Despite signing a new, three-fight contract with the UFC, recently reinstated UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture is still optimistic that his dream match against PRIDE deity and current WAMMA heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko will eventually happen.
After all, UFC President Dana White promised the “The Natural” that if he returned, the UFC would work diligently to try and overcome all obstacles to make that showdown possible.
So why does one of the major stumbling blocks presented by Dana have M-1 officials scratching their heads?
From White:
“(Randy’s) made it very clear how bad he wants to fight Fedor. We’re going to do everything in our power to make a Fedor fight happen, but we’re not going to mess with anybody’s contract. You know, he’s under contract right now to another promotion, and if he becomes available or something can be worked out with that other promotion … If the Fedor fight can be made, if he becomes available, or whatever, then absolutely, we would love to make the Fedor fight.”
On the surface it sounds like White is taking the high road. Sort of a professional courtesy where he won’t tamper with the contract of another fighter if said fighter calls another promotion “home.”
Which is exactly why M-1’s director of operations, Joost Raimond, is so perplexed.
From his interview with USA Today:
“We’ve always been very open that the Randy-Fedor fight is something special. It’s not your ordinary contract fight, as far as any fight can be ordinary. But we’ve made provisions in any and all contracts that refer to Fedor to allow that fight to take place, with any organization in conjunction or in coooperation with whoever. Contractually there’s not an issue…so I don’t know [why] Dana would be calling that out, because the UFC is well aware that we have that contractual possibility.”
The language here sounds pretty straightforward. Fedor is available because his contract allows for a fight with Couture even in spite of his current deal with Affliction.
So, do you want to be a F’ing promoter?
Randy wants Fedor. The fans want Fedor. But does Dana? I’m not getting a sense of urgency from him despite all those hugs and kisses in his video blog.
More from Dana:
“These guys (Affliction) are dying on the vine. They’ll be gone in a couple months anyway, and then Fedor will have to come here. Listen, you’re not under contract if the company isn’t in business anymore, so…we’ll figure it out…. Listen, Randy Couture’s gonna fight November 15. He’s going to fight Brock Lesnar in the biggest fight in UFC history. This thing’s gonna do over a million pay per view buys, and the rest of the heavyweight division will be figured out in December. And I would be fucking horrified if Affliction is still in business by January. They’re gonna burn a lot of cash in the next couple of months, believe me. Good luck to ‘em. And I’ll be sitting here waiting to see what happens.”
Dana will be “sitting here to see what happens.” I get the feeling that’s what he’s been doing all along. And ‘what happens’ I think translates to ‘Until either one of them loses and the fight has no value.’
That might seem a little conspiratorial on my part, but if that’s the case, why the rush to have Couture vs. Lesnar at UFC 91? Is it to get your million PPV buys while the gettin’s good?
I can’t believe that a fighter of Randy’s intelligence didn’t know all of this prior to last week’s signing on the dotted line.
Maybe Dana isn’t the only one who wants to take the money and run.
74 Comments »
Randy needs to worry about Lesnar right now. He’ll be lucky to get by him!
Yeah! a 2-1 beginner that couldnt even finsh off Herring is gonna beat Randy Couture. Are you crazy or just new to MMA?
there is to many ppl buying the lesnar hype, even old MMA fans. but I agree, if anyone will be lucky with a victory it would be lesnar…
I’m not sure that Brock will beat Randy in his 4th MMA fight, but I believe he’ll become a force eventually.
All the guys saying that Brock is bad for MMA are being pessimists. Some people are panicking thinking this opens the floodgates for pro wrestlers into MMA. No promoter is just going to sign guys who have no combat sports credentials. I actually think Brock will open doors in a good way. He opens doors for huge athletes who’s only option to make money used to be pro wrestling. Brock is showing that there’s a better option.
The sun shines on every dogs ass once in a while gentlemen..
We will wait and see. Sounds like you a randy groupie. You probably think he will beat Fedor too!
LJ:If you think this will be just a walk in the park for Lesnar, then you’re mistaken, big time!!
dana does not want fedor in the ufc. dana has too much personal pride to let an unbeatable force into his company. if dana was sooooo confident that fedor was overrated and sooooo confident that randy and chuck could give fedor a ’stone cold beat down’, he’d have the man in the ufc regardless of the contractual stipulations just to laugh in fedor’s face after he got beat. dana’s not dumb, he knows no one in his org. can beat fedor. dana just couldn’t live with someone that’s not his little b*tch being that dominate under his watch!
Sure Brock Lesnar is 2-1 in MMA, which is a 66% winning average. Randy “RENEGOTIATIONS” Couture is 16-8 a 66% winning percentage. Just because you have been around longer and have more experience, doesn’t make you a better fighter. Instead of discussing length of service, let’s discuss something that matters, like abilities. Randy isn’t able to submit him, he won’t win a decision against a bigger, better wrestler. So his best chance is a knock-out, something I’m not willing to say is impossible (unlikely, but possible). So Randy’s best chance to win is by KO, do you see that happening? I can’t see it.
