Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar Hype UFC 91 Matchup On ESPN
By: Kris Karkoski | Sep 3, 2008
UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture and challenger Brock Lesnar began to hype their UFC 91 championship bout on Wednesday, just one day after the promotion officially announced the fight, which will take place on November 15th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Couture and Lesnar made appearances on Mike and Mike in the Morning, an ESPN Radio show simulcast on ESPN 2, ESPN First Take on ESPN 2, and ESPN’s flagship sports news program SportsCenter on ESPN.
The pair also taped a segment for ESPN.com’s MMA Live, which will be available on MMAFrenzy.com tomorrow afternoon at 3pm ET.
For more on Couture’s return to the octagon against Lesnar check out these links:
- UFC Announces UFC 91: Couture vs. Lesnar
- It’s Official: Randy Couture Returning To The UFC, To Fight Brock Lesnar at UFC 91
- UFC Media Conference Call Notes
A video of Couture and Lesnar on SportsCenter is embedded after the jump…
Wow let the promotional machine begin!!!
Are they going to be on ESPN First Take,too? Couture and Lesnar are on Mike and Mike in the Morning right now.
Am i the only one who thinks the fight should have been announced after or at UFC 88 ?
For me this has taken the attention away from the best card on paper this year apart from UFC 84.
Don’t get me wrong i am happy over this
Yeah they’re gonna be on First Take but the mike and mike appearance is a surprised. Good thing I recorded it.
This fight is going to give Frank and Lorenzon enough money to buy another 20% of Vegas!
I like this fight…but **** it almost makes me sick seeing how much of this sport is promoting!!
wow. if either onr of these guys is not on his A game they are in big big trouble. did’nt think Brok earned a shot yet but im gonna love this fight. its a win win either way. if brock loses , its randy, not gonna look too bad. if randy loses, he will be going out to ONE of the biggest mma fights yet.
It’s great that ESPN is getting up in the mix of MMA but I still find a lot of what ESPN reports inaccurate, sketchy or unknowledgeable. This fight will make a record amount of money and that is why ESPN, everyone else and their mom are going to want to interview Lesnar/Couture. Dana White has never felt better in his LIFE! I Guaranty that.
The interview on ESPN First Take was a good one. Dana asked Couture if Brock deserve a title shot. Couture danced around the question a little. The question was posed to Brock and he said the decision wasn’t up to him. That it’s on Dana White and the fans want to see this fight. Something like that.
ESPN hasn’t really accepted the sport. Yes, they do have a section on their website dedicated to MMA but that’s about it. Sportscenter don’t conduct interviews with fighters unless they’re popular like Couture, Lesnar, Rampage, and Liddell. It’s annoying. Just accept the sport already, you phony bastards.
Of course Dana has never felt better in his life. The man stands to make an awful lot of money in the next 5 months. The main event’s for the next 6 ppv’s are amazing.
UFC 88: Chuck Liddell/Rashaad Evans
UFC 89: