About a week ago, MMA Weekly reported that Randy Couture turned down a title fight with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Randy clearly says as much in the piece. As a result, everyone assumed Nogueira would be fighting Tim Sylvia for the title at UFC 81. The UFC is yet to announce anything, and all of their TV graphics for UFC 81 simply feature Brock Lesnar v. Frank Mir.
There are lots of possible explanations. Maybe since the show is heavily rumored to be on CBS, they want to save a title fight for PPV the next month. Maybe the Randy title situation isn't completely sorted out. Maybe they want to focus all the marketing on a WWF champion coming to UFC. Maybe they're scared to death of main eventing a broadcast show with Tim Sylvia.
We've finally had some closure on the "what will happen at lightweight?" and "what's up with Rampage?" mysteries, and it would be nice to find out what's up at heavyweight. UFC will supposedly announce that Sherk has been stripped of his title tomorrow, so it'll be interesting to see if they announce anything about the heavyweight title.
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