The vanilla gorilla has won one UFC fight and layed and prayed for three rounds. Randy was an olympic wrestler, Brock an ncaa wrestler so to say Brock is the better wrestler is not a fact.
Stronger yes so was Gonzaga and Sylvia who Randy handled easily in his last two fights. Randy can also box and has submitted guys. Brock doesn’t know or has not know or hasn’t shown even basic jiu jitsu. He does not deserve a title shot talented or not. It is unfair to the rest of the division. There are guys with a string of victories left out while wwe boy gets a shot after going 1-1.
Why can’t Randy submit him. Just because Randy isn’t a BJJ BB, doesn’t mean he can’t submit someone as green as Brock. It takes more than 3 fights to learn how to avoid sumissions. Brock has the size and strength advantage, everything else is in Randy’s favor. GG isn’t quite as big as Brock, but he has WAY more tools and is all around more dangerous and Randy handled him. GG kicks are more deadly than Brocks punches.
THE YOSHIDA/PARISYAN FIGHT HAS BEEN SCRAPPED DUE TO A LAST MINUTE INJURY TO KARO.WHAT FIGHT REPLACES THIS ON THE MAIN CARD ANY IDEAS MANIA?
source? i would find it hard for them to find a replacement in 1 day.
never mind. good info.
there is no replacement and it is a fact….it is now a 9 fight card
F**k!!
the exclusive contract with the ufc only will be the big sticker in this one. i dont see it happening unless Affliction folds (very likely) and fedor signs an exclusive contract with the ufc (not very likely).
i don’t think its so much that they need to work with M1, i think its more that Dana doesn’t want fedor to come in, fight once, and leave. he wants fedor to stick around for a few fights, hence why he is waiting for his contract with M1 to expire.
Exactly what I was going to say. Dana won’t let him come in possibly win and leave- especially if Randy has the title. It would completely devalue the UFC belt if Randy lost that fight and then Fedor goes back to fight for Affliction. Dana would want a unification type deal. And let’s not forget about Fedor contract “terms”. Dana’s going to have to want to give everything he wants and Fedor isn’t known to casual fans (until/unless he kicks Randy’s ass). And even then is that enough to give him all the rights to his footage, ppv% etc…?
yes
Dana doesn’t want to prop up his only competition by splitting the revenue of a Fedor/Randy fight when he feels they will be washed up by January. Then he can rake in all the dough and have Fedor to a multi fight deal. It is called smart.
I thought that Fedor had a contract with Affliction and that it was later found out that he never signed with M1?
Money talks bottom line. I don’t believe we are ever going to see Randy vs Fedor ever. Randy I do believe does want to fight Fedor but I mean how long has he been out of the ring. And what if evetually after trashing through the courts that Randy finds out that he was wrong and they decide in favor of Zuffa. What age will he be by then? Will he still be as marketable by then? I don’t think so to be honest. The only reason Randy came out of retirement was the money. MMA well the UFC took off in leaps and bounds and Randy wanted to make some cake out of it, and why not, but look over the past year how many fights that he could have fought, work out how much money he would have made from each. AHh its a big circus, Dana = Don Kin of MMA, money money money. And i agree with Lesnar, he doesnt want to hear anymore about FEdor this, Fedor that, enough of Fedor they are getting it on.
thats a different roy, i never get sick of hearing about fedor:)
All HAIL KING FEDOR!
i think it pretty obvious to me that dana does want fedor in the UFC and he had problems with his managers not him personally and everyone needs to relize that of course dana white isnt going to let fedor fight randy in a co promotion because dana knows what the outcome would be and how bad would that look for him if he didnt have the undisputed best HW in the world. Dana knows fedors is the best but his obviously not going to admitt it when fedor in a different leage
just wait if fedor does get in the UFC which i trully think he will dana just doesnt want to talk about it now (read the article at mmaweekly).. dana will be hagning from his nuts when fedor is in the UFC
i think both of your statements are pretty fair. the only way fedor will be in the ufc is if he wants to bad enough. i’m a big dana fan, but i know he would give his left nut to have fedor or kimbo.
kimbo?? maybe so he can toss him in with a real heavyweight and watch him crushed.
K. thats exactly why. i think dana would put him in there right off the bat against brock or chuck (big ppv) and toss him aside like a used kleenex.
