“They’re still trying to call me the heavyweight champion. I resigned and relinquished the title. Nogueira’s in my opinion the champion now in the UFC…I need to be free and clear of that before I can pursue this fight somewhere else with Fedor (Emelianenko). I’d love for the UFC to step up and make the fight happen. It has the potential to be the biggest mixed martial arts fight to date…It has the potential to do 700,000+ pay-per-view buys which is a helluva lotta money. I think 6-10 [million should be the salary] for each of us and they’re still gonna make a boatload of money on top of that.”

True, the UFC would stand to pocket a sizable amount from a Couture vs. Fedor dream bout, however even the lowest end of Couture’s figure, 6 million dollars, is down right laughable. Perhaps the Randy Couture from three or four years ago could garner such an asking price, but now, at 45 years old, I just don’t see Randy being worth that kind of money to fight anyone, not even Fedor.  Of course its also possible that Couture’s off the top of his head figures are merely exaggerated for the sake of negotiations, where one party starts with an outrageously high number which Dana and the Fertitta’s then counter with pocket change.