Georges St-Pierre is currently at odds with the UFC due to contract issues, which has subsequently put his fighting career on hold. It is a situation that Hall-of-Famer Randy Couture is way too familiar with.
“The Natural” had his own battles with the Zuffa management, which ultimately landed him a persona-non-grata status with the UFC. As he explained in a recent interview with MMA Junkie, Couture felt that the company then was trying to milk money out of him, and believes they are currently doing the same to St-Pierre.
“They were going to drag it out as long as they could and basically try to bankrupt me,” Couture said. “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. 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.”
As Couture further explained, St-Pierre’s decision to just opt to take an indefinite hiatus in 2013 has not put an end to his contract. With that in place, the former heavyweight and light heavyweight champion believes the UFC will be using it as leverage against St-Pierre.
“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,” Couture explained.
“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.”