The return of Randy Couture. After 11 months of litigation, lawyers and sticks and stones. The Natural and the UFC have reached an agreement. Terms have been reached by both parties. Casual and hardcore MMA fans alike will be tuning into watch Randy Couture Vs Brock Lesnar on November 15^th 2008. Couture now 45 has apparently signed a 3 fight deal with Zuffa. One of the conditions for Randy to return to the octagon was the UFC aggressively seeking to set a match between the number 1 ranked Heavy weight Fedor Emelianenko and Captain America. Depending on how the schedule plays out the 3 fights could possibly spread out over the course of the next 2 years. In order for any fighter to be fully prepared for a fight and proper weight cut it takes time. Time is definitely not on Randys side. Considering Fedor has signed an exclusive US deal with rival promotion Affliction the possibilities for the match up may never materialize. There is always a chance but a slim one at that. Dana White has been quoted as saying “Couture is going to fight November 15 he’s going to fight Brock Lesnar in the biggest fight in UFC history. The rest of the heavyweight division will be figured out in December. I would be f—king horrified if Affliction is still in business by January. They’re going to burn a lot of cash in the next couple of months, believe me. Good luck to them and I’ll be sitting here waiting to see what happens.”

The question is….does this fight make any sense? Well there are two schools of thought that come with this. On the one hand you have a main stream personality like Brock Lesnar that is obviously a freak by nature. Granted he does have a great wrestling pedigree and his appeal to grab the audience from WWE has to be on the minds of Zuffa Corporate. On the other you have a highly decorated MMA fighter like Randy Couture who is also an accomplished Greco Roman wrestler who is arguably in the prime of his career. If anything the natural has much more to loose and a super fight with Fedor Emelianenko may not be that appealing to casual and hardcore MMA fans if Randy loses.

We all know that styles make fights. Stylistically speaking the upper hand has to go to Randy on pure experience alone. But after watching the demise of a season Vet like Heath Herring at the hands of rookie Brock Lesnar one is left to believe that Lesnar is a force to be reckoned. I believe the secret to Randy’s success will come striking from odd angles, good foot work, lots of head movement and circling away from Brocks right hand. Similar to what he did with Tim Sylvia.

In order for Brock to be successful he will have to clinch with Randy and press that weight against him to tire the natural out. Lesnars striking ability is not on the level to use things like leg kicks and boxing to keep Randy at bay. If Brock can somehow manage to take Randy down lay in his guard or half guard and use his weight to his advantage, it’s going to be a long night. Randy’s sub game is average at best.

When the fight takes place and if Randy fans will demand the super fight between Fedor and Randy to sort out who the number one heavy weight in the world is. If Lesnar wins what happens to the division? Could he hang with Fedor? Will Randy’s stock fall? A lot of unanswered questions. But hey….this is MMA after all.

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