Randy Couture Signs Six-Fight Extension With the UFC, Light Heavyweight Return Possible
Former five-time UFC champion Randy Couture and UFC President Dana White announced after Saturday’s “UFC 102: Couture vs. Nogueira” event in Portland, Oregon that Couture had signed a 28-month, six-fight extension with the promotion to finish out his MMA career inside the Octagon.
The 46-year-old Couture, an MMA legend and UFC hall of famer who had one fight remaining on his previous contract, dropped a unanimous decision to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in the main event of Saturday’s pay-per-view card, but looked impressive in defeat.
Following back-to-back losses at heavyweight to Nogueira and heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar, White expressed his confidence that Couture can remain competitive in the heavyweight division, but is open to him returning to light heavyweight, where he’s a two-time title-holder with wins over Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell.
“He’s proven he can stay in there and hang with the heavyweights if that’s what he wants to do, [but] I think he’s a beast at 205 pounds,” said White at the post-UFC 102 press conference.
With the decision left in his hands, Couture appeared open to returning to 205-pounds, where showdowns with champ Lyoto Machida and middleweight title-holder Anderson Silva could be on the horizon, along with possible rematches against Liddell and Ortiz.
“I’m interested in interesting fights,” said Couture. “There’s a lot of guys in both divisions that are interesting to fight.”
Click here for more UFC 102: Couture vs. Nogueira coverage.
Tags: Randy Couture
Loading ...
They may be interesting to fight, Randy, and you’ve certainly got a bit of cred to do what you want, but I don’t see you beating too many guys. I hope you don’t end this contract with a .500 record, but it is a distinct possibility.
He’s gonna end up at at a 16-16 record. Hah!
good for him. hope he got what they offered Fedor
I’m not sure if Couture has six fights left in him. He sure can hang with the best of em though. He was in their with Brock Lesnar for 2 rounds and went the distance with Nog while taking a huge beating. It;s not that he can’t hang with most guys, i feel that his body and chin may ne his downfall, becaue to be honest i don’t think he has enough ko power in his punches as he did before, and he wasn’t exactly a ko artist either.
Whatever the man choses to do he’s for sure a tough son of a bi*ch and has earned all the hype and respect that he gets. COuture Liddell….well i don’t know, but i would love to see him fight Tito again. He’s earned the right to go out as he wishes i just hope he doesn’t end up with permanent damage along the way. There would be no shame at all for Couture to go out on this fight, but seeing as he lost to Lesnar and now to Nog, i think he should think it through and possibly reconsider fighting again, but if he does fight again i would still tune in and root for him becaus you got to love a guy in his late 40’s still doing it in the most brutal sport in the world.
Never count out captain america…….. and I am Canadian.
He always puts on a exciting fight and I look foward to watching win/lose doesn’t matter. The man is a legend.
yeah good on randy age is just a number if hes still hungrey an fit then go for it my son, ide say move down to lhw tho, randy needs to be the stronger bigger guy to win fights, and i feel the heavyweights are just to big for him now. how ever i dont wana see randy fighting a-silva, machida maybe but randys chin doesn’t look up to much these days and with the way silva lands them it will be night night inside 1 min, 6 good fights for randy would be
coleman lhw
tito lhw
mir hw
vera lhw
forrest lhw
hell give him machida if thats what he wants who im i to judge haha GO RANDY!!!
I think LightHeavyweight is a better move for him,perhaps a rematches with Chuck & Tito,and if he wins them give him Machida or Franklin as his last fight.I doubt he’ll do all 6 fights.I hope he goes out a winner?
Randy looked pretty slim and cut at 220 pounds, I’m not sure if he has a cut down to 205 left in him. Even if he does make 205, would he have the energy/strength to hang with any top guys?
If you watched Randy’s video blogs for UFC 102, you would know that he VERY easily made weight for the Nog fight. He could cut down to 205 with ease, and i think thats a fact, not opinion.
Also, without a doubt he would have the strength to hang with anyone in the LHW division, yeah he might get KO’d, or lose most of his fights at 205, but he has been fighting guys who are 10-60 lbs heavier than him. Therefore, im pretty sure he could out wrestle a top fighter at 205 lbs.
cone on man WTF?
come on man WFT?edit~ FR702
This is just a guarantee that Randy will never fight for anyone else in the history of ever… Business wise this makes total sense, If Fedor wants to fight either Lesnar or Randy (tho the Randy fight I’ve never wanted to see) Fedor has to come to the UFC… The Brothers Fertitta and Dana White are taking all viable HW’s off the market and why would that be?
