Coutures real reason for coming back?

I'm thinking the man wants to fight Mirko. You just know Randy wouldn't come back if he knew he wasn't ready. What better way to make that fight happen than to win the heavyweight belt. Mirko will most likely be getting a title shot sometime this year.

reason #1 - money

reason #2 - to bail Dana out, he needed someone to put in front of Sylvia after Brandon Vera pulled his diva routine

Reason #3: I think he's got the itch. He still trains regularly.

Gotta go with Jimoooooo... Not taking away from Randy or his love for MMA, but the amount of money the UFC is starting to dish out to fighters now, as apposed to even a couple of years ago, is impossible to pass up.

he signed a 4 fight contract, and i imagine its not cheap either....2 fights a year is a rather relaxed pace, so he collects a few big paydays, gets back on the sponsors hot list, makes a little more money there.....i mean..he really doesnt have much left to accomplish....hes been champion multiple times, defended, in 2 different weight classes, hes in the hall of fame.....i dont think hes coming back out for the thrill of fighting sylvia.......and i dont think hes too anxious to fight crocop and end up looking like coleman after he fought fedor at real deal...hes a smart guy though, we'll see what happens.

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Posted by jmoooooo

reason #1 - money

reason #2 - to bail Dana out, he needed someone to put in front of Sylvia after Brandon Vera pulled his diva routine

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yup, and dana didn't want to promote a sylvia vs. gonzaga main event

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Posted by jmoooooo

reason #1 - money

reason #2 - to bail Dana out, he needed someone to put in front of Sylvia after Brandon Vera pulled his diva routine

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True. Couture is seeing the $$$$$$$$ that Top Fighters are making now and he wants in. Everybody loves Randy and will always show up to see him fight. When was the last Time Randy had a lame Match? Since TUF 1 came out everyone with a IQ above 3 (and below 48) either loves him or Chuck over ever other fighter in the world.

at one point in the ppv randy was on the mic with goldy and rogan and I think it was right before mirkos fight rogan said "man it's a good time to come back as a heavy weight."(refering to mirko coming to ufc).Randy just gave it a ha ha and went on.

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Posted by gspfan31

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Posted by jmoooooo

reason #1 - money

reason #2 - to bail Dana out, he needed someone to put in front of Sylvia after Brandon Vera pulled his diva routine

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yup, and dana didn't want to promote a sylvia vs. gonzaga main event

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I completely agree. I know this will sound ignorant but I blame Vera for this. I think he is ducking Cro Cop and Tim just so he can be a big fish in a small pound. I could be wrong. but that's what it just seems like. I would of loved to see Vera vs. Cro Cop. But that's how it goes. I'll always root for Chuck, but he did pick a bad time to come back into the heavy weight division.

Money of course.....and we all know fighters never know when to quit

and no...i dont think he wants to fight CroCop..lol....he wants to fight him as much as Eddie sanchez did

and i agree with Jmooooo....he is only fighting to save dana's ass for a Sylvia fight......and if he(when he) loses he should drop back to LHW where he belongs

Randy can still compete at a high level, why is Twinklke toes coming back?

i wasnt implying that randy cant compete at a high level, but to lose his last 2 fights at LHW, then take a year off (aside from a grappling match), then come back at a higher weight class only makes sense in that dana needed to put someone in front of sylvia that would sell PPV's, and Randy happily agreed for a ton of money. Nothing wrong with that, he deserves a big payday as much or more than a lot of the fighters getting them right now. Just dont think he was coming out of retirement for competitive reasons alone.

Chuck beat tito twice too, should he retire?

It's Randy's immortal competitive spirit, the guys going to be fighting in underground bum fights even if he lost all his limbs.


Which I hope he never does!!

Well I'm definitely not a big time sports fan, but Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and Mohummed Ali are names that come to mind. Great athletes, like Randy, who were so good at their game have a hard time letting go of their sport.

Money- yes
Helping Dana and the UFC- ?
Fighting CroCop- No

One thing is for sure. UFC 68 is going to be so intense when The Natural steps back into the cage. My money is on Randy. He has what it takes to be the champ. Keeping it will be the tougher challenge.

I'm a huge Randy fan but I can't stop thinking that he's looking to pay off those Legends Gyms :)

Ok, I'll concede that money is a factor, but I'm not letting go of my thoughts that Randy's competitive nature wants him to fight the new "hired guns" in the UFC. On a side note (I know this isn't the wagers section) seems a lot of the replies to this thread like Sylvia over Randy. I'll take some bets on that, $50 a piece for just the winner, Randy's going to spank Tim like he did Tito.

Well, I doubt he needs the money, but I'm sure everybody wants more. It makes sense to me the idea that he's doing the UFC a favor becasue Vera got greedy, scared(who really knows why)and they needed a fight they could sell. I also agree he likes to compete, plus he may really think he can beat Sylvia. Above all , I wish he had stayed retired. He's my all-time favorite fighter and I don't want him to get hurt. Sakuraba and Coutre are legends and have nothing to prove, and I wish they would both be commentator's before one of them dies in the ring.

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Posted by hippysmacker

Well, I doubt he needs the money, but I'm sure everybody wants more. It makes sense to me the idea that he's doing the UFC a favor becasue Vera got greedy, scared(who really knows why)and they needed a fight they could sell. I also agree he likes to compete, plus he may really think he can beat Sylvia. Above all , I wish he had stayed retired. He's my all-time favorite fighter and I don't want him to get hurt. Sakuraba and Coutre are legends and have nothing to prove, and I wish they would both be commentator's before one of them dies in the ring.

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he's been doing good as a commentator...he should stick to that...but his pride is so big that someone telling him he cant do it anymore makes him want to prove us wrong.....

