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#4 Fedor Emelianenko vs. Randy Couture
In a similar fashion to a possible fight between Fedor Emelianenko and Brock Lesnar, in 2007 everyone wanted to see a fight between the then-PRIDE Heavyweight champion – and consensus top Heavyweight in the world – Fedor and the then-UFC Heavyweight champion Randy Couture. After buying out the promotion in early 2007, the UFC were already signing all of PRIDE’s top fighters, and it seemed only a matter of time before Fedor followed suit.
Unfortunately, it was never meant to be. Fedor’s management couldn’t come to terms with the UFC – usually clashing over the issue of a potential co-promotion – and so the Russian never stepped into the Octagon. That was actually enough to anger Couture to the point where he walked away from the promotion, determined to find a way to fight Fedor outside of the UFC.
Of course as we all know, lawsuits followed on both sides and resulted in Couture being stuck on the shelf for a year before returning to the UFC with his tail tucked between his legs. The Fedor fight never truly came close to happening and while the Russian took out former UFC champs Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski in Affliction, the fight everyone wanted to see remained a dream.
Could Randy have really pulled off another miracle by defeating the great Fedor? In all honesty, it’s probably unlikely – Fedor took out fighters like Rodrigo Nogueira, who defeated Couture in the UFC – but it would’ve been a lot of fun to see him try, and it remains unfortunate that the UFC failed to put this fight together.
