Randy Couture return to UFC imminent?

In what could be the biggest MMA story of the year, Dana White has called a Tuesday afternoon media conference call with indications being that he’ll announce the return of Randy Couture to the promotion.  Couture left the promotion roughly a year ago after vacating his UFC heavyweight title, citing issues with his compensation and “lack of respect”.  The two sides have been embroiled in a legal battle ever since, which has kept Couture out of action.  There have been “trial balloons” floated for a return as part of a settlement before, but now it appears to be all but a done deal.

Though details have yet to be formally announced, what will likely happen is that the UFC will tear up Couture’s existing deal—the interpretation of which has been at the heart of the legal dispute.  Couture will then sign a new deal for three fights with the first to be at UFC 91 in Portland, OR—reportedly against Brock Lesnar.  Both sides will then drop their legal action and life will go on with Couture able to fight (presumably at a higher rate of compensation), the UFC will be able to make money off of him and most importantly, perhaps, his contractual status crystal clear.

The biggest question mark in the settlement could literally change the world of mixed martial arts:  where does the settlement address Couture’s long stated desire to fight WAMMA heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko?  There are reports that at least for this big money fight the UFC would be willing to enter into a co-promotional arrangement to make it happen.  At the very least, they’d have to do business with the “crazy Russians” (to quote one of Dana White’s better turns of phrase) that manage Fedor, namely M1 Global.  Depending on the nature of Fedor’s contract with Affliction, they may be involved as well.

So why has this rapprochement come about now?  Pretty simple—Couture, at age 45, doesn’t have time to sweat out a protracted legal battle.  When early legal decisions went in favor of the UFC, keeping him out of action in the near term, he saw the writing on the wall and instructed his attorneys to start playing “let’s make a deal”.  With his acting career going well, he had at least some negotiating leverage and the UFC figured they’d be better off making money now with Couture on slightly less advantageous terms than prevailing in a legal battle several years down the road.

Obviously, as the recent on and off against negotiations between Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquaio have indicated, anything can happen in the fight game and the reality could be completely different 24 hours from now.  Still, at this moment it looks like Randy Couture will be back in the UFC octagon in a matter of months.