Couture, UFC sign six-fight deal
Randy Couture dropped a unanimous decision to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 102 in Portland, Ore., on Saturday night, but the 46-year-old Las Vegan has no plans to give up fighting any time soon.
Couture and UFC president Dana White announced during the post-fight news conference that the five-time champion has signed a new six-fight deal with the organization.
“Things being what they are, this is the place to be,” Couture said during the news conference. “I intend to finish my career here with the UFC.”
The new deal covers a period of 28 months, so it’s unclear whether Couture plans to fulfill the entire contract.
“I’m going to take it one fight at a time as I did 12 years ago when I started this thing and we’ll see where that goes,” he said.
It’s possible Couture could drop back down to light heavyweight, a division full of star power in the UFC.
“I’m interested in interesting fights,” he said, adding fighting in a different division will be up to UFC president Dana White. “There’s a lot of guys in both divisions that would be interesting to fight, but we’ll see what the grand poobah wants me to do.”
White deferred, essentially saying Couture has earned the right to choose his own path.
* NEW RECORD —Todd Duffee took just seven seconds to knockout Tim Hague at UFC 102 on Saturday night.
It was officially the fastest knockout in UFC history.
“I expected him to come out aggressive. I was going to come out aggressive,” Duffee said in a post-fight video on the UFC’s Web site. “I waited for him to make the first engagement move and I countered with a jab.”
The punch dropped Hague and Duffee pounced on him and finished the fight on a card full of early knockouts.
Nate Marquardt stopped Demian Maia in just 21 seconds and Thiago Silva needed just 1:35 to defeat Keith Jardine.
The previous record for quickest knockout was eight seconds, shared by Don Frye and James Irvin.
* FEDOR OPPONENT– Strikeforce still has not announced a date for its next card, but the organization has named an opponent for its recently acquired heavyweight star.
Fedor Emelianenko will take on Brett Rogers in the main event of a Strikeforce card on Showtime in the fall, though no date or place have been made public.
Both fighters are coming off first-round knockouts of former UFC champion Andrei Arlovski.
The 28-year-old Rogers is 10-0 and has only been taken to the second round twice.
* WEC 43 UPDATE — World Extreme Cagefighting will now host WEC 43 on Oct. 10 in San Antonio.
The card, which is headlined by an interim lightweight title bout between Donald Cerrone and Ben Henderson, had been scheduled for Wednesday in Youngstown, Ohio.
Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509.
