Randy Couture Says It’s Not His Decision To Be Out Of UFC 200 Celebration

In an interview with MMA Fighting, Randy Couture said that it’s not his decision to be left out of the festivities leading up to UFC 200. Here are highlights:

On showing up to the Bellator FanFest: “For this particular card, it’s a special card. Bellator and Spike TV have gotten together and basically created an organization called VOW. That stands for Veterans Operation Wellness. They did this last year in Houston. They created some spaces on their undercard for some active-duty military and veterans to actually fight once you train in MMA. They put them on the undercard and allow them to fight and then not only give them a paycheck and an opportunity to fight on a nationally-recognized card, but give them a bonus check as part of the VOW, Veterans Operation Wellness.”

On a possible return to fighting: “I think when Fedor [Emelianenko] threw his hat back in the ring and showed up at Rizin on New Years, my phone started ringing. It was certainly a conversation I had with Scott. Scott and I were actually doing promotions for their card in Connecticut in the Mohegan Sun when that all blew up. Every single interview that I did with Scott sitting next to me, they were asking me whether I was going to come out of retirement and fight Fedor. He’s kinda been there firsthand, seen my response to all of that and kinda knows my position on it and where I’m at. Scott’s one of those guys. He’s a great guy, lifetime martial artist and one of the guys that I trust, for sure, in this sport. I think he knows where I’m coming from and I’m not really interested in coming back out of retirement and fighting again at 52, almost 53 years old. Doesn’t matter what kind of shape you’re in. I haven’t really been in fight shape in more than five years.”

On being left out of UFC 200: “It’s certainly an irritation. I think that’s the way it’s meant to be. They’re trying to get back at me and to be an irritation to me anyway that they can be. They don’t like that I’ve pointed out some of the issues with their contracts and the way they treat fighters and they’ve never liked that from day one, holding them to the contracts and ancillary rights and all those sorts of things that me and my management fought with them over since the day they bought the company. Ultimately, holding out to try and get the fights that I wanted in Fedor for 13 months and all that stuff, I think that’s all stuff they’re not very forgiving about. All the other stuff that I did to promote them, all the other money that I made them doesn’t matter at the end of the day to them. Yeah, I would like to be included. It’s a sport that I felt like I was involved in in seeing grow and become what it’s become. It’s not really my decision. It’s on Zuffa. It’s on the organization.The issue’s really theirs, not mine. I’ve done the best I could to represent myself and the sport in a positive way and will continue to do that until I die. The issues really are Dana White’s and Zuffa’s. I’m here working with World Series [of Fighting] and Bellator, trying to promote the sport, trying to do right by the fighters that train at my gym. The rest of it’s really on them.”