That’s a harsh intro for a post, right?

I know. But it’s the only words I can come up with right now for the way I feel about the news that Randy Couture resigned from the UFC on Thursday.

When I first heard the news, I was under the impression that Couture simply retired because the UFC failed to secure the one fighter in the entire world he still wanted to fight: Fedor Emelianenko. I was dismayed that Dana White couldn’t get the deal done, not only because I wanted to see the fight, but because I think it would be the biggest fight of all time. We were supposed to get Couture vs. Cro Cop in August, but Gabriel Gonzaga ruined any chance of that happening. Then there was talk about Chuck Liddell moving up to the Heavyweight division and challenging Couture for the belt, and Rampage Jackson ruined that one. There were rumors about Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera getting a shot at the belt, but he had a lackluster debut fight against Heath Herring, so that went out the window.

Who was left? Fedor, the guy that many people (myself included) consider to be the greatest pound for pound fighter in MMA history. With the UFC purchase of PRIDE in 2007, so many dream matches seemed possible: Liddell vs. Silva. Cro Cop vs. Couture. Cro Cop vs. Liddell. Noguiera vs. Couture. All of them had fallen by the wayside, with the exception of Randy vs. Fedor.

Which is why I was initially upset that Dana failed to get Fedor to sign the contract. After all, you’re making roughly 40 million dollars for every PPV you broadcast, so there’s no excuses for lowballing the guy.

What I didn’t know, and didn’t realize until last night after dinner, is that Randy left the UFC over money. Plain and simple, he left because he wasn’t getting paid what he thought he should be paid; never mind the fact that he signed a contract a mere ten months ago. No, Randy talked to some of his buddies, and they told him that he apparently wasn’t being paid as well as a lot of the fighters in the company. Which is great, because I’ve seen the official pay scales for every single show this year, and the only guy making as much as Randy Couture is Chuck Liddell.

If they were going to pay Fedor 2 million dollars to fight Randy (which I sincerely doubt), then they should have paid Randy 2.1 million. He’s the champ, he’s the most marketable guy they had, and he’s a huge PPV draw, so he deserves a payday. But I’m not sure it ever even got to this point, because Randy got all upset and decided that he was being undervalued and quit by faxing a letter to Dana White from South Africa about 5 minutes before leaking the news to the press. Pretty classy move, huh?

Dana White isn’t innocent here, either. He needs to stop paying guys minimum wage while he’s raking in 40 million dollars in profit for every single PPV that goes on the air. When a fighter on the main card of your PPV is only making 5-10k while you’re pulling in 40 mil for the show, something is wrong. When your heavyweight champ , a guy who is a proven draw, is barely making more than guys you just signed from Pride, then you need to re-evaluate your salary structure. Dana should have upped Randy’s pay after he won the heavyweight title to at least Chuck Liddell levels, and after he beat Gonzaga he should have become the highest paid guy in the company.

The thing that ticks me off about Dana White? He tried for months upon months to sign Fedor, talking about how he was the best fighter on the planet, and supposedly offered him 2 million dollars for a single fight. Now that Fedor has signed with the competition, however, Dana feels the need to run his mouth about Fedor, calling him overrated and saying that Couture would destroy him. Dana, I have a question for you: if you really thought Fedor wasn’t that great of a fighter, then why did you want to sign him badly enough that you would pay him 8 times what Randy Couture was getting paid?

I’m disappointed in both parties, but I think I’m more disgusted with Randy.

He’s gonna be an actor, or something; the last time I checked, Scorpion King 24 wasn’t scheduled for any kind of major theater release. And maybe he’ll try to sign with M-1, the company that Fedor chose over the UFC. In that case, Dana White will sue him into oblivion and he’ll never fight again, which is a shame. You know why it’s a shame? Because Randy Couture is as close to an icon as there will ever be in mixed martial arts. He’s transcended the sport, so much so that he believes he’s now a crossover star. Maybe it’ll happen, and maybe it won’t, but I’ll tell you one thing: my lasting impression of Randy Couture is that he’s now just another crybaby sports star who wants to renegotiate his contract after performing well on the last one.