[MikeyPatriot]

[ QUOTE ]
do you actually think that the Fertittas and Dana White would even risk having their champ possibly lose to someone that isn't under contract to them?

Randy will most likely come back to teh UFC. It's a spat between him and the top brass and he's still under contract to them.

Some of the stuff he cited as reasons for being mad have been refuted by Dave Meltzer who was able to show that Couture had a very handsome PPV bonus along with other promotional stuff that he got paid for by the UFC.

Some of the per fight garuntees are higher for other fighters, but Couture's PPV bonus is pretty huge(it's on a tiered system and I can dig out this past week's WON and break it down) and he's made as much money as any other fighter since UFC got massive.

[/ QUOTE ]

Randy isn't coming back unless he gets a fight with Fedor. The ONLY way I see him coming back is to get his two fights out of the way to go fight Fedor in M-1.

Could you provide a link to what you're describing. Because this is my understanding of the money dispute:

-Randy asked for a signing bonus when he came back to fight Sylvia.

-UFC said no.

-Randy persisted.

-UFC said we'll give you half of your standard "shower room" bonus now ($250k) and the rest after the fight (another $250k)

-Randy then did not receive a "shower room" bonus after the Gonzaga fight.

-Randy has received his PPV bonus and he hasn't complained about or disputed that.

Now...at Randy's press conference, he brought up the signing bonus issue, saying he asked for one and never received it. Dana came back and said, "Look, we have this check here showing we gave him a bonus." To me, this look like Dana being able to use the opaqueness of his financial dealings to spin the signing bonus issue his way.