Official Documents From The UFC Regarding Randy Couture's Contract

As we recently reported, UFC President Dana White, UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta, and the UFC chief financial officer John Mulkey held a press conference today to rebut Randy Couture's claims that he was lied to and underpaid by the organization.

The UFC maintains that Couture did in fact receive 250,000 per fight as he stated, but the two sides differ drastically on the particulars of his PPV take. Couture, at his press conference held in Las Vegas last Thursday, stated that his cut of the PPV was about $500,000 per fight. The UFC maintains that Couture was paid $936,000 for UFC 68 and will get an additional $787,000 (approx.) for UFC 74. Tt should also be noted that the UFC also claims that Couture earned an additional $200,000 per year to serve as a promoter/ambassador of the UFC and another $50,000 a year for his work as a part-time UFC commentator.

UFC officials presented canceled checks and copies of Couture's bout agreements to corroborate their side of the story.

White and Fertitta also continued to insist that Randy Couture was paid a $500,000 dollar bonus as part of a new contract he signed when coming out of retirement to face Tim Sylvia at UFC 68. A claim Couture denies.

So, in summation, Couture claims that he made $750,000 per fight, and the UFC officially, as of today, claims that Couture made 1.186 for UFC 68 and 1.127 for UFC 74. Which is far from the $3.25-$3.75 million per fight amount that was originally reported by some media outlets.

Dana White maintains that the numbers were more than fair when you consider White's status in the UFC before he decided on coming back.

“This is a guy who got knocked out in back-to-back fights to Chuck Liddell," said White, "which isn’t the greatest way to go out.”

Despite the apparent bad blood between the two parties, Dana White seems to want to reconcile and continue a working relationship with Couture if he is willing to come back.

“We’re going to offer Randy a fight with (Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira) probably in February,” White said. “As far as I’m concerned, Randy Couture is our heavyweight champion right now.“

Thanks to MMAjunkie.com for their contribution to this story.

link to the contract http://video.ufc.tv/Press_Doc.pdf

Either way, that's a lotta !!in money