After just one win in the UFC, former WWE Champion Brock Lesnar will fight Randy "The Natural" Couture for the UFC Heavyweight (206-265lb) Championship on November 15th at UFC 91 on Pay Per View.
Couture had a falling out with UFC brass over pay (and to a lesser extent, frustration that the UFC wouldn't sign Fedor Emelianenko - considered the world's best fighter - so he could match up with him) last year, resigning on October 11th and sparking a court battle over his contractual status, but has signed a new 3 fight deal.
Lesnar, 1-1 in the UFC's thin Heavyweight division, was likely one or two wins away from "earning" a title shot, but Couture's return provided the UFC an opportunity to make a big money match now, and they took it. Lesnar dominated Heath Herring in a 3 round shutout last month at UFC 87.
According to UFC boss Dana White, Frank Mir - the former UFC HW champ who ruined Lesnar's UFC debut via submission at UFC 82 - will still challenge "Minotauro" Nogueira for the UFC Interim Heavyweight Title on December 27th, with a unification fight to come in 2009. Herring was the last man Nogueira defeated before fighting for the Interim title against Tim Sylvia.
Thoughts -
Sidebar (I know you can't put a sidebar before the main thoughts but this is my blog right?)
I have criticized the UFC's matchmaking before, and I won't be the only person who hears this and thinks "what? Lesnar gets a title shot ALREADY?"
That being said, I don't really have a huge problem with this matchup. I do have a small problem with it simply because to get a title shot, you need to "earn" it - and one win in the UFC with no previous MMA record of note isn't generally what you'd consider worthy of title contention - but if you look at the Heavyweight division and you look at who Couture
could fight in his first fight back, the two main guys you'd consider who are under a UFC contract are already fighting for the interim title come December.
Perhaps if they hadn't already filmed TUF 9 with Mir and Nogueira as coaches, they could pull Mir out of the fight, and matchup Couture and interim champ Minotauro and have Lesnar rematch Mir, but that'd be unfair to Mir.
Letting Andrei Arlovski go seems like a mistake now, given his performance at Afflicition in July and his general popularity - but I'm thinking about this from a pure fight and rankings standpoint. When it comes to money and business, Lesnar Couture is THE biggest matchup they can make in the Heavyweight division at this time. Period. And... Lesnar could conceivable beat the heck out of Couture and then nobody could say anything. I can see that happening. I can also see it NOT happening. Lesnar is green in MMA but he's no Kimbo Slice, he's the real deal. Heck the WWE gave him the belt early too, so...
- sidebar over -
This is huge news from the UFC for a few reasons. Reason #1 is that Randy Couture is back in the UFC. This is big because a) he was suing the UFC b) he had deals lined up to fight outside the UFC as soon as he got clear of the legal issues c) he had left over money and thought he could make more dough elsewhere.
Him coming back SEEMS to be an admission that a) there is not a viable promotion outside of the UFC that can really pay him good money more than once b) he's not the draw he thought he was.
I like Randy Couture. I can't say he's the most exciting fighter per se, but he's a legend and UFC hall of famer for a reason. Coming out of retirement to win the UFC Heavyweight title when he's light heavy size and defend it successfully is a big BIG deal, especially when he's over 40 and he's fight 25 year old giants.
But Randy was trying to become a pioneer in another sense of the word. He could have been the first big name fighter to leave the UFC and see big time success...or he could've fallen flat on his face and seen none. Had he left and say, went to Affliction and caught on, the UFC might have some competition stateside. In Japan, Pride and now Dream have done moderately well, but both ran into huge financial difficulties and Dream is in danger of folding like Pride was (and then sold to the UFC).
Now that he's not spearheading the effort to get the UFC to "act right", there isn't anyone forcing the UFC's hand on fighter pay and treatment. Tito Ortiz perhaps will be the first real test, and his huge popularity should allow him some success, but a fight card can't be built around a single person - especially one who is, if not past his prime, entering the "mature" stage of fighting life cycle.
So the end result is that younger fighters hoping the UFC would pay them more than $5000 to fight will have to keep wishing. That's on one side of the coin.
On the other side of the coin, the UFC has just given itself a lot more possibilities in the heavyweight division. It may be true that the lightheavies (205lbs) are the real stars of the promotion, and for good reason with guys like Rampage, Iceman Chuck Liddell, Forest Griffin, Shogun Rua. But now, at least for a year or so, Lesnar isn't the only real draw at Heavyweight.
Exciting fights are to be made and a dormant division waiting for Lesnar to take over might get its wish a LOT sooner than we thought. I don't think Couture v Lesnar will do numbers as well as Iceman v Ortiz without a strong co-main event but I don't doubt the UFC's ability to make one! Rumors say Rampage, Shogun, and Wanderlei Silva may fight on the November card... Any matchup of two of those 3 works for me!
