Fedor vs. Couture: It’s a Done Deal

It's difficult for some to cope with the fact that MMA has become big business. With established and fledgling organzations securing multi-million dollar network deals, exclusivity has become a much more important and stringently enforced clause in fighter contracts. Will we ever get to see Fedor vs. Couture? If we do, will we still care as much about it by the time the fight is made?

Randy recently stated in an interview with the Houston Chronicle "Really, the only thing standing in the way for that fight right now is Dana and the UFC." He elaborates on the situation in the audio clip below, which was taken from the same interview.

Fedor has repeatedly stated that he wants to fight the best-of-the-best, yet his next bout is scheduled for 12/31 against the un-rated Hong Man Choi live on HDNet Fights. Fedor said in an interview with MMAweekly "Dana talks a lot and uses words lightly. Let Randy Couture fight me. Allow this fight that everyone wants to take place. Me, Randy and MMA fans all over the world want it. The only obstacle is Dana."

Fans are lashing out at Dana too via the multitude of MMA blogs and forums that now exist on the Web. What's ironic here is that the vast majority of these fans and sites exist because of Dana White and the Fertitta brothers. Regardless of how you feel about Dana, the fact of the matter is that he is largely responsible for the enormous success of the UFC, and subsequently MMA as a whole. Call me crazy, but this leads me to believe that he knows a thing or two about making great fights.

Don't get me wrong I'm just as frustrated as everyone else with the Fedor vs. Couture situation; I'm just not going to point fingers at any one party. Dana wants to see this fight happen and continues to publicly state "never say never." In an interview with Thomas Gerbasi at UFC.com he said "...we weren’t able to get that fight, we weren’t able to get Fedor, and I had to deal with these crazy reps he had – everything they said made no sense and the whole deal was crazy. It seemed like it was all about their managers and not about Fedor."

I know some are going to take from this that I'm defending Dana, which isn't the case. What I'm saying is that unless you are a party to the actual negotiatons, which believe it or not neither Randy or Fedor are, you don't know all of the facts. You may think you have good information from a reliable source, but what you really have is heresay. Even the two fighters themselves don't know every detail about those discussions, only what their representatives have told them. How could you know?

What we do know is that Randy has stated that he had the opportunity to make this fight happen before he came out of retirement. In an interview with MMAweekly back in October Randy stated "I was offered to fight Fedor over a year ago when I wanted to come out of retirement for thee million dollars in Bodog,”. He goes on to say in that interview, in gist, that out of loyalty he approached Dana and Lorenzo Fertitta with the offer and they asked him to come back to the UFC.

While I give Randy props for his loyalty, clearly neither he nor the fans wanted this fight back then as much as they do now that he's once again the UFC Heavyweight champion. Sure the fight would've been a huge success and a great bout just the same, but not nearly as big a success as if the fight were made today. This certainly isn't the first time the fans have had to wait due to contractual negotiations, the Liddell vs. Silva situation being a timely example, and it certainly won't be the last.

While contractual issues have always played a role in making or not making fights, as the sport's popularity grows we shouldn't be surprised that so does the complexity of getting two fighters in the cage. We very well may get to see the Couture vs. Fedor fight some day, but it won't be when we want to see it most; that's a done deal.