 Amid speculation that has run rampant the past few days, the UFC made it official when Randy Couture told Joe Rogan that he signed a new 4 fight deal to return to where he has spent most of his MMA career on “Inside the UFC” a new program on Spike TV. Couture told Joe Rogan that he signed a 4 fight deal and would return to the heavyweight division
Amid speculation that has run rampant the past few days, the UFC made it official when Randy Couture told Joe Rogan that he signed a new 4 fight deal to return to where he has spent most of his MMA career on “Inside the UFC” a new program on Spike TV. Couture told Joe Rogan that he signed a 4 fight deal and would return to the heavyweight division where he started his UFC career and will be given an immediate title shot against current Champion Tim “The Maine-iac” Sylvia. The fight will take place in Ohio on March3rd and will be the main event. Interestingly enough the two fighters have trained together in the past but will be putting their friendship aside to put on what has to be the biggest heavyweight fight in the history of the UFC.
It is unknown at this point if he will compete only at Heavyweight or if he will return to light heavy weight at some point, but Couture at Heavyweight does create a dearth of interesting matches in the UFC 205+ division. If Couture is able to get past Sylvia, and that is a big if at this point, matches with Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, or Andrei Arlovski, a man he was scheduled to fight at a previous UFC but didn’t happen due to injury, could be made and generate significant Pay Per View interest. Couture at Light heavy weight would seem to generate less big fights, with his trilogy with Chuck Liddell already complete, it seems that Heavyweight makes the most sense at this point
While some fans may have mixed feelings about seeing a legend return to the right, from a dollars and cents point of view this revelation is a “no brainer”. Not only does it bring back one of their most popular fighters back into the mix, it will also mix up their worst division, a division that is thin even with the addition of Filipovic, and also makes another future money “Retirement” fight for Couture down the road, a fight that will surely be heavily promoted. With the fact that he did sign a 4 fight deal to return, one would presume that he would fight more then once regardless of the outcome of the Sylvia fight provided he stays relatively healthy.
If I were the UFC, would I rather see Tim Sylvia vs. Randy Couture in a comeback title fight in potentially the biggest heavyweight contest of all time, or would I rather see Tim Sylvia vs. Gabriel Gonzaga or Brandon Vera? No offense to either fighter, but for me, the choice is only Natural... ( Forgive the Pun)
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