Comments on: HDNets Mark Cuban gets in on the legal battle between Randy Couture and UFC

By: Randy Couture signs HDNet Fight contract that will be effective when UFC term expires at UFC blog for UFC news, results, videos, rumors, fights, pics and tickets — MMAmania.com

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 18:28:32 +0000

[...] Additional details have emerged regarding the recent lawsuit that HDNet Fights and its owner, Mark Cuban, filed against Zuffa LLC and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in a Texas court. [...]

By: DannyB

DannyB — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 17:46:30 +0000

[quote comment="312757"]I think the UFC made a very specific contract that if Randy decided to Retire just in case lets say he lost 2 fight in a row and just didnt have it no more even though he owed the UFC 2 fights they wouldnt hold it against him if he retired but, he canot go and fight for another organization, because retired mens no more fights, now Randy quit so the court is gonna be confused because who would you give it to a fighter who doesnt want to fulfill his contract no more because of bogus assumptions that (Noguera or Arlovski, etc…) arent worth him fighting anymore, and he wants to quit so he can go fight someone else. Or do you give it to the company and say well you have to either stay retired for good or come back fight 2 more fights with UFC and then go have your dream fight. I dont know man as a fan hell let him fight Fedor already but, logically its not fair to the UFC who gave him a chance after getting knocked out 2 times you know.[/quote]

Heck yeah, Randy used to be my favorite fighter the UFC made him who he is and he helped make them what they are but he has shown he is an irreverent, irresponsible, ungrateful money grubber. He doesn’t care about fighting the best, he cares about MONEY. Oh yeah give Timmah a rematch and see what happens with a good back, post surgery. Or even throw him to Big Nog, a big guy with ground game, what has Randy historically had trouble with? Maybe it’s not just money, maybe he knows he’ll own chump boy Fedor but Nog will choke his ass out.

By: john

john — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 15:19:39 +0000

Kim Couture = Yoko Ono of the UFC!

By: john

john — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 15:19:01 +0000

[quote comment="313638"]I haven’t been following the Couture VS ZUFFA as of late, so I may have missed another court filing or something. I may be wrong of course… BUT here’s what I got out of it so far.

ZUFFA is only suing on the basis of the employment/commentating contract for now? Is that right?

IF anything goes badly for Zuffa in this legal issue. Another lawsuit to be filed with legal claims about Couture’s fighting contract (or has that lawsuit already been filed)? As to date I believe Zuffa is seeing if they can get an injunction without having to subject all of their fighter contracts under the legal microscope.

The lawsuit also alleges conspiracy.

The legal battle goes further than October of 2009. White/Zuffa wants to OWN Couture FOR LIFE with these clauses if he is unable to accept a fight regardless of resignation, injury, retirement or anything else.. period.. No-compete clauses lasting more than one year generally do not do well in court. IF Zuffa wins this legal battle they will OWN ALL FIGHTER’S for the duration of the contract, regardless of any time limitations … yet.. cancel a fighter’s contract at will.. which they have done plenty of times.

I think if ZUFFA wins, this may be bad for the fighters contract.

Hopefully I haven’t missed to much recent info on this… but that’s the take I get on it.[/quote]

THORAZINE: I also feel that the UFC is trying to keep the fighter contracts from being made public. Thats why for now, they are only suing on the employment contract. I think that the UFC will do whatever it can to not have the fight contract go public, because once they sue for breacj of the fight contract, we will all have access to the details of Rand’s fight contract.

I also agree that if Zuffa wins this law suit, it will mean big trouble for the fighters. I have a feeling however that Randy will get cleared to fight after next october. I am no legal specialist, its just a gut feeling I have.

By: engel

engel — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 10:49:31 +0000

COUTURE WILL FIGHT FEDOR.. you cannot stop a man from making a living so the court will decide on his favor..
just like in pacquiao case, he signed two contracts (delahoya and top rank) but the judge decided in favor of pacman..

By: chuckisover-rated

chuckisover-rated — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 07:28:12 +0000

[quote comment="313431"]Hey mania, Randy is gonna be on InsideMMA along with his wife, Kim, and Gina Corano (Sp?). I wouldn’t be surprised if he has something to say about this.[/quote]
why are him and his gold-digger wife gonna b on there they giveing away free hgh

By: Gord

Gord — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 06:24:51 +0000

[quote comment="312786"][quote comment="312775"]Hopefully Cuban sees something in Favor of Randy. I dont think he would have gotten involved if he didnt think he could win. Cuban is a big time dude, with LONG pockets. Lets hope Cuban and Couture can win this legal battle. Mar Cuban plays for keeps![/quote]

Thats what Im saying. Cuban is one of the smartest business guys out there. The guy is extremely competitive and business smart. He would never get involved if he couldnt benefit from it. Another like his is Donald Trump. Crazy business oriented people like them dont get involved unless they know they can win.[/quote]
Yep, it’s not like these guys are dummies, or Randy for that matter. Randy is way to intelligent to not have talked to a few GREAT lawyers that told him he is within his rights to do what he did. Contracts are often ambiguous in their meaning and unless it said specifically that Randy can’t resign and wait his contract out, then a judge could very well rule in his favor. I really hope Dana learns a valuable lesson,that if he treats his fighters with a little respect, he won’t have to worry about having contract disputes, the fighters will be happy and won’t want to go any where else. If Dana doesn’t get his EGO under control, the UFC just might not be the biggest MMA production in a couple of years.

By: c-war

c-war — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 06:05:39 +0000

Im sure the UFC has top of the line lawyers so if they say Randy cant fight, then there’s probably less than a 5 percent chance they’re bluffing.

By: Muscle Dolphin

Muscle Dolphin — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 05:13:59 +0000

ZUFFA is only suing on the basis of the employment/commentating contract for now? Is that right?

The lawsuit also alleges conspiracy.

I think if ZUFFA wins, this may be bad for the fighters contract.

Hopefully I haven’t missed to much recent info on this… but that’s the take I get on it.[/quote]

From a legal perspective, the tampering/conspiracy portion of Zuffa’s lawsuit against Couture has the potential to be embarrassing and financially damaging to both Couture and his alleged conspirators. IMO there is no doubt that Couture’s bizarre behaviour was co-ordinatied with at least a third party (possibly Cuban). IMO Couture has allowed himself to be manipulated. I speculate that Cuban has offered Couture “a piece of the action”. Personally, as I stated earlier, I can’t see Cuban “outmuscling” the Fertitta brothers. Couture has lost a lot of fans. This has been a really dumb move for him.

By: THORAZINE

THORAZINE — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 04:46:01 +0000

I haven’t been following the Couture VS ZUFFA as of late, so I may have missed another court filing or something. I may be wrong of course… BUT here’s what I got out of it so far.

ZUFFA is only suing on the basis of the employment/commentating contract for now? Is that right?

The lawsuit also alleges conspiracy.

I think if ZUFFA wins, this may be bad for the fighters contract.

Hopefully I haven’t missed to much recent info on this… but that’s the take I get on it.