Former UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre is preparing for a potentially big legal battle with the Ultimate Fighting Championships.
However, the former welterweight champion is not the first person to battle the UFC in court.
One of those who previously battled the UFC was former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion and former UFC Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture, who spoke to MMA Junkie about what GSP can look forward to.
“They’re going to hire the same lawyers and do the same thing to keep Georges in line and keep Georges fighting for their brand, I settled because I was 45 years old,” Couture said. “They were going to drag it out as long as they could and basically try to bankrupt me. I’d already spent $500,000 of my own money to pursue getting away and being able to make the biggest fight of that time happen.At the end of the day, it still boils down to the same issues,” he said. “This company has been signing fighters to coercive and literally awful contracts for years. It’s been one of the things that I’ve fought with them over since day one, since they bought the company, over ancillary rights, over (right to match) and retirement clauses, and having a little bit of leverage as their heavyweight champion when they bought the company, we fought over all these things. It’s one of the reasons I’m persona non grata with the company now.”
Couture also talked about GSP’s statement about his announced retirement a few years back -- which was similar to Couture's situation.
“I never heard him say the words, ‘I’m going to retire,’ which obviously can affect how they handle the contract,” Couture said. “Generally, when you announce a retirement like that, it freezes your contract, so if you announce you’re going to retire and you have two fights left on that contract, then that’s going to freeze that contract, and you still owe the company those two fights if you decide to come out of retirement. Most contracts have a clock on them – in 18 months, we’ll give you six fights. Obviously, if he retired, then that clock freezes, and that time doesn’t tick away. I don’t see that was the case with Georges, but then how do you rule then if he wants to take a hiatus? He’s obviously not active and not going to fulfill the fights that are on the contract.”
Couture brought up the Ali Act, something that the UFC has been campaigning against for quite some time.
“A lot of these problems get solved with these contracts and the promotion’s power over fighters if they would simply amend the Ali Act to incorporate MMA,” Couture said. “If Georges is able to pull this off, then it’s good for us as fighters. Maybe these contracts and this organization isn’t as ironclad as it seems to think it is.”
Randy Couture will be hosting a benefit MMA event with the Tuff-N-Uff amateur MMA promotion this December.