Fedor isnt GOING TO STOP DOING SAMBO….YOu can BET that! it means to much to his people and a whole Nation. This is something greedy ol businessman Dana just simply can not understand. Fedor cant be controled by dana…NEVER going to hap[pen/
So dont buy Dana’s BS, NOthing will change unless Dana Budges. Fedor doesnt need the UFC, he is considered MIKE JORDAN STATUS without ever fighting in the UFC and has made a KILLING doing IT!. Dana is going to have to make some xceptions, because Fedor is simply to big to be TAMED!
behind close door Dana prolly talks so much crap about Fedor out of Jelousy…I bet he is dying to sign him. He prolly like why wont this MOFO fall in line like the rest…. Fedor is bigger then all that!
WAR FEDOR in whatever organization he chooses!
“WHO WANT WHAT and Where they want it at?’
Okay, I love Fedor, but Michael Jordan status? If we’re talking talent, I’m with you, but marketing? I’m not so sure. In the 90’s the three most recognizeable names in the world, and I believe in this order, if I’m not mistaken, were: Michael Jordan, Coca-Cola, and Jesus Christ. That is still Fedor’s only real problem. He has not been fully tapped as a major marketing draw for casul MMA fans. I believe that one fight in the UFC and all that changes. Dana knows this and would be crazy for agreeing to a one fight deal. I really do hope it happens and would pay some cash to get tickets.
Michael JOrdanesque maybe…
kimbo? You really think so?
Kimbo will be worthless soon. After he fights a real fighter, and loses, then what?
yep kimbo. only for the money he would bring in and to feed him to the wolves. JOHN. dont you wish your hero would fight a little more, maybee live up to that “gold standard” you have set for b.j.,gsp,and a.silva. just a thought.
he is above it!
he. he.
Who cares really Brocs gonna kill Couture and if Mir fights Couture after he loses to Nog then he will whoop his ass too. Randy never shouldve asked for a fight he didnt deserve but to many people on his nutts have built this fight like its some kinda ‘big thing’ when its not.
excuse me… did you say that Mir will beat Couture?????????
mir sucks what are you talking about.
IDK read this guys post.. see if u can understand it.. i sure hope that isnt what he was saying.
Wow, I am just going to come right out and say it Khaos Warrior needs to never watch the sport again.
1st off Mir got lucky because he got to fight Brock while he was still completely green, and did not know how to defend a knee bar that was so text book and everyone who knows anything about BJJ could see that coming from a mile away.
2nd off Mir dose not even Deserve to breath the same air as Big Nog let alone Randy.
and finally 3rd and for most Randy has better sub and sub defense than Brock and Sylvia put together.
What they need to do is bring back Jeff Monson so that after Big Nog gets through with Mir he could get a piece of that a$$ to.
Mir beat Randy Don’t make me laugh.
Dont any of you guys see? They have to make the Couture Lesnar fight for the belt because more than likely Lesnar should be able to win a 5rd fight. Therefor Fedor would not be fighting Randy with any belt cause he will not sign an exclusive contract with UFC and Dana has said many time that he will not allow a 1 fight deal for a belt. Obv Dana can’t say that because he knows Randy can possibly beat Lesnar and then would have to take on the winner of Mir vs Big NOG which I doubt he would beat both Lesnar and say Big NOG. So i see fedor and couture fight after Couture gets dominated by Lesnar!!
Randy will beat Brock. Big Nog would kill Brock. Ever heard of Bob Sapp? he is twice the size of Brock and big Nog broke his arm. The way to beat the vanilla gorilla is with bjj. Mir already beat Brock and would do it again. Nog would beat him too. Brock is the most over hyped guy since Kimbo.
Even though it seems like Randy vs. Fedor could actually happen from a contractual point of view, I can’t help but feel that Dana has never wanted this fight to happen. Maybe some of the one million plus PPV buys that are forecasted for UFC91 is coming from the WWE meatheads, but I still have to believe that a Randy vs. Fedor matchup would be the biggest PPV draw ever for the UFC. The only reason I can think of for this fight not to happen is that Dana doesn’t want Fedor to come in and make short work of his heavyweight champion, even if it is destined to be a huge payday. I suppose I can’t blame Dana for protecting his financial interests, but it would be nice if he would just make the fight happen, instead of stalling and drawing it out in the hopes that Randy’s age will catch up to him and the fight will no longer be the dream match up that it has been.
Man, what is with all this short work BS. Fedor hasn’t made short work of Cro CRAP, Nog, Arona, Sobral or Semmy (all decisions). Why do some think he will crush a TOP guy like Randy. Sure he made short work of a washed up Tim Sylvia (won 1 of his last 4) and so did Mir and AA, nothing new. Fedor isn’t the first guy to beat Tim in a matter of seconds. Unless Fedor has gotten WAYYYY better, he doesn’t crush TOP guys, he wins by DECISION, so no need to think he will crush someone as talented as Randy. He might beat him, but it WILL be a fight.