I’m not making this into a Feodr thread, but business wise that is the reason that the UFC made this deal with Randy and Randy had all of the levrage against ZUFFA, I assume he got well taken care of..
In all honesty very few people expect Randy to fight all of the 6 fights remaining on the “new” contract and he will retire in the UFC, good move by all parties and after Randy retires (again) he will be a great addition to the ZUFFA team or even play by play, he is an ambassador for the sport of MMA, he will be tied to the sport forever
Great response.
There’s not probable way Randy Couture thrives at 205 the way it is now. His best bet was doing the one last fight, then signing with Strikeforce and finally getting a shot at Fedor (if they’d have him). He can’t hang with the major HW’s in the UFC as it is. Of course we can watch him (try to) go down to 205, then he can fight the Titos and Jardines, and Mark Colemans, just go all Roy Jones Jr. on us, barely hanging in there against other older past-their-prime fighters. If other fans don’t care, who am I to have an issue with it? Iceman-Natural IV anyone? I guess, if that’s appealing to you.
By the way, I respect Mr. Couture for what he’s done in his career. It’s just when I see young guys like Duffee (where was his fight bonus?) coming on, I’d rather see the organization invest in fighters with a future.
He got one of the undisclosed knock out bonuses, just not knockout of the night.
even though randy is great he is having a bad record. i wonder if he is going to get instint title shot him vs anderson or vs lyoto would be huge!
It won’t be against Anderson at 185…
Randy is a hero of mine, i just hope he doesn’t end up looking like a fool losing all of his fights like Ken Shamrock did. I almost think he should have just retired after Gonzaga when he was still on top
Man, was that an awesome card or what? Randy’s entrance was phenomenal. I’ve been to many different sporting events and I have never heard a crowd sooooo dam loud. If people didn’t know this, that was only his second fight in his career that it wasn’t for a belt so you guys talking about his record aren’t very wise. The dude is a freakin living legend give him a break. Thiago,Nate,Gonzaga,and Nog were awesome. Portland was full of bums sleeping on the street I wasn’t expecting that. Besides Evan the Portland guys got owned.
While I agree that there is of course the possibility that Couture might go the way of some other MMA greats that overstayed their time, I think he has a little more common sense, as well as better-defined sense of self, that to go out the way Ken Shamrock did.
And even though I’m a huge Couture supporter, I have to admit that the LHW option seems pretty unlikely. Couture has been quoted as saying that he didn’t think he had a cut to 205 left in him, and even beyond that he didn’t feel like himself at that weight, which is like high school weight for a man in his mid 40’s.
I know that I personally don’t want to see Couture in with any of the top LHW’s, which includes Anderson Silva, assuming that 205 wasn’t a stopover on his way to a HW bout with Frank Mir, or possibly even Brock Lesnar.
Randy Couture, a natural [no pun intended] 220er, again finds himself almost a fighter without a weightclass. Cutting to 205 strikes me as unrealistic at his age, and continuing on in a division that is only getting bigger AND better seems a harsh way to end a sterling career.
I also think, like fr702, that this was just Zuffa’s way of making sure Couture retires in the UFC, and yeah, on a lesser level, probably also as a little “fu<k you" to Strikeforce and M-1 Global.
Plus, you never know.
Maybe Couture has some new motivation and/or training method, and sees the 205 cut as not quite so problematic as he once did. And I think that a Couture-Rampage fight would sell a lot of tickets and bag a lot of PPV buys…
Jcohl,
I agree Randy wouldn’t fare well in the LHW division. Like you said, guys are getting bigger and better. I love Couture the dude is my idol but, I honestly don’t see him beating any of the elite guys anymore unfortunately. That fight with Nog was awesome wasn’t it? Man when they were clinched up banging it out that was one of the best exchanges I’ve ever seen. Nog had him in trouble a few times but, Randy being Randy he survived what an athlete.
I could see Randy dropping to 205 and facing A. Silva in a Super-Fight. It could be on the same card as Nate vs. Hendo and all of the timing would work out perfectly…and that would be an awesome co-main event!
