The Wand Rumors - MMAUniverse.com

Despite appearing in adverts and on promotional materials for Pride’s big end of year event Pride: Shockwave 2006, the latest rumour from Brazil is that Wanderei Silva will not be participating in the show.

Chute Boxe’s technical director, Rafael Cordeiro revealed to the Brazilian media that Silva is training hard but with the backing of Dream Stage Entertainment is prioritising his Middleweight title defence at the next North American venture, Pride 33.

The rumour was that Wand could be defending his Middleweight title against none other than UFC Hall of Famer Randy "The Natural" Couture at Pride 33, but that was quashed by our friends at InsideFighting today:

Extract from InsideFighting article posted today:

Is Randy Couture coming out of retirement to fight Wanderlei Silva in February?

“Not that I know of” says Couture over the telephone with InsideFighting Monday afternoon.

“I’ve heard that rumor from a couple of different people now, but I think it’s just coming from someone with a wild imagination” Couture continues.

Couture has said before that he feels confident that physically he could still fight, so it remains a favorite guessing and wishing game for many observers to wonder if and when Couture will fight again.

Not many match-ups would be more intriguing than one with Silva, who for a time Couture shared top 205-lb honors with when they reigned as champions for their respective organizations at the same time.

But Couture says that fight simply is not a reality right now.

“I wish I could say it was true, but it’s not” he says.