Couture’s departure rocks UFC
Randy “The Natural” Couture stunned the MMA world when he vacated the UFC championship and left the promotion. Just weeks ago, it looked like UFC fans would enjoy a dream fight between Couture and Fedor Emelianenko. Now, neither one will compete for the top American promotion.
That’s because Fedor decided to sign with M-1 Mix-Fight Championships in his homeland of Russia. Apparently, the UFC wanted to throw a lot of dollars Fedor’s way, and that ruffled the feathers of Couture.
This means that the UFC has already failed to take advantage of its purchase of PRIDE. UFC folded the PRIDE office, signed Quinton Jackson and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, but failed to land Fedor.
When the WWE purchased WCW in 2001, one of the few things WWE did right was to avoid overpaying the WCW guys. That would have rankled its established stars, which seems to what happened with Couture.
UFC 77: Hostile Territory is coming on pay-per-view this Saturday from Cincinnati, Ohio.
Rich “Ace” Franklin will get the chance to recapture the UFC middleweight title from Anderson “The Spider” Silva, who beat him for the belt one year ago.
Former UFC champion Tim “The Maine-iac” Sylvia, who dropped the title to Couture on March 3, will try to stay in contention when he faces Brandon Vera (8-0).
Other fights include Eric Schaefer vs. Stephan Bonnar; Alvin Robinson vs. Jorge Gurgel; Matt Grice vs. Jason Black; and Forrest Petz vs. Josh Burkman.
The pay-per-view will begin at 10 p.m. Eastern.
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