@ animosity – I’ve been a Couture supporter for longer than I can clearly remember. Unfortunately, I think 102 is probably going to be the last great performance of his long and illustrious career. I’m just glad that it came against a fellow HW legend in BigNog, that he delivered it in in his old hometown, and that I was fortunate enough to be in attendance.
@ GarRule – I do think we’ll see Randy again, maybe twice more before he retires for good. I think an Anderson Silva fight is certainly possible, considering the potential cash involved, but honestly it’s not something I’d like to see. I don’t like the style match-ups, and the new less-humble, more vicious Anderson Silva would probably almost certainly win by T/KO.
Considering possible 205 opponents for Couture, and factoring in that at this stage of his career he’s fighting more for payouts and pride than contention or championships, I think maybe Rampage Jackson, Tito Ortiz, or Rich Franklin seem like likely opponents down the line.
Griffin and Hendo are out at 205, because of the fact that Hendo is a fellow former Team Quest-er, and Griffin now trains at Xtreme Couture.
Although honestly I would probably sell my house to raise the cash if I had to to see Hendo and Couture get it on, if it ever came to pass…
Being that Randy is obviously past his prime (no disrespect to the man!) I really think he’s only in it to challenge himself and to earn a living…not from a greedyness perspective, it’s just that every time he fights it’s great for business. From the UFC’s point of view it’s about the money and the fans, right? So…send Randy out with a final tour of Super-Fights and he retires in the UFC…
Makes sense? My point was that is you have to make Nate fight Hendo, you need some sort of fight for Silva in the meanwhile. Who does Silva fight next if not a #1 contender?…and who’s avaible?
By the way, jcohl, Tito vs. Randy makes so much sense if Tito beats Coleman. It would be a huge draw.
Assuming Ortiz beats Coleman, I can just imagine Ortiz during his spot with Rogan calling out Couture, who might conveniently be in attendence, to avenge that whole “spanking” incident from [I think] UFC 44.
There was also the small matter of the Natural defeating Ortiz for the LHW title, so yeah, I can see some bank from a Couture-Ortiz 2.
I think they could do it even if Tito loses…it’s probably easier to pull off if he does.
Retiree vs Re-Trierees.
The first difference between Randy over extending his career and other ripe fighters is that Randy appears to be a total class act. Very rare for him to talk smack or to lower himself in anyway. You could kick his *ss or he could kick yours and then go have a beer, and not feel uncomfortable about it.
Second, he’s a game opponent. There may be the question of whether or not he’ll win (as with any fight and fighter). But, there is never the question of what kind of fight is it going to be. Who cares what his record looks like. How did the fights go? He just went three with Nog and didn’t end up like a pretzel.
Three and the most important I think that sets him apart from the elder fighters… I personally have not heard him talk of titles or belts or championship fights. Setting goals that may not be attainable. He talks of interesting fights. His words “I’m a competitor”.
FR said it best. Randy is an “Ambassador”.
So, Randy, givem hell. We should all be looking forward and appreciate any role he plays in the sport. I know I do.
im really glad that the ufc didnt get fedor now because i really dont see how fedor doesnt end randys career if they fight
ALthugh i’ve always respected Couture, i honestly have never been a fan of his but after this past weekends war with big nog, how can’t you not admire that dude? I was hella impressed with couture dude he’s a tough old man!
I think couture knows that the hw’s are too much for him at this point so that’s why he’s going to drop to 205. A fight between him and chuck would make sense but only because they’re both passed there prime and honestly not really relevant to the 205 div. I wouldn’t like to see tito rematch couture simply because tito’s got a chance to move up the rankings and actually be a threat to the title. He’s still young enough to make one last run but randy and chuck will never be champions again.
We’ll see what happens.
p.s OnlyTrue1, Thiago silva put jardine to sleep like i said he would so now it’s time to pay up dude!!
Come on people, remember this is a business..Everyone knows how bad Randy wants to fight Fedor. So like fr702 & a cople of other people have said this is just Zuffa’s way of sticking it to Strikeforce. We all know Randy is not going to fight 6 more times. Lets be realistic. Zuffa took care of Randy by making him an offer he couldn’t refuse therefore he will retire in the UFC..The ony reason he is talking of moving to 205 is to fight A. Silva at light-heavy then call it quits…
Good luck to Randy. I think moving back down to 205 is a good idea for him, if he wants to continue to fight. I’d rather see him retire but I think he does have a better shot at 205. Although I dont see him winning the title.