The Ultimate Fighting Championship{UFC} lost “The Natural” Randy Couture on Friday late in the day. I was already prepping for my shift on 92.7 The Zoo. I saw Randy had quit the UFC. The people on MMA.tv{That toilet} has been running rampant with ideas and theory's. It's like the Nancy Grace of Mixed Martial Arts. However back to Randy, This is shocking news from the current UFC champion. I am for one not shocked and many who do their history know this is not the first time Randy has taken off from the UFC. However we all know what happened this time around and it's not the usual circumstances from the past.
Most people know the story of Randy in MMA, I will bring the new folks to this great man's background up to speed. Randy Couture started in MMA back in the old SEG days of the UFC. Randy had done so much in wrestling from freestyle to grecro roman wrestling. Randy ventured into the UFC and fought the UFC 13 event in May of 1997. Randy bested the former WWF's “Ludvig Borga”. Tony Halme went down at the hands of what many believe was the Kurt Angle of the UFC. Many have compared Kurt to Randy in the form of what happens when a acclaimed wrestler goes to MMA or Pro wrestling. Randy took the path of MMA and the “Olympic gold medalist” took the Wrestling path. Randy came to UFC and dominated str8 off, went onto being the Heavyweight tourney of that event, advancing to a title contender bout with Victor Belfort. Victor and Randy had a war which ended with Victor being a stung fighter for decades later and Randy would advance to beating Mo Smith in the Japan UFC event and becoming UFC Heavyweight champion.
This brings Randy to the first time that he walked out on the UFC, with the win over the IFL's Tiger Sharks head coach Randy would move onto the big match in Brazil with Bas Ruttan from Pancrase. Randy would ask for a pay raise from SEG, SEG did not give it to him and he walked. Now before you people launch into a reasoning, SEG had been fighting sagging buy rates on Direct TV, Government had booted them off Cable PPV, UFC did not put out DVD's and VHS regularly. Randy wanted money that was not there for him. Randy would do much like many people have done and that is bolt for Japan. Randy moves to RINGS in Japan and did not do well out of the gate losing to 2 big names. Randy would recover and make his way back to the top and heading back to the UFC later after working out a deal with SEG to return to fight Kevin Randleman. Randy would best Randleman and head into a Topsy turvy relationship with the new owners of the UFC, Zuffa and Dana White.
After a big pay day and 1 fight deal with SEG, Randy finished a 2 fight deal with RINGS, Randy came back to the UFC. UFC wanted Randy to sell his naming rights,etc to Zuffa. Zuffa could not obtain these from “The Natural”. Randy had his head ripped off posters and his head replaced with others heads but on his body. Randy would come back and sign a deal with UFC and become a “Buddy” to Dana. Dana wanted to push Pedro Rizzo and Randy would walk over Rizzo 2 times to retain his title. However many believe he should have lost 1 of those matches. Randy would then go on and get beat by a fighter who got nailed for Roids post match. Randy would get another shot and lose via Elbow strikes. Retiring due to a eye injury, eventually he would be persuaded to come back and full fill his UFC deal by being the lamb being led to slaughter for “The Iceman”. Randy took that chance to whip Chuck and gain new traction in a new division. Randy then went on to beat Tito Ortiz and after some bumps in the road and so on.
Randy would gain the respect he had needed for years and becomes the mouth piece and all for the newly popular and taking off sport of MMA and UFC. “The natural” would come back to fight Chuck and lose twice and leaving the UFC to become a spokesman and commentator for UFC. Randy would sit out for awhile and do such things as Pros vs. Joes on Spike and other shows, this planted the seeds for Randy to say, “He could still do it.” Randy comes back and fights Tim Sylvia for the UFC title and handles him. Randy would be built up to do several things, one becomes a spokesman for UFC and also goes after all the new Pride guys that UFC had brought in.
Randy was to face off with Cro Cop in the first ever Pride vs. UFC match. However after Mirko did not get past a unknown fighter by the name of Gonza. Most MMA fans knew who GG was and knew the match could go either way. However with that win, Coture vs. Gonzga was set and off and running. Randy would beat Gonzga and with that win, a match up of Fedor from Pride vs Randy from UFC would be billed up. However with the recent broken arm for Randy, this would build more time for a Fedor signing and all. Randy would end up not selling much interest to the Gonzga fight. Randy and Fedor was the next step. Who else does UFC have to sell but Fedor?
After numerous attempts from UFC to sign Fedor, Fedor would not take the low ball offers and not talk to Dana about signing for nothing. Fedor would sign with a company called M-1. This would prompt many to say the Brandon Vera and Tim Sylvia would get the next title shot. Another idea would be to have the man who beat Cro Cop, Cheick Kongo face off with Randy. Randy had no interest in fighting any of those guys. Fedor going with M-1 shows a lot of things and also it shows that a Randy/Fedor match could take place down the line.
Randy would leave the UFC this past week with arguments over the UFC on pay and future opposition for the title he currently holds. Randy would basically tell the UFC to stick it and he would move on from the UFC. Randy has a 9 month deal with the UFC or fights itself to go threw. Randy can sit out and train and fight Fedor or he can come back and face off with 3 dudes and lose some momentum for a Fedor show down. Randy could end up becoming the next signing for M-1 or someone else if this new company goes out and buys out Randy's deal. Randy could move then, however the only people I know with that kind of money would be Vince from WWE, The Bodog ******* or Mark Cuban from Hdnet fights.
My take on all this is simple, if Fedor is not coming to the UFC, Randy is not wanting to be Roy Jones Jr. and fight mandatory till he retires or loses his title. Randy is not going to sit out and be the next Rock. Randy can do several things, one idea comes from my fellow blogger and MMA junkie, Mike Hall {http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=&blogID=&Mytoken=FBF4448B-12F5-4036-ABD7BF06347A>} and that is to sit out and make movies and train like a mo-fo and come back and face off with Fedor some where down the line.
Another idea that I floated was that M-1 is really been bought by Vince from WWE, He is jumping into MMA and he is boys with Mark Cuban. Cuban and VKM could put on the MMA super bowl and **** Dana White big time. Another option is for someone to promote the fight and sign both men and make money hand over fist in tickets and PPV buys.
Finally The UFC is going to be fine without Randy and Randy will be fine without the UFC. Randy is going to do 1 of two things. One, he takes off and becomes The Rock and makes movies and quietly walks away from the sport of MMA. Two, Randy waits out his deal or it gets bought out and Randy fights Fedor and maybe a rematch with Josh Barnet from Japan. UFC can do several things with Randy's belt. UFC stages a #1 challengers match or mini tourney for the title. UFC pulls the interim card and hopes if the new champ calls out Randy enough he comes back, then gives the title to the new champ, when Randy baulks at the challenge and stays away from the Octagon. Dana can then either just respect Randy and his rep or he trashes him and stages smack talk within promotional or company announcements.
[I]-The Jiggy Jaguar-[/I]
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