Heavyweight Superbout possible

Fedor Emelianenko and his Russian management team will travel to LA on January 19th to meet with UFC walk-away Randy Couture in person.

Couture and the UFC are locked in a legal battle which looks like he might be on the losing end. No so much that he is owed anything from the UFC but in reality he walked away from the company that gave him a title shot after he was retired for a year. Dana White, in the meantime, has been saying most of the correct things regarding the situation.

Emelianenko was the prize free agent when Pride FC folded. Dana White had the advantage with the purchase of Pride's accounts last year. Fedor's demands exceeded the UFC's worth of him, however M-1 Global was able to dip into their reserves and land the #1 ranked heavyweight.

No one knows what is expected of the meeting, or if the'megabout' is going to be discussed. While MMA is on a rapid incline, it's extremely tough to have an Ali-Frazier or, Leonard-Hearns type fight when the names Couture vs. Emelianenko are barely recognizable to average sports fans. Go back to the mid 70's or early 80's and those fighters were household names. MMA has become mainstream but in order to have a superfight, the names need to be more recognizable.

We all need to hope the Couture and Emelianenko realize that while they put in their time training, promoting, and dedicating themselves to the sport of MMA, they're not entitled to special treatment, and they're not quite household names just yet.

One can only hope that this fight does take place, and not under any unusual circumstances. The UFC is really the main company that can make this happen without any problems. The other organizations just may not have the capital or recourses to host a fight card of this magnitude smoothly.

The other problem is this fight, while huge, won't really solve anything. Couture is 44 years old and while he is a freak of nature and dominated his last 2 title defenses, he's yet to face a man of Emelianenko's stature. Even though Couture is up there in age, his skills aren't far off from when he was younger and at his best. However, not too long ago, Chuck Liddell made Couture look very mortal in back to back fights in the UFC light heavyweight division. Emelianenko walked through everyone in Pride FC which, at the time, was the UFC's rival. He won't face any competition near that of the now defunct Pride FC or the UFC at M-1 Global.

In the world of MMA this would be the biggest heavyweight fight ever. Fans of this sport can only hope that these two superstars aren't pricing themselves out of this dream matchup.

With Fedor signing with M-1 Global, he must have known he wasn't going to be facing the best of the best in MMA. I'd hate to say it but maybe Tim Sylvia was right in saying he is purposely not facing the toughest competitors out there. Or in Sylvia's words, "Fedor's being a p***y".