UFC welcomes back Couture

By Matt Bishop

Created:
09/02/08 8:42pm

Last updated:
09/02/08 8:42pm

1 comment

When Randy Couture left the Ultimate Fighting Championship in October in search of more respect and a fight with Fedor Emelianenko, few expected to ever see him inside the Octagon again. Especially considering the litigation that entangled the two parties.

But things slowly turned the corner and culminated in UFC President Dana White announcing Tuesday that Couture, the organization’s reigning heavyweight champion, has signed a new deal with the promotion. Couture will defend his title against wrestling powerhouse Brock Lesnar at UFC 91 on Nov. 15 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

With their litigation behind them, White and Couture are getting back to business.

“Through this whole thing I never hated Randy or said anything bad about Randy,” White said Tuesday during the UFC’s media conference call to announce the fight.

“I liked Randy and I always have. This thing never made sense to me.”
Couture, a former light heavyweight champion as well, has not fought since defeating Gabriel Gonzaga by TKO at UFC 74 last August. In October, Couture resigned from the UFC.

“We’ve cleared the air and we’ve addressed a lot of those issues,” Couture said. “We understand each other and I’d much rather fight in the Octagon than anywhere else. Spending the last year in legal fights is not somewhere that I’ve had a good time. I can’t sit around in court rooms very long. I want to fight.”

White, as bold as ever, declared UFC 91 will garner more than 1 million pay-per-view buys before adding this gem: “Mark my words on this one: Couture and Lesnar will be the biggest fight in UFC history.”

This is a tough one to sell me on, personally. We’ll see when the time comes and the hype is complete. Right now, it’s hard to project a fight as being the biggest in the 15-year history of the company.

Couture’s return, though, does bring some interesting questions with it. Does Lesnar, he of three professional fights, deserve a shot at Couture’s title?
On top of that, the UFC crowned an interim heavyweight champion, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, in February. He is scheduled to defend his title in late December against Frank Mir, his fellow coach on the upcoming season of “The Ultimate Fighter.”

White has claimed the two bouts will comprise a tournament in which the winner will be the undisputed UFC Heavyweight Champion. Essentially, each fighter is getting a fair shot and, in Lesnar’s case, he will have to go through two world-class opponents to be the undisputed champion.

That would be a deserving champion in my book.

Turning the conversation to Emelianenko, White said he’s not touching him while he’s under contract to another promotion (Affliction in the U.S.).

While he won’t be getting Emelianenko right away, which was his goal, Couture said this is “a step in the right direction.”

“We’re going to offer (Fedor) a fair deal,” White said. “Chuck Liddell said it a long time ago — beating Randy Couture means something. Fedor is under contract with somebody else right now. Everyone knows how hard we are in protecting our contracts. We would never interfere in someone else’s deal.”

White, never shy with his emotions, added a couple of gems in regards to Affliction, a young promotion which backed up the Brinks truck to hold its first show in July.

“These guys are dying on the vine,” White said. “They’ll be gone in a couple months anyway, so Fedor will be coming here. You’re not under contract if the company’s out of business.

“I’ll be (expletive) horrified if Affliction is still in business in January. Best of luck to them.”

Of the over hour-long call, one of the more humorous parts came when Lesnar, who hadn’t been asked a question in around a half hour, was asked about Emelianenko. He was obviously fired up about being overlooked.

“I’m hearing all this talk about Fedor Emelianenko,” Lesnar said. “Who gives a (expletive) about Fedor. I’m tired of hearing about (expletive) Fedor.”

Whatever the end result is, having Couture back in the UFC is a great thing for all mixed martial arts fans. In the days of Kimbo Slice being the biggest heavyweight draw in the U.S., having a respected (and actually talented) fighter like Couture fighting again is great.

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Tom

(09/02/08 9:11pm)
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I say congrats to Dana White for making this happen. Randy Couture is a pretty special fighter, and for the U.F.C. to get him back is awesome. But my hat is off to Dana, he is pretty darn special too.

About The KO Corner

Sports Editor Matt Bishop examines the latest in mixed martial arts three times a week in The KO Corner.

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