Randy Couture Waver on UFC Antitrust Lawsuits, Sees Door Ajar

The UFC was hit with not one, but three class action antitrust lawsuits in December, all filed by the same group of attorneys but on behalf of three different sets of plaintiffs. Former UFC two-division champion and Hall of Famer Randy Couture knew the lawsuit was coming, and given his tumultuous relationship with UFC owners, it wouldn’t be surprising to see his name attached to one.

However, so far he has not decided to take part.

“Well, of course I was approached. I had known about the wave of class action lawsuits for eight or nine months and I was asked to participate, but I hadn’t decided whether I was going to throw my name in the hat,” Couture told Submission Radio in a recent interview.

“I suspect I probably won’t do that at this stage.”

The first lawsuit was filed on behalf of plaintiffs Cung Le, Nate Quarry and Jon Fitch. So far, Le is the only fighter to file a lawsuit who is still under contract with the UFC.

SEE ALSO: Third UFC Antitrust Lawsuit Filed on Christmas Eve

Couture retired in 2011 after a knockout loss to Lyoto Machida. He has not fought since, although he has been involved with Bellator MMA, where he was a coach on the organization’s reality show Fight Master: Bellator MMA and commentated on some events.

Despite his storied history in the Octagon, Couture has had some rocky moments with the UFC, most notably when he dropped his UFC contract after two no-fights in late 2007. He eventually worked out his contract and returned the following year, only to lose the heavyweight title to Brock Lesnar and never regain the UFC belt.

“Obviously, I’ve had my run-ins and fights with Zuffa since they brought the company in, over the rights and a lot of the things that are on the table in the class action lawsuit,” Couture said. “And I take my hat off to Cung Le, Nate Quarry and Jon Fitch for being willing to stand up and endure the pressure and put themselves in harm’s way to protect the rights of fighters who, in many cases, are on the losing end of the deal with the industry leader and promotion in the sport, and that’s the UFC and Zuffa.”

And while he seems reluctant to join the fight with the UFC, Couture believes 2015 will be an interesting year in terms of what the future holds for mixed martial arts as a sport, and beyond the UFC.

“It’s going to be a long, drawn-out process. I think 2015 is going to be a pretty interesting year for mixed martial arts for a lot of reasons, to see what comes of it all and how the sport adjusts and stabilizes,” he commented.

“I think we’re going through some growing pains, mostly because of Zuffa and UFC and the way the business has been run. It’s obviously a global sport all over the world, and in some ways the market is a little bit saturated. It seems to have lost some of its luster and that special shine that it had back when there were only six or eight pay-per-views a year.

“I think the door has been kind of opened a little bit with all of this stuff to allow other promotions like Bellator and World Series of Fighting to grow their brand and fill that gap, and also promote and allow a lot of other fighters to make a living and sell their merchandise and get sponsorships and do a lot of things in the sport of mixed martial arts. So I think it’s going to be a really interesting year.”

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