UFC Results - Randy Couture

Randy Couture vs Antonio Rodrigo Nogeuira

nospam@example.com (Johnny MMA) — Mon, 5 Nov 2007 08:19:47 -0700

In a recent conference broadcast of ufc.com, Dana White stated that the UFC would be offering a fight to Randy Couture, that fight would be against top heavyweight Antonio Rodrigo Nogeuira (Big Nog).

Of course, Randy Couture resigned from his contract with the UFC a couple of weeks ago, stating that he would no longer be fighting for the UFC, announcing for the UFC or otherwise. Randy stated at that time and in his own press conference later that it was a combination of money, respect and that the UFC was unable to secure a fight with Emelianenko Fedor.

Randy believes that the only fight worth fighting is against Fedor, widely considered to be the best heavyweight, if not best pound for pound, fighter in the world. At 44 years old, Randy only has a few fights left in him and he wants to fight the best.

In my opinion, Nogeuira is one of the best in the world after heavyweight. In fact if I had to rank the top four heavyweights in the world, they would be Fedor, Couture, Nogeuira and Barnett, not necessarily in that order. If Randy Couture wants to retire from the sport, all the power to him, but if he wants to quit the UFC just because they were unable to land Fedor, then complain because he heard that the UFC was going to pay Fedor a boat load of money to secure the fight...well, I don't know.

I'm a big fan of Randy Couture and whatever he needs to do, I respect that. However, as a fight fan I'd rather see Couture vs Nogeuira than a court battle between Dana White and Randy Couture.

M-1 Global sets sights on heavyweights

nospam@example.com (Johnny MMA) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 08:53:14 -0700

As you may or may not have heard by now, M-1 Global, a new MMA promotion which was formerly M-1 out of russia has signed Fedor Emelianenko to a 6 fight 2 year deal. The UFC has been trying to sign Fedor since they purchased Pride earlier this year, but couldn't come to terms.

There is an interesting clause in Fedor's contract which states (approximately) that M-1 will pay any UFC heavyweight champion who wants to fight Fedor in M-1 a million dollars more than the UFC will pay. I'd love to read how that section really reads.

M-1 and Fedor specifically mentioned Randy Couture although Couture still has two fights left on his UFC contract. Dana White has already said that he won't let Randy out of his contract, but Randy has already resigned from the UFC.

Randy Couture is holding a press conference on Thursday to discuss his exit from the UFC and hopefully his future plans.

If M-1 can sign Fedor, Josh Barnett and Randy Couture, they'll have the beginning of a decent heavyweight division with arguably three of the top 5 heavyweights in the world. Of course this weekend the UFC announced that they signed Brock Lesnar to a deal, Lesnar, giving some time and the proper training has the physical tools to be a dominant force in the UFC heavyweight picture.

It's worth noting the following. The UFC will not be destroyed by this. In fact, 80% of UFC fans probably don't even know who Fedor or Josh Barnett are. For example, this past weekend I had three guys over to watch UFC 77. All three guys actively train standup and BJJ at a local club. When they asked me what I thought about Randy retiring, I told them that he didn't retire, he wants to fight Fedor...none of them knew who Fedor was.

Worldwide, Fedor is a star of MMA, but for most of the TUF generation of MMA fan he doesn't even exist. A fight with Randy may or may not change that. I don't think anyone is going to spend $50 on a PPV for one fight...M-1 needs to fill out their stable of fighters and have a spectacular first card.

Quick question, any opinions on the new look for the site? I'm personally sitting on the fence between the old and new looks. Vote in the comment section.

Randy Couture is leaving the UFC

nospam@example.com (Johnny MMA) — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 14:13:18 -0700

According to the Fight Network and mmajunkie.com Randy Couture has decided to leave the UFC.

This is the second big hit for the UFC heavyweight division in about a week. Earlier this week Fedor Emelianenko signed with M-1 or former M-1 out of Russia.

Here's a quote from "The Natural".

“I appreciate this opportunity the sport of MMA and the UFC has given me,” Couture told the website. “However, I’m tired of swimming upstream at this stage with the management of the UFC. It only makes sense at this point in my career to fight Fedor Emelianenko, and since he’s now signed with another organization, I feel like it’s time to resign and focus on my other endeavors.“

Randy Couture is a class act and at 44 years old he has nothing left to prove, whether he fought Fedor or not he is a true MMA legend and will be missed inside the ring. His last two victories over Tim Sylvia and Gabriel Gonzaga defied all odds and truly put him at the top of the sport.

So, this leaves Tim Sylvia, Brandon Vera, Cheik Kongo, Antonio Nogeuira, Mirko Cro Cop, Andrei Arlovski and all the other top 10 UFC heavyweight contenders in immediate title contention. Any of these guys could be 1-2 wins away from holding the UFC heavyweight title.

Randy Couture is tough!

nospam@example.com (Johnny MMA) — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 07:20:16 -0700

Randy Couture finished his fight against Gabriel Gonzaga on Saturday night...and he did it with a broken arm. Randy suffered the break in round 3 as a result of blocking one of Gonzaga's high kicks.

This from mmaweekly.com

â€œAfter the fight, the doc check my hand and checked everything and I just thought it was a real good bruise, a good deep bone bruise,â€ said Couture.

â€œBy the end of that evening, that night, and the next morning it was very swollen and I couldnâ€™t pronate or supinate my hand, you know turn my wrist back or forth. I realized at that point that I might have a broken bone in there. I went to the chiropractor that afternoon and he has an x-ray machine and he put it up there on the screen and sure enough it was broke clean through.â€

Now that's tough. I bow to Randy, 44, kicking butt and finishing a fight with a broken arm. Yep, legend sounds about right.

All Randy Couture tonight on Spike TV

nospam@example.com (Johnny MMA) — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 14:06:27 -0700

Starting tonight at 10:00pm (ET/PT) Spike TV will be featuring Randy "The Natural" Couture, the current UFC heavyweight champion. This is of course a prelude to this weekends UFC 74 event which features a heavyweight title bout between Randy Couture and Gabriel Gonzaga.

Also on this weekends UFC 74 Fight Card is Josh Koscheck taking on MMA wizard Georges St Pierre.

The schedule tonight on Spike TV

10:00pm UFC Unleashed
11:00pm Countdown to UFC 74 Couture vs Gonzaga
midnight UFC all access : Randy Couture

For those of you who miss it tonight, it looks like Spike TV will be replaying the all access and countdown portions on Saturday starting at 5:30pm ET/PT

UFC 74 starts at 7:00pm PT/10:00pm ET on Saturday August 25th.