On tonight's HDNet fights, Randy Couture suggested that he was not retired, and his next fight will be against Fedor Emilianenko. He'll do it in the UFC if Dana is willing to cross promote, or he'll wait out his contract and do it then. Below the fold is my opinion on why Dana White ought to do this, and probably will, if Fedor's management is actually serious about it.
Is there any actual downside to cross promoting with M-1? As far as I can tell now, there is no danger to the UFC in doing it. M-1 has no meaningful television, and as far as we know, is little more than a shell company with the purpose of advertising and playing up Fedor. This is a massive money fight, it's a fight everyone wants to see, and frankly the UFC doesn't have that many "mega fights" on the horizon in early 2008. If Randy wins, he kills M-1, if Randy loses, M-1 probably fades back into the obscurity it's already in, or there is a potential for more money fights with Fedor in the future.
To those saying it'll never happen...I heard Dana on the radio in Sacramento the other day saying it's very possible he can still make that fight in the UFC, and to "never say never." I'm going to hold out hope, because if it happens the fight deserves to be seen by a huge audience, not a small number of hardcore fans. Obviously, I'll definitely take the latter situation over no fight at all, the fight needs to happen.
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