Dana White To Make “Major” UFC Announcement Today
Posted by Kris Karkoski on Sep 2, 2008 at 8:47 am ET47 Comments
UFC President Dana White will make a “major UFC announcement” later today, September 2nd, during a 3pm ET media conference call.
White is expected to announce the return of UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture for a November 15th matchup against Brock Lesnar at UFC 91.
Yahoo! Sports’ Steve Cofield this morning broke news of the announcement, which has since been announced on UFC.com.
Check back with MMAFrenzy.com all day long for the latest updates as well as live coverage of the call beginning at 3pm ET.
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this is absolutely crazy. But I’m super looking forward to the next 4 UFC ppv’s. They’re all stacked with awesome fights. I love the UFC
Am I missing something here? Randy Couture is still technically the UFC HW champion, right? So why is Brock Lesnar, who is 1-1 in the UFC and 2-1 in MMA, getting a title shot? This kind of pisses me off. I know that Big Nog and Mir are slated to fight for the interim belt in December and that fight can’t be changed up because of TUF, but come on. This is ridiculous. Randy should be fighting Big Nog. If he won, it would maybe re-spark interest in the Fedor-Randy fight. But Couture-Lesnar is a joke – bad for the legitimacy of the sport.
couture is fighting this soon to get his last ufc fight out of the way so he can fight fedor in 09′ but if brock should win i see him fighting kongo or maybe even the winner of nog n mir fight…couture obv doesnt care about being the champ and having the belt or else he would have stayed and fought for it
I so hope brock whips randy’s ass!!! Randy showed a lack of respect to my peoples Nog, to me thats the #2 heavyweight in the world. no disrespect but **** fedor you need to climb that ladder before fighting the #1 heavyweight in the world. GRANDPA ASS!!!
mburtoni i didnt read your comment but you make perfectly good sense i have been saying all of that for sometime now.they are trying to get their last big check from randy thats why they are doing this fight
God i hope this a legit major announcement this time Dana !
Whats the chances of this being an announcement of another new sponsor for the UFC
OKAYYYY LISTEN!
Couture has said publicly that he has been stripped of the title
UFC just list him as Champion for legal reasons
BIG NOG V Mir for the undisputed heavyweight championship!
Have i cleared it up for u?
Good Day to u all
Yeah I’d totally see Randy owning Lesnar too and as much as I like Lesnar… I’d love to see him get it handed it to him (esepcially after watching the last 10 seconds of the Herring fight).
Aside from the big right hand in the Herring fight… Lesnar just laid on him for 3 rounds. He won’t be able to get do that with Randy and a few months isn’t enough time for him to learn any jui-jistu / G&P in order to finish the fight.
Randy via Unanimous Decision
this is probably just to announce that the UFC is acquiring all the Light Heavyweights and Middleweights from WEC.
yea im sure that this isnt a title fight, nog or mir is champion, this is just a fight to get what randy deserves a big ass woopin, brock fought mir which is a better jui jitsu/technical wrestler than randy, he fought herring which has one of the most deadly fists in the ufc and neither one of them could do much against brock until mir caught him in the ankle lock, randy has never fought anyone the size or stregnth of brock, if he thinks hes going to come in and take him like he did a loppy tim sylvia i see a technical knock out in the 1st round
How awesome would that be for Lesnar to lay out Randy with one of those big right hands.
You guys are way off…… The major announcement is that there will FINALLY be two new divisions added for midgets and dwarfs. I believe that is why the WEC disbanned there LHW and MW divisions. Midgets and dwarfs have arrived to the great sport of MMA!!!!!!
I love how once again most people think Randy has no chance of winning……This fight is kind of scary for Couture but I won’t be surprise if he gets the victory……I get inspired seeing Randy still fighting at his age rather then saying negative comments about him like most people………
Randy breached his contract and acted like an ungreatful prick. Randy walked away from his belt, the UFC fans, the UFC HW division and himself. Randy does not deserve to come back as champion after his actions caused so many problems. He would have fought Fedor at Affliction 1 if not for Zuffa/UFC holding him up legally. He is sneaky and selfish. Randy should consider himself lucky to come back and be allowed to fight Justin McCully. He is only getting the fight with Brock for PPV sales. It is still a busines and all of you need to realie that. Every day there is some one getting pissed off at rankings and the reasoning why one fighter gets a title shot oppose to another fighter not getting one………..IT’S A BUSINESS! LIFE ISN’T FAIR AND HARDLY EVER MAKES SENSE! I can agree with a lot of arguements about fighter’s status and unfair treatment but at the end of the day, IT’S A BUSINESS! A successful business cannot be run off of emotion.
