Couture Will Not Face Fedor in the UFC

In a recent interview with M1MixFight UFC Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture states that a highly-anticipated heavyweight bout against Fedor Emelianenko remains a possibility but having it take place in the UFC is now absolutely impossible:

“…The UFC recently took Couture to court to bar his involvement with outside fight promotions. The litigation has apparently ruined any shot of a Couture-Emelianenko fight taking place in the UFC.

Couture made that perfectly clear when he was asked if he cares where the fight with Emelianenko takes place.

“I care at this point that it’s not in the UFC,” Couture said with a dejected laugh. “But outside of that, I don’t care where it happens so long as it happens.”

The article goes on to report that Mark Cuban’s HDNet Fights appears to have a lead on putting the dream fight together this fall, though as usual, nothing is close to official. Couture additionally stated that he would like the fight to be on American soil:

“I prefer to fight here in the U.S.,” Couture said. “It’s where I’m comfortable. For all the marketing reasons, this is the strongest market for the sport probably outside of Tokyo… but wherever it happens, it happens.”

Though I have frequently agreed with Couture’s career decisions once this mess with leaving the UFC started, I, and I’m sure many others, are becoming irritated with his fickleness regarding the Fedor controversy. Just a few weeks ago there was talk of Fedor signing with the UFC for one fight against Couture, but I guess that would just be too easy wouldn’t it. The point is, Fedor, and especially Randy (who will be 45 this June), aren’t getting any younger. Randy isn’t fighting anyone in this limbo period and Fedor isn’t fighting anyone half-decent anyway. The longer this fight keeps bouncing around the rumor mill the less appealing and marketable it becomes.

If this fight happened tomorrow, Randy would likely have good odds going for him. But if forced to wait another year or two when Randy is 46 or 47, those odds go way down along with the marketability. Obviously, Couture cannot be compared to the poorly performing Ken Shamrock, who is also 44 years old, but a fighter should only compete for so long before the risk outweighs the desire to fight. Sorry Randy, but if you want people to actually watch this fight, you might want to get it together before your 50th birthday.

Source: www.ufcdaily.com