Now that Randy Couture is back with the UFC, there’s been a lot of talk about a potential Randy Couture/Fedor Emelianenko fight. While Dana White has hinted that it could happen under some sort of co-promotional deal, the president of the M-1 Global fight organization, Vadim Finkelstein, thinks Dana White has alterior motives. Here’s an excerpt from a statement Finkelstein released yesterday about Couture’s new UFC contract, courtesy of Fightline:

As for his potential bout with Fedor – all the MMA fans are eager to see this happen. The statements mister White still makes about Fedor alert me. It looks as if White is reluctant to let the best fighter in the world fight the UFC symbol. I’m afraid we’ll stumble upon the bricks of the UFC monopoly and the negotiations will lead nowhere. This fight the fans await might never materialize.

Randy has proved long time ago to be America’s number 1, he’s got nothing more to prove but this contract brings him back to the position where he has again to fight younger athetes in order to earn the right he’s already earned to face the best. Randy is a mature fighter and putting him to the test now and again seems not quite reasonable to me. Everyone wants to see Fedor vs. Randy. Apparently Dana plans to destroy Randy by signing him to three bouts. White believes that Couture won’t pass through the hard trial without loss so that eventually the champion will stay with the UFC. Randy is 45 and he defeated a lot of great adversaries but now he is set to face some upstart athlete who Dana intends to turn into the national star if he pulls the victory against the long-time hero. Fight is fight and anything can happen. All this reminds me of the PRIDE situation when the organization was bought out with the sole goal of completely destroying it.

That’s why it looks like there will be no Randy-Fedor fight ever although we are eager to make it happen, both fighters are eager to get it on.

Interesting stuff. Even if Couture thought Dana White were out to “destroy” him, he’s still supremely confident. We’ll have to see what happens when Lesnar and Couture clash, but I think there’s still hope for a Fedor/Couture fight. Regardless, with Couture at age 45, that fight better happen soon if it’s going to happen at all.