The buzz around the Internet today has been around the possible return of Randy Couture to the UFC. Couture has been holding out, trying to outlast his current contract with the UFC so that he could fight Fedor Emelianenko on his own terms. He had talked about being open to have the fight in the UFC, but Fedor and his management company could never come to terms with the UFC.
The news today is that not only could he come back to the UFC, but that he could possibly main event the November show which is scheduled to be in Portland, Oregon, against none other than Brock Lesnar. Couture grew up in Oregon and would be the perfect drawing card for that show, if it does happen in Portland.
For those that might think this fight is too early for Brock’s career, well, you’re right. But this could be one of the biggest MMA money fights of all time and when the money is there, you have to jump on it. This could be the biggest fight of either man’s career. And if Lesnar puts up a great battle against the hall of famer, win or lose, he is better off than before. A great showing puts Lesnar on the map way more than a win over someone else. Let’s not forget that Lesnar was involved in the biggest money fight of the year in February against Frank Mir.
Randy Couture back in the UFC is something that many fans want to see. I’ll update the situation as more news comes out.
Big D has you covered with the latest in Florida Championship Wrestling. He wrote the August 28 FCW taping report for the recently merged F4WOnline/Wrestling Observer site. Vladimir Koslov and Beth Phoenix showed up to join in on the fun.
I’ve talked about Oscar De La Hoya’s 2008 plan before, but let’s do a short recap.
He was going to fight Steve Forbes in the spring, which he did. Then he was going to follow that up with a rematch against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the fall, and then one more fight in Los Angeles in December to end his career.
Part one of his plan worked out as his “tune-up” bout that wasn’t called a “tune-up” bout against Forbes ended with him winning a one sided decision. But part two never happened. Somewhere along the way, Floyd Mayweather Jr. walked away from a huge purse and retired.
(With the recent negotiation struggles to find a fight, as well as Manny Pacquiao initially turning it down because he wanted a bigger split, I don’t think it’s wrong to wonder if Mayweather Jr. retiring had something to do with a similar struggle with Camp De La Hoya. I’m not sure if negotiations even started, but it’s something I’d wondered before.)
It’s taken longer than I thought but I got back to watching some KENTA & Marufuji stuff. On the docket today we have their final four big matches as a regular team – all three of their matches from the 2005 Differ Cup and the big June 2005 title change against Sugiura & Kanemaru.
Differ Cup 2005 1st Round: KENTA & Marufuji vs. Ibushi & Kudo
This was before Ibushi and Kudo had everyone’s attention and going into the match they were merely two young DDT (small indy group) guys who were gonna get their butts handed to them. What actually happened was they stepped right up to the plate and put on what was at that time a career performance for them. K&M sold their asses off throughout the match, eating all of Kudo’s kicks full on and taking Ibushi’s flying perfectly. The went about 15 minutes and it was a damn fine 15 minutes. KENTA & Marufuji of course progressed to the semi finals, with the end coming from a brutal Busaiku Knee Kick on Ibushi. ****
When I first saw that the main event for CBS’ next Saturday Night Fights card was going to be Kimbo Slice versus Ken Shamrock, I knew that “die hard” fight fans would be up in arms. They think that EXC is protecting Kimbo Slice. They think that EXC is trying to be pro wrestling. They think that Ken Shamrock shouldn’t be in the main event of any fighting show in the year 2008.
Let’s just be thankful that these die hard fight fans aren’t running any MMA companies.
The name of the game for EXC is drawing ratings. They have to draw a good rating for their next show or else possibly risk being off national television. And the way to do that is to book the best possible fight for the largest possible audience. The goal isn’t necessarily to make fight fans happy. The goal should be to make “the most” fans happy.
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