Randy is only fighting Brock because TUF is setting up the interim title bout between Big Nog and Mir. If it wasn’t for TUF and all the crap that comes with it, we would get to see Randy fight Big Nog, which would be a much more interesting and legitimate fight. If Randy lost to Big Nog, then the Randy-Fedor fight would lose most of its allure, as Fedor owns 2 wins over Big Nog.
Question: If the UFC is putting together a Randy-Brock fight just to get its moneys worth out of Couture, why is the UFC signing Randy to a 3 fight deal? (as reported on MMAjunkie)
As great as Randy has been, I think Brock has this one. The only advantage I see Randy having is experience and that is something Brock is always going to have against him from his opponents….for the most part early on. As far as wrestling, grappling or the clinch go, I see Brock having a HUGE advantage with his strength. I don’t think it is a good idea for Randy to stand and exchange with Brock either. I do not believe Randy has enough power to KO Brock but I do believe Brock could(MAYBE) KO Randy. Randy’s best chance is to copy Mir with the leg sub. Brock’s abnormal build and power is what will make him special. I know he has a lot of doubters but to me he is a freak of an athlete.
Hasn’t the UFC been working on a tv deal with CBS or with another network?
Hmmm…
There have been rumors/talks related to the UFC and CBS. Apparently the Shaws and Kimbo Slice have turned out to be big let downs after the first event. CBS was unaware MMA actually had a hard core knowledgeable fan base that could not be had.
I think because they already have so much invested in Nogueira-Mir and this is a fight Couture agreed to come back for (likely the Emelianenko fight in early-2009 as well) we will see Couture and Lesnar fight and Mir and Nogueira fight then the winners will fight in mid-2009 to unify the titles.
In a perfect world Couture fights Nogueira in his first fight and they get it back to one title but Couture-Lesnar is much more intriguing and marketable as is Nogueira-Mir considering the taping is already done for TUF 8.
They’ll get unified soon enough but the most important thing is Randy Couture is (almost) officially back in the UFC.
So would Couture/Lesnar be a 3 or 5 round fight?
Brock will be submitted, no questions asked.
I just don’t get why people ever doubt Randy Couture.
No one thought he would dominate Sylvia for 5 complete rounds…. No one thought he would take a part Gabriel Gonzaga after his vicious leg kick victory over Cro-Cop.
He’s Captain America…… this scrip couldn’t be written any better.
And Dana is a GENIUS this time. Even if Brock loses, so what? The new kid on the block lost to one of the legends of the sport. It’s not bad at all for Brock, it’s actually even more publicity for him. And if he wins? That puts a HUGE dent in Randy Couture, his reputation and is a big kick in the ass on his way out of the UFC.
I tell ya what, if Brock wins…. I guarantee you then, UFC will pay top dollar or WHATEVER Fedor wants to sign him after his fight with Randy. To set up a future fight some years down the road with Lesnar. I love Randy, but I just don’t see him stopping Fedor.
This fight makes me nervous. I also think it is completely disrespectful to all the heavyweight fighters that put in their time. I know its about money but, I can’t stand Brock. WAR RANDY
i think it should be randy vs nog as well but since it’s already mir vs nog that prolly can’t happen within the time frame that randy and the ufc have agreed upon. so you strip the belt, and make mir vs nog for the actual belt and now randy’s free to fight anyone and brock’s the big payday. butttttt, i’m not sure this is a good move for the ufc in the long term. reason is i think randy’s gonna win this fight. i don’t think it will be easy, but i would be surprised if brock wins. that doesn’t really do much for the ufc who’s interest should be pumping up the guy that’s goin to stay with the promotion and continue to bring in $$$. if brock loses, it just makes randy look like the man and sets the ufc and brock back a few steps.
Goooood. Randy in 3 via submission.
Go Randy! Piss off Dana some more.
be better if they said randy vs fedor at ufc 91, think of how pissed off affliction would be, this is not guna be big news tho cos we all no its guna be randy vs lesnar which is guna suck for randy cos i belive brock will beat down on him bad, just for the record tho i will be rooting for randy
I wouldnt be surprised if the announcement is that they are taking over the spot that elite xc has….but yea, the overwhelming rumor is randy/brock…
Randy wont get a shot at Nog UNLESS he re-signs.. no way would dana risk having Couture win then have him leave and go to affliction… but yea, I could see him resigning…and then making the card before the superbowl AMAZING… GSP vs Penn and Fedor vs Couture…
good point. even though i think it’s a risky move puttin him vs brock, i’m not sure what else they could do. and i’m also not running a multi-billion dollar fight promotion so it’s possible that i don’t know as much as these guys, lol. i hope it works out for the best though. for all parties involved.
Dangerous fight for Randy and the marketability of a future Fedor fight if this is the announcement. Lesnars gonna have about 45-50 pounds on him……
This should be a 3 rounder, no title.
