Kevin C. Cox
Randy Couture, former multi-division UFC champion, has reportedly signed a long-term deal with Spike TV and will work closely with Bellator Fighting Championships, including as a coach on their new reality series.
Shortly after 11 a.m. ET a press e-mail came out with an announcement that there would be a conference call with Spike TV and Randy Couture on February 5. Obviously with Spike, the home of Bellator, and Couture, an MMA legend, it didn't take a significant amount of imagination to see where this was going.
But Loretta Hunt at Sports Illustrated broke the news a few moments later:
SI.com has confirmed through multiple sources that UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture has signed into a multi-year deal with Spike TV, a property of Viacom, to appear in multiple projects for the cable channel, as well as other possible ventures within the media conglomerate's family of networks.
As a part of the multi-faceted agreement, Couture's first role will be as a coach in the forthcoming Bellator MMA reality Series, which begins shooting in February and airs later this year.
I'm sure there will be many more details to come, but it will also be interesting to get the UFC reaction to the news.
Randy and the UFC have had some rocky history, but they remain closely tied together. While the UFC has not been overly aggressive with Bellator -- Eddie Alvarez situation not withstanding -- it will be intriguing to see if they take offense to one of the biggest stars in their history going to help out Bellator on Spike, which Dana somewhat famously recently called "Spuke TV."
We'll have more details as they become available. But for now it looks like Randy's new home is with Bellator on Spike TV.


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