The UFC and Randy Couture

By:  | Posted: Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 at 6:37 pm.

It seems funny that just a week
ago I wrote down some thoughts about Brock Lesnar and how his road to MMA
legitimacy within the UFC was being laid out as a very rocky one.  It is quite evident that although UFC
President Dana White loves the idea of having Brock Lesnar as a legitimate
fighter, he was not going to give him an easy road into the superstar status of
the UFC Heavyweight Division.  Now
two weeks later Brock Lesnar is getting a title shot against the “Natural”
Randy Couture as Randy makes his return to the UFC from almost a year of legal
battles and inactivity.

Is the UFC doing to Couture the
exact same thing he has complained about throughout his storied career?  Setting him up as the fall guy for the
UFC’s next big thing?  Maybe, but
you cannot blame the UFC for setting up this match.  Would you rather see Brock Lesnar vs Cheick Kongo?  Hell no and neither would I.  If there is one thing that has been
clear over the last year is that Randy Couture does not have a lot of shelf
life left in him.  He is at the end
of his career, like it or not. 
That was why the management at Zuffa was prolonging the legal battle as
best they could.  Time was on their
side not Couture’s.  The longer
things went in the courtroom, the less chance Randy had of fulfilling his dream
of fighting Fedor Emelianenko.  The
UFC was not going to be able to make that fight happen, and I still doubt they
will be able to no matter what is said. 
Its not that I don’t believe that they will try to negotiate the fight,
I just have a feeling they are going to find the demands requested of them are
to great for their taste, and I am not talking about financial demands. People
tend to forget how hard it is to train at the age of 45 and not get injured or
banged up so badly that you cannot compete.  The UFC understands that Randy’s stock will only remain sky
high until he has a bad performance so why not attempt to get the biggest
return on your dollar by putting him up against the biggest name you have
instead of the best fighter. If Couture wins great, he shows that he is still a
top of the charts fighter that can beat the monster known as Brock.  If Couture loses, you just helped
establish Brock Lesnar as a legitimate fighter who with very little in ring experience
just beat an absolute legend of the sport. 

Either way I will be glued to my
set watching what will probably be one of the biggest pay-per-view events ever
for an MMA fight.  Congratulations
to the UFC for bringing an end to an ugly situation and getting their champion
back. Congratulations to Randy for getting himself back and hopefully making
enough money to make him feel respected by the management.  Nothing and nobody is perfect, but you
have to try to make a situation or problem as good as you can for yourself and
everyone involved and hopefully in this case both the UFC and Randy Couture
have done just that.

CATEGORIES:Editorial