Lesnar freaks me out, look at how he held Heath Herring on the ground and smothered him. Look at how he plowed Frank Mir. It’s like having a Silverback gorilla playing around with you in his pen. Try to submit that while its on the attack. And hes going to keep learning.SCARY
Also, for the record, I will be going for Randy 100% and not Brock in this case. Any other match I go for Brock.
Mir and Herring are in no way near the same class as Randy Couture. Don’t expect to see Couture smothered on the ground being hammer fisted for 3 rounds. Ain’t happening. Randy with the rear nekkid choke on that oafs’ huge neck, round 1!!
ya, as scary as brock is though, gonzaga’s not a small dude either and he’s a black belt in bjj, look what happened there. i think for this one, brock just needs to continue doin what he does best and learn some sub defense. if he tries pickin up some new tricks for this fight, i don’t see it doin him much good.
you can not compare gab and brock…
yea there both big…but brock is a beast…gab has the size like brock…but he does not have that killer instinct like brock does!!!!!!
true. totally different fighters, my point was that everyone that gonzaga was goin to murder couture cuz he was so big and alot younger. didn’t even come close to happening. brock’s never really been hit before. i’m sure he can take a bit due to that enormous head, but randy’s not some weak ass dude. he hits hard, and it might be a rude awakening for brock. there was a guy a long time ago, mark kerr that was a gigantic wrestler and should’ve been good too, but he apparently didn’t like knuckle sandwich’s too much.
that = thought on the first line. my bad
i dont think brock is afraid of getting hit, and also a dont see him backing away from randy even if he does get him brock is a total animal only way to beat him is submission in my eyes
i’m sure he’s not afraid of getting hit, it’s his reaction once it happens that i’m not sure. overall i agree, he’s a beast and it’ll be tough for both fighters which means it should be great for the fans. i’m not really sure who i’m goin for in this one, i don’t hate randy and it’s not like there isn’t room in town for two promotions. but i also like brock and think he’ll go far in the sport. just a couple unknown factors with him, like how he takes a punch, that stand in the way.
this will make randy look unbeatable if he wins and will jack up even more hype for him and fedor, if he loses dana white is gonna say now were even, either way the ufc wins, its coutures legacy and career that are on the line in all of this, and I honestly believe that dana white is hoping that randy takes a severe ****e kicking at the hands of lesnar to prove a point at what happens when you bite the hand that feeds you
anyone know of a link to this press conference
what do u mean he never took a hit…
did u see that WWE match with goldberg…
he took a spear from him!!!!!!!!!!!!
lol jk
but i was one of the people who thought gab would win..and that was not the case @ all…but when u see brock fight…u can’t help but think that anyone who comes in his path we will destroyed!!!!! i know randy is a great fighter…and he dismantled gab…but brock is a totally dif kind of hw!!!
his physical ability is far beyond gab…and that is the dif between the 2…and that is also why i believe brock will win…randy has faced many big men im sure…but he has never had to face a big man like brock…who is also a wonderful athlete…and i think that will cause problems for randy!!!
*he took a spear
LMAO!!!!!!!!
Not the spear?:)
hey..the spear thing was a joke!!! lmao!!
jus making surrrre!
To be honest, even if Brock loses to Randy which in my opinion will likely happen, it’s not the end of the world for Lesnar. Infact I think that will boost his confidence (He just fought one of the worlds best at HW) as well as his career and fan base. The Couture fight is a win/win for the UFC however you want to look at it…. people will still pay to see Fedor vs Couture regardless. And Brock’s name grows and more fans are drawn in. If Brock loses he will still be headlining.
What the UFC does NOT want for Brock Lesnar at this stage is for him to fight anyone who is a dominant jujitsu fighter and would make him look foolish in that aspect of the game. Jake O’Brein, Gabriel Gonzaga, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Fabricio Werdum, etc… I am sorry people but you put Lesnar against any fighter like this at the current stage in his career, and he gets tapped out like a little ****. Just like Mir did to him. Not only that, he falls so far down the ladder he is no longer worth the 200k a fight you are paying him. Thus why opponents like Herring and then Kongo were being chosen. Because these are stand up guys, Brock fairs well against.
Randy vs Brock is a win/win for the UFC. If Brock loses it’s no big deal. But I am sorry, Brock is way over his head in this match up and any potential match up vs Gonzaga, Werdum etc., as well. Only a matter of time before its proven. I do think Brock could be a force to be reckon with in years to come, IF HE STICKS WITH IT!
yer i know
But Brock cant take “THE STINGER SPLASH”
lol!!!!
the spinger splash!?!! ooooh nooooo!!!! lol
ayyy would it be legal 4 him to powerbomb someone!!!!??!!?!!
IMO The spear was the joke of the week. Kris should highlight one post like that everytime its worthy.
it was gold…