Video: Randy Couture says his relationship with the UFC is 'non-existent'

One of the more intriguing behind-the-scenes stories to play out in the mainstream MMA public eye the past couple years has been Randy Couture’s relationship with the UFC.

Couture is a Hall of Famer for that promotion. The two sides had a contentious past starting in 2007, when Couture left the promotion while heavyweight champion. It took nearly a year, but he returned to a new deal.

But in January 2013, about 20 months after his last fight, Couture signed a deal that made him a coach on the Spike TV reality series “Fight Master” – a competition show put on by Bellator MMA, the UFC’s primary competitor.

And that created as big a rift as ever between the Couture and the UFC, particularly company President Dana White.

Earlier this month, MMAjunkie spoke to Couture at his gym in Las Vegas, Xtreme Couture, to get an update on his relationship with his former employer.

“I don’t have a relationship with the UFC at this point,” Couture told MMAjunkie. “It’s non-existent. It’s not my concern. I’ve got my own fish to fry, I’ve got my own things to focus on, and they’ve got theirs.”

Couture said White holding it against him that he was working for Bellator is erroneous because he’s employed by Spike TV, whose parent company, Viacom, also owns Bellator.

“I took a job with Spike (TV). It’s his rhetoric and his window washing that put me in bed with Bellator,” Couture said. “I’ve been to four Bellator (events) in my life. … I don’t have a position there – I work for Spike TV. I don’t work for Bellator. It just happens the first show they hired me to build was a show training fighters that were ultimately fighting for Bellator.”

Check out the full video interview above.

For more on the Bellator and UFC schedules, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of the site.