As we all know the battle between Randy Couture and Zuffa over his free agency and being able to leave his employment deal with the UFC is not going to be resolved any time soon. Randy Couture said last week in several interviews that he expects Zuffa to "drag it out in Court" in order to hope of derailing a potential fight between him and Fedor outside the UFC Octagon. As we all know the reason Couture walked away was so he could face the Russian Sambo Machine; eventually. This took place after the UFC and Fedor's management could not reach an agreement for a potential contract. White has said several times that he felt Fedor's managers were looking to take care of themselves more than Fedor. As rumors ran wild of high demands, from making sure the rest of his teammates in the Red Devil training camp were included on cards that featured Fedor to co - promote in Russia with M-1. Now in a new interview with Fightline.com Fedor's manager Vadim Finkelstein said that there is still a possibility that Fedor vs Couture may still happen inside the UFC.
Couture said that he is ready to fight with Fedor. I can tell you that if UFC will negotiate with us then this fight can happen this year, maybe within the bounds of our joint tournament with UFC. We are ready to negotiate, the fighters are ready, everything is ready, the only deal is with UFC policy headed on their separation and singularity.
As we all know this may be a strategy to make it seem as if they are still willing to negotiate with the UFC and Zuffa and then come out clean from blame if the fight does not happen. As it appears now with the latest ruling against having the trial in Texas and not Nevada. This may also be a ploy to drive up Fedor's price with Affliction as of right now I have never heard his contract with them is exclusive or for more than one fight. If you think this is not possible or makes any sense remember that Finkelstein is a manager and agent his mind is always set on business first and more money for his client. This would be a major blow to Affliction if their biggest headliner walked out the front door after giving him a rumored $1.6 million ($300K to fight and $1.3 million bonus) along with the rights to his footage and into the biggest fight in MMA history. As we all know this is still a long way from happening, but Dana White has said several times he does want Couture back in the Octagon, is he willing to pay the price of to get him back? Is the real question.
