Randy Couture back in UFC, to fight Brock Lesnar for heavyweight tilte

The rumors became a reality on Tuesday afternoon as UFC president Dana White announced the return of Randy Couture to the promotion.  Couture had resigned from the promotion and vacated his heavyweight title over a year ago, and subsequently the lawsuits started to fly between the two sides.  Following some initial legal setbacks and realizing that at age 45 time wasn’t on his side, Couture more or less capitulated and tried to negotiate the best return deal possible.

Couture’s return fight will be at UFC 91 on November 15th in Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden against former WWE champion turned MMA fighter Brock Lesnar.  The event had originally been scheduled for Portland, OR but has been relocated due to Couture’s return, presumably to take advantage of the tradition of having “big” fights in Sin City. “The Natural” has also been reinstated as UFC heavyweight champion and the fight against the monstrous Lesnar will be a five round title defense.  Though the UFC wasn’t clear about the status of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, who was the “interim” champ in Couture’s absence, the indication is that the winner of the Nogueria/Frank Mir fight at UFC 92 will get a shot at the actual title sometime in 2009.  More likely, the UFC will “make things up as they go along” in order to get the champion that has the most promotional upside.

Couture’s long sought after bout with current WAMMA heavyweight champion and consensus best heavyweight in the world, Fedor Emelianenko, is still a possibility though evidently no specifics were agreed to as part of his return.   Fedor was courted by the UFC after the demise of PRIDE, but walked away from the offer for a number of reasons—not the least of which was Dana White’s infamous rant about his disdain for the “crazy Russians” in his management team.  The Russian fighting god is now contractually bound to Affliction’s MMA promotion in the US, and early in Tuesday’s press conference White indicated that they’d make Fedor a “fair offer” and hoped that a deal could be brokered between all parties involved.

Not long after that, White further soured the environment for collaboration with a trademark tirade against both the Affliction promotion and Emelianenko.  He noted that he would be “appalled” in Affliction was still in business next year and that if they were to go belly up he wouldn’t “have to worry about contracts”.  He then took aim at Fedor, suggesting that he was not legitimately the top heavyweight in the world because he “hasn’t fought anyone”.  Ironically, Fedor has a 2-0-1 record against the UFC’s interim champ Nogueira and destroyed Tim Sylvia—who had been UFC champ twice for a total of 18 months.

Of course White’s rants frequently have no basis in reality, and his delusional take on the sport was further evidenced with a comment that the UFC’s heavyweight division was “looking pretty damn good now”.  Clearly, Couture’s return bolsters that claim and former champ Nogueira is a solid competitor but the other two top contenders are Brock Lesnar, who has a world of potential but a 2-1 career mark and Frank Mir.  Mir is a very talented fighter, but hasn’t “looked right” since a 2004 motorcycle accident.  He’s fought five times since then with a 3-2 mark and looked very lackluster in most of those bouts.  He was on the verge of retirement and a career as a broadcaster when he managed to upset Lesnar due to a “rookie mistake” that led to a kneebar submission.  This helped revitalize his career, but he’s still a very limited fighter with a lot of question marks.  The reality is that Couture and Nogueira—and arguably Lesnar—are the only top ten heavyweights under contract to the UFC.

All of this nonsense aside, MMA fans have to be happy that Couture is back in action.  He’s one of the most amazing athletes in the sport, and the UFC is no doubt to have such a solid revenue generator back in the fold.