[EmpireWF]

The UFC Heavyweight Champion plans to hold a press conference Thursday afternoon at his Xtreme Couture gym in Las Vegas. Randy Couture is said to be planning to comment on his status, comments from the UFC as well as a Yahoo! report which said he made over $3 million per fight.

Couture hasn't spoken much since his decision to resign from the UFC over a week ago. He's done casual interviews since and alluded to his unhappiness in not being one of the top two paid fighters in the company.

[EmpireWF]

Couture's press conference (4:30pm eastern) will be streamed live on the ProElite web-site.

[EmpireWF]

Randy's press conference is live now.

Couture said he told both Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta his problems two weeks ago, but they gave no response.

Couture said he felt disrespected and treated as if he was just another fighter. He said he received no bonus for his last fight (UFC 74).

Couture said the UFC was given every opportunity to correct the situation but they didn't. Randy has no hard feelings towards the Fertitta's but thinks Dana White has too much power. But he's not going to knock Dana at this point.

Randy said he felt unappreciated.

[EmpireWF]

Couture said his understanding of his contract was the contracted fights should be had during the course of the contract. He said this isn't about fighting anywhere else. He said he left the UFC and won't say he retired because "nobody will buy that crap anymore"...that response brought a laugh from the reporters.

He was offered $3 million over a year ago to fight Fedor in Bodog but he turned it down after talking with the UFC (and got the title fight with Sylvia).

His UFC contract runs out in 9 months.

[EmpireWF]

-Couture spoke about the desire for better health coverage (outside of the actual fighting events) and how "a lot of things" could be better. This was after asked about guys making $5,000 for a fight.

-Randy said it was time to move on, he's got a lot of other things to do now. He spoke to Lorenzo and Dana on the phone yesterday and told them he wasn't trying to hurt the UFC but explained his grieveances (as he did two weeks before he resigned).

[EmpireWF]

As far as the Yahoo! Kevin Iole report that Couture made over $3 million for his UFC 74 fight, that's wrong.

"Couture also addressed a report from Yahoo! Sports that stated he was making between $3.25 million and $3.75 million per fight during his main events with Sylvia and Gonzaga. Couture passed out a copy of his bout agreements that stated he got $250,000 per fight. He said that with his cut of the pay-per-view revenue, which accounted for about $500,000 to date, he actually earned approximately $750,000 per fight — nearly $3 million less than what was reported."

MMAJunkie.