10.31.2007 - 11:02:00 AM -
UFC Press Conference notes
Sam Caplan once again has a great article recapping the UFC press conference yesterday at his ProElite blog. Sam did an awesome job with the last one and this one is great too. Here's the sweetness:
According to Mulkey, Randy Couture received a $500,000 signing bonus, half of which ($250,000) was paid at the time of his signing the contract earlier this year. This clearly contradicts Couture's claim last week that he asked for a signing bonus and was declined.
Dana White explained that it was a true signing bonus in the sense that if Randy, given his age, was injured and couldn't compete, he'd still get his bonus. As such, they decided to meet his request for a signing bonus of $500,000 but withhold the other half ($250,000) until after his fight at UFC 68 vs. Tim Sylvia.
The UFC also claimed that Couture signed an employment agreement. The employment agreement paid Randy two annual salaries of $200,000 and $56,000. The $56,000 was clearly defined as being for his role with the company as a commentator while I believe the $200,000 was for his promotional role as an ambassador.
For UFC 68, Couture received a $250,000 purse in addition to the other half of his signing bonus ($250,000), according to the UFC. I believe Mulkey also said Couture received $936,000 as a bonus for PPV sales.
My understanding is that it takes three months for the UFC to receive their money from the cable company and then they have until 10 days after they receive their payment from the cable company to pay a fighter his PPV bonus. According to Mulkey, to date, Couture has received $924,000 of the $936,000 bonus.
According to the UFC, Randy's total take from UFC 68 was $1.086 million. However, it appears he's still owed $12,000 from the PPV bonus.
Fightlinker live blogged the presser.
UFC.com has their own recap available here. The funny thing is yesterday that article was different, i didn't read the whole thing and it also contained a link to the documents the UFC handed out. But it is no longer there. I saved it yesterday. You can view it here. Its in PDF format and you will need Adobe Reader to view it.
UFC.com also has archive footage of the presser.
Mr. Sunshine has tons of audio from the presser. He asked some great questions too. Some of the journalists out there asked some really stupid shit. Cofield went right after the UFC at the press conference and asked some really good questions. It's good to see there are some people that aren't complete idiots covering the sport.
As always MMA Junkie has a good recap.
Adam Swift at Sherdog takes a look at Zuffa's contract implications in regards to the Couture situation.
MMA Weekly has their own round up available here.Labels: Dana White, Lorenzo Fertita, MMA, Press Conference, Randy Couture, Recaps/Thoughts, UFC
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10.29.2007 - 10:32:00 PM -
Another day another press conference
UFC.com released word that Lorenzo Fertita and Dana White are going to hold a press conference tomorrow afternoon at 4PM EST/1 PM PST. The press conference will be streamed live tomorrow at UFC.com. The post is on the front page and here's what it says:
Dana White, UFC President and Lorenzo Fertitta, UFC co-owner will hold a press conference Tuesday, October 30th, to address recent statements made by Randy Couture, and answer questions for the media. The press conference will be streamed live via UFC.com starting at 1pm PT/4pm ET/20:00 GMT.
Yahoo! Sports is also going to be streaming the event live at 4 PM EST/1 PM PST.Labels: Dana White, Lorenzo Fertita, MMA, Press Conference, UFC
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