Couture 4 President!

I'd vote for him over anyone currently running.

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Posted by corpsegrinder

Chuck beat tito twice too, should he retire?

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way way way out of context. not saying he retired because chuck beat him, im saying he lost to a 205lb striker, twice in a row, then took a year off......

if you think that after a losing year, then a year off, and into his 40's, that coming back at a higher weight class, against a bigger, longer, taller striker is because he thinks hands down that he can win and wants the competition........you're being silly.

vera was the next guy in line to fight sylvia, they could have sold that fight

vera got greedy, and dana wasnt going to pay him what he wanted, and wasnt going to give him a title shot on the one fight left on his contract

dana was im sure working on a deal for CroCop at the time, but knew he needed somebody in the interim to fight Sylvia

he had nobody he could put in front of sylvia who would either make a good matchup, or that he could sell. nobody wants/is willing to pay to see sylvia/sanchez, sylvia/gonzaga, sylvia/kongo (after kongos brutal loss), and it was too soon, under the same circumstances, for alovski to fight him again........

dana needed a fighter he could sell, and randy was already on the payroll......

im not saying that randy isnt coming back for any reasons other than money/bailing out the UFC....but if he missed competing, stepping into the HW division just doesnt seem to be the logical first choice. he gives up too much size, fighters of his size have had a very hard time in that division lately, and im sure randy knew that crocop was coming back when he agreed....and there is no way randy wants to fight crocop...if he does well..the brain damage has already set in.......


is randy competitive? yes.....of course
is he one of my heroes? yes, of course
one of my favorite fighters? yes, of course

was the main reason he decided to come out of retirement to face a very large striker with great takedown defence and then possibly have to face one of the most brutal strikers in history because he felt the itch? no.........cant see it.

money #1
bail dana/UFC out thus ensuring more money by way of leverage #2
competitive #3

It could be a huge mixture of things, but I don't see money being factor number one. He could make an extremely comfortable living running the seminar circuit, doing commentary, being a personal trainer, making training DVDs etc.

I, for one, truely thinks he needs to fight, and few people who haven't been there would understand that. The guy has been involved in one-on-one combat, in one form or the other, for at least 3/4th of his life. Anyone whos fought knows that the highs you get from going up against another fighter and beating them are better than anything you'll experience, and its not something you can easily stop doing. Randy probably won't stop until a) Hes too injured to keep going a-la Bas Rutten or b) he starts to be an embarrasment and can't get fights anymore a-la Dan Severn.

yeah he could make good money doing the seminar circuit/with his gym/etc.

but where can he make 3/4 of a million dollars for 25 minutes work?

Correction. 25 minutes of hard work, preceeded by three months of extensive training. Or he could make a killing hanging out in a gym talking to a group of people and showing them how to do a double leg.

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Posted by Svartorm

It could be a huge mixture of things, but I don't see money being factor number one. He could make an extremely comfortable living running the seminar circuit, doing commentary, being a personal trainer, making training DVDs etc.

I, for one, truely thinks he needs to fight, and few people who haven't been there would understand that. The guy has been involved in one-on-one combat, in one form or the other, for at least 3/4th of his life. Anyone whos fought knows that the highs you get from going up against another fighter and beating them are better than anything you'll experience, and its not something you can easily stop doing. Randy probably won't stop until a) Hes too injured to keep going a-la Bas Rutten or b) he starts to be an embarrasment and can't get fights anymore a-la Dan Severn.

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God I hope you wrong. I don't want him to be punchy, or embarrased. Sakarabu scares me more, I hope he's not serious about "wanting to die in the ring". At least Randy's always been in shape( unlike Severn) and has progressed as af ighter. If he pulls it out against Sylvia I;ll be shocked, but happy. My buddy was saying the other day if he beats Sylvia they'll make a movie about his life as soon as he retires and I agree.

I don't either, but its just the way it tends to go for fighters. Some of them never hang it up until they've been destroyed so badly, they can't do it, and I'm thinking Randy is just that kind of guy. He wasn't even retired for a year, and he had a submission grappling match in-between. Hardly seems like a retirement. Theres a whole pile of them from the old school UFC that retire and come back over and over, like Goodridge, Frye, Shamrock, Coleman, and on and on.

I guess I just think he's smarter than them and has made way more money. The wrestling observer reported he and Chuck made close to a million in PPV bonus for the last 2 fight's. Add the 200-250 they got for fighting and that's good money. Throw in what he makes from commentating, sponsorships, personal appearenes and gym ownership and he's sitting pretty. So it's not money IMO. I just don't want to see him lying facedown in the cage unconscious again.

Yeah, I like Randy a lot, so hopefully if he gets stomped by Big Tim, he'll call it quits, or just finish up his contract by fighting people that would give him good matches in that weight like Pe De Pano. I'm sure hes got the clout to pretty well pick and choose who he fights.

I think Randy wants the money, but I think he and Dana believe he can beat Sylvia. Dana wants someone to beat Tim badly. I am sure Dana believes UFC needs to improve the heavyweight division to advance further into mainstream. The Light Heavys have taken it as far as it could go (which was great) in 2006, but now he needs the heavyweights.

In the USA it is all about Big big big big, so very big, big big big big, so huge and big!

If it wasn't for the signing of Cro Cop, Jackson, and the return of Couture, Dana was going to have to book a Sylvia vs. Giant Silva match at UFC 70 "Slow Motion".

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Posted by jmoooooo

reason #1 - money

reason #2 - to bail Dana out, he needed someone to put in front of Sylvia after Brandon Vera pulled his diva routine

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I think it's because the guy loves to fight. Yea the money is much better than it was but the guy is very competitive.