Fronted by Luke Thomas.
This weekend has brought an absolute storm in the blogoland, with rumors flying of Randy coming back to face Lesnar at UFC 91, in what will almost certainly be a title match, as the first fight in a three-fight deal. This matchup, and the other rumors about Randy's return, suggest all sorts of interesting possibilities.
Scenario 1: Couture beats Lesnar
If Couture beats Lesnar, this sets up two possible matchups for Randy. First is the unification match with the winner of Nogueira/Mir. The second and more interesting matchup is the rumor of a fight with Fedor:
The long-rumored heavyweight superfight between UFC champion Randy Couture (16-8 MMA, 8-5 UFC) and WAMMA champion Fedor Emelianenko (28-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) is currently being discussed for an as-yet-unspecified date in January or February of 2009.
I suggested in a previous fanpost that the matchup would never happen. Both my own and other people's analysis has been that the UFC would never build up Fedor just so he could fight elsewhere. But the UFC has access to better numbers than any of us. Its quite possible that they have run the calculus and concluded that the UFC is now untouchable by any upstart company grabbing top fighters: the cost of the top fighters would make it impossible to build brand equity and achieve break-even before going under. I figured it would be a few more years before this would be the case, but the struggles Affliction has encountered suggest that perhaps the day is already here. If it indeed is, the UFC doesn't have to worry about Fedor going elsewhere, because he costs too much for upstart promotions to survive his paycheck.
If a Randy/Fedor fight comes to fruition, the winner of Nog/Mir might be able to fight Werdum in the meantime. Afterwards, the title could be unified, or Randy's piece of the title could be retired if Fedor wins and then leaves.
Lesnar beats the crap out of Cheick Kongo in his rebound fight.
