The first shot in the upcoming legal war between Zuffa and Randy Couture has been fired. Zuffa filed suit against Randy Couture on Monday, alleging breach of contract, conspiracy to commit tortious acts, and injurious falsehood and trade disparagement. Adam Swift of MMA Payout has a big writeup on the whole thing over at Sherdog.
Perhaps to the surprise of many observers, the complaint makes no mention of Couture's promotional (fight) contract with Zuffa. Instead the company's breach of contract action is predicated on its employment contract with Couture.
Zuffa's first move is to stop Couture from making public comments about them, and to stop him from showing his face on the programming of competition. It is well known within Zuffa that they cannot stop this forever, and Randy could eventually go work for any of their competitors in a non-fighting capacity when the non-compete is over.
The big lawsuit is yet to come though. That is why the damages here are so low. The big one is to stop Randy from trying to fight elsewhere.