor Emelianenko is the guy he wants to fight, and Emelianenko isn't coming to UFC. And secondly, the way he's been paid by UFC, he says, is "kind of insulting."
"I've felt for a long time that I've kind of been swimming gainst the current with the management of the UFC, and I'm just kind of tired of it," Couture said. "I just don't feel that I've been respected the way I should be and treated the way I should be. ...The first way you show professional athletes that they're respected is by compensating them appropriately."
Couture is right: Expressed in terms of a percentage of the total revenue he brings in for his league, Couture was one of the most underpaid athletes in the world.
Couture reiterated that he's retiring for two reasons: First, Fedor Emelianenko is the guy he wants to fight, and Emelianenko isn't coming to UFC. And secondly, the way he's been paid by UFC, he says, is "kind of insulting."
"I've felt for a long time that I've kind of been swimming gainst the current with the management of the UFC, and I'm just kind of tired of it," Couture said. "I just don't feel that I've been respected the way I should be and treated the way I should be. ...The first way you show professional athletes that they're respected is by compensating them appropriately."
Couture is right: Expressed in terms of a percentage of the total revenue he brings in for his league, Couture was one of the most underpaid athletes in the world.
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