Press Conferences: UFC & Couture

by Robert Sargent

A pair of press conferences were held earlier today, with the UFC conference being dominated by brash, unprofessional and, at times, very ignorant statements from UFC president Dana White, and Randy Couture holding a conference of his own, where he addressed his recent departure from the UFC.

After learning that Randy Couture had scheduled a press conference to discuss his recent UFC departure, the UFC countered with a media conference of their own, which took place just half an hour earlier.


Although the UFC conference addressed a number of topics, from the signing of Brock Lesnar to the upcoming Wanderlei Silva vs Chuck Liddell fight to the new TV deal extension with SpikeTV, what was most noteworthy from the conference were the outrageous - though sadly typical, at this point - comments from ever-outspoken UFC president Dana White.

While White does, at times, have logic in his words, as inappropriate or unprofessional as they may be for an individual in his position, there cannot possibly be any justification for many of the comments he made today. From labelling Fedor Emelianenko's management as "f--king liars" who are "full of s--t" to making the outright ridiculous claim that "Fedor [Emelianenko] sucks!" and "[Fedor] isn't even in the top 5 for heavyweights," White displayed his ignorance and pigheadedness for the business.

Granted, aside from Mark Hunt, Fedor Emelianenko has not fought any top heavyweight competition since the end of 2005, largely due to a injury which prevented him from competing in PRIDE's Open-Weight Grand Prix in 2006. However, there cannot possibly be any doubt that he is the #1 heavyweight fighter in the world.

There are only a handful of top heavyweights who have yet to taste defeat at the hands of Emelianenko, with the most notable being Randy Couture, Josh Barnett and Tim Sylvia. Couture handily defeated Sylvia and Barnett handily defeated Couture, but Barnett went 1-1 and 0-3 against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović, respectively, while Emelianenko was 2-0 (1 NC) and 1-0 against Nogueira and Filipović.

Equations like that admittedly mean little in MMA these days, especially in 2007, but the point is that Emelianenko has defeated the #2 (Nogueira) and #3 (Filipović) heavyweights in PRIDE, who, in turn, both hold victories over Barnett, who, in turn, destroyed the #1 (Couture) UFC heavyweight when they fought. Knowing this, how can Fedor Emelianenko possibly not be in the top 5 of heavyweights, as UFC president Dana White would have you believe? Are we to believe that fighters like Gabriel Gonzaga, who holds a total of one notable victory in his entire career, and Andrei Arlovski, whose chin is easily the weakest of the top 10 heavyweights and has been a disaster aside from his lone victory over Tim Sylvia, are somehow top 5 heavyweights and Fedor Emelianenko, a man who has never legitimately lost in his 28-fight career, is not?

Comments like these would be laughed off if they had come from someone who did not hold such an important position within the MMA world, but UFC president Dana White seems to be completely incapable of ever learning from any of his mistakes, which is likely why discontent amongst fighters in the UFC - or fighters who have recently departed from the UFC - is on the rise. Blackballing fighters who do not sign on to the UFC's strict contractual terms is a petty and childish way to do business. Further, labelling other talented fighters as "boring," simply because they do not engage in slug-fests in every one of their fights, deprives the UFC audience of seeing talented fighters and, subsequently, becoming more knowledgable about the sport.

At this point, questions are arising as to whether the Fertitta brothers - the owners of the UFC, and partners of Dana White - will recognise that White is doing more harm to their company on a public level than he is doing good.


With this in mind, the second press conference of the day, Couture's, was the epitome of calm professionalism. Couture, whose conference was broadcasted on EliteXC's website and cable network HDNet in the United States, refused to speak negatively about the UFC, Dana White or anyone else, saying only that he felt that White did not always conduct himself as he should. He stated that he held no ill will towards the UFC or its management, and even stated that he did not believe that his relationship with the UFC was beyond repair.

Though Couture said that he did not intend to fight in promotions outside of the UFC, he did say that his career was not over and that he did have more fights in him. Should a return to the UFC not materialise in the future, it seems probable that Couture would, in fact, end up in another organisation; likely M-1 Global.

Though Dana White avoided badmouthing Couture, and Couture was ever the professional at his own conference, it seems unlikely that Couture and White would reconcile to the point where Couture would return to the UFC, especially given the way that White has conducted himself over the past few weeks, and especially in the past couple of days.

Fedor Emelianenko and Randy Couture share a calm, friendly demeanour and professional attitude towards the sport of MMA, and have both repeatedly expressed respect and admiration for one another, so Dana White's tirade against Emelianenko and his management may have definitively spoiled any chance that either Couture or Emelianenko will ever compete in a UFC event at any point in the future.


With a whirlwind of negative media attention for White, following his outrageous comments at the UFC conference call, perhaps it is finally time for the Fertitta brothers to realise that enough is enough.