In an interview with the “MMA Weekly” website, Randy Couture revealed that he rejected an offer to defend his heavyweight champion title against Rodrigo Minotauro, leaving his belt vacant.
Since announcing his retirement in October, the American has been busy with several projects, such as recording a film in South Africa, preparing athletes and commentating for TV on Ultimate Fight. However, the Captain of America confesses that was surprised by the repercussions of his departure from the UFC.
“This whole firing thing took on a life of its own,” he marveled, “There were 72 media outlets trying to get a statement from me. I was on the first page of Yahoo, it was insane for me. I thought it would go smoothly, maybe MMAWeekly would cover it, Full Contact Fighter or something like that, that would give a synopsis about what happened, but it would be limited to small niches of outlets specializing in anything goes. It really is proof of how the sport has grown due to the reaction that my departure caused.”
Couture also said that he still intends to fight Emelianenko Fedor, but that his contractual obligations with the UFC make the fight unlikely.
“It is clear that I have a contractual obligation with the UFC. There are clauses and some other things, and with Fedor signing with M – 1, the possibility of the fight happening is very difficult, due to the clauses and due to these contracts”, he said.
After a media spat between him and Dana White, Couture met with the UFC president and revealed that he resolved his problems with the event and intends to maintain a relationship with the show that made him famous around the world.
“We've cleared the air and I hope we're going to move forward with some kind of relationship,” he said, “I have a large number of athletes and a lot of things that revolve around vale tudo and the UFC as well. I want to continue to work with them and I think they want to continue to work with me, so we’ll figure out how that happens.”
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