Randy Couture Cites 'I Get No Respect From the Organization' as Reason for Leaving UFC

Former UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture had his first press conference today after walking away from the UFC, and he said his primary reason for leaving is that "I get no respect from the organization," specifically UFC president Dana White and the Fertitta brothers, who are the co-owners of UFC.

Although Couture indicated that it wasn't about the money, most of his press conference was devoted to discussing money.

"Chuck Liddell made $17 million last year from his fights," Couture said, adding that his own pay from UFC was "Nothing in the neighborhood of $12-$15 million that was stated" and that the media, specifically Yahoo! Sports, had "stated some grossly inflated numbers about what I get paid."

Couture said "I've had issues with Zuffa [UFC's parent company] since they bought it in 2001." He noted that Zuffa wanted him to sign away his name and image for video games and participate in "ad campaigns with Carmen Electra and all those things," which he didn't want to do.

At one point in the press conference, Couture physically handed the contracts for his two most recent fights to a reporter and said the contracts would show that he wasn't paid anything close to the kind of money that UFC claims he was paid.

When asked whether he was retiring from mixed martial arts, Couture said that he wasn't, that he was simply leaving UFC, indicating that he would like to leave UFC and fight in another mixed martial arts organization.