The funny thing is I still see Fedor KO’ing Randy…
The more interesting fight would be Fedor vs Liddell
Yeah why isn’t anyone asking for that fight. Chuck vs. Fedor would be more competitive than Randy vs. Fedor. Chuck already said he would like to win the LHW belt and than go up to HW and take the belt from Randy. Sign Fedor and let him fight the winner of the HW tourney and than Liddell.
Yea you are right Chuck is only about a 12 pack away from being HW status personally I hope he dies of alcohol poisoning.
Why would you say something like that about another human-being let alone Chuck? Who are you suppose to be?
Yeah that was a rude and crude thing to say about chucky if i dont say so myself.
Just as i was trying to stop hoping this fight would happen and forget about it……………………..
i really hope couture beats lesner…….i like lesner but there will just be so much damn hype from ppl about lesner being a god if he does beat….i bet some ppl will even start throughing lesners name in for best HW or p4p
FOr sure that would happen, if he beats Randy i bet he will be ranked 3 or 4th at HW. that will be crappy,.
I agree I hate Chuck that’s right I said it I hate him. and I hated him before he beat Wandi. I have to admit he is one of the best though.
Dumbass, this guy was talking about Lesnar, not Chuck. Why don’t you go blow Wandy and leave MMAMANIA to the grown ups.
Now that I think about it I hope randy gets past lesnar and winner of big nog and mir so that way fedor can pound randy back into retirement
Ill pound u into retiremant.
Is retiremant like retirement? Because either way they both sound scary.
lol haha
lol, Fedor Randy would be a epic fight and even though I think Fedor would win Randy is obviously no Sylvia, and the reason he did not stop Tim just as fast as Fedor is cause Fedor had more of a stylistic threat on Tim, and Tim decided to just get it over with instead of fight back and be a man.
thats the way it was too, except randy was 43 and fedor was 30. big difference.
I thought that was understood so I did not and it in.
“do you want to be an F’ing promoter?”
: )
Lets be honest, there is no such thing as bad publicity. No doubt as long as we continue to talk about Randy V Fedor, the more Dana keeps throwing statements out there, the ‘maybe’ statements, the more we talk, the more mma or should i say the ufc stay popular, shares stay high, makes Randy more popular, the more Zuffa makes. That for that reason only outside anything else contractual or the likes makes it the more likelihood that as long as the UFC stay popular and dont see any downturns we will not see Randy v Fedor. Randy V Fedor is there ace and they are not going throw that out on the table when they don’t need to. If you watched Dana’s latest video blog that shows Randy with him, that who didn’t speak throughout the segments that he was shown also looked very uncomfortable to me. Dana make a joke out of him in both, making reference that the reason that he will be late for a press conference is that Randy slept it in. I think Randy is been so used here. I feel for him in away, dissapointed that he didnt stay out longer but hey for what the fighters earned for years is nothing compared to what they can earn now, and I’m talking about the marketable fighters here. The other fighters are still being paid poorly. I just hop Afflication pulls off and becomes successful, hooking up with HDNET is a great move especially having Mark Cuban backing them.
Yes this is a different Roy by the way ;).
And dont get me wrong, I’m not tired of Fedor, I’m sick of listening to the whole debacle. Pride will always be NO1 for me, better fights, better atomsphere etc, great memories. Its such a shame that Fugi pulled out. I even hear that many fighters missed the old Pride and that Dream is a no replacement.
I thought Fedor had a “U.S. no compete clase” in his Affliction contract and that is what the wait is for. It’s not M-1; but then I suppose it could be promoted in another country
Hey Belfort_Fan are we still on for that bet if Randy fights his way to Fedor.
Oh yea Randy will whoop Fedor.
your being sarcastic right?
No Randy will beat Fedor
This isn’t about M-1, DW doesn’t want Affliction to get a sniff of the PPV buys. Everybody forgets the type of demands that Fedor’s camp asked for to become a UFC fighter. I’m sure that similar demands are going to cause issues.
My prediction: UFC is going to wait until their PPV’s are re-established in Japan, go into an agreement with M-1 (after Affliction 3: Attencio vs. Sylvia”, then Fedor vs. Couture is the biggest PPV in history. Only hiccup is that 290 pound freak that wants to star in that PPV.
dana would rather stick a white hot poker up his ass and chop his dick off then even consider the possibility of promoting with a minor league promotion such as m-1.
imagine the NFL co-promoting an event with college football, everyone would be like “what in the name of all things holy is going on here?”, same principle, same thing.
Im wondering under what circumstances Couture is coming back.What if Lesnar beats him, then a fight between him and Emelianenko is in no interest, or is it? I dont like gossip, I think it will be funny if he defeats Lesnar and Emelianenko, although I think if he can take Emelianenkos shots he will have a chance with him.They should have just given Randy the fight against Fedor instead of resisting, im still looking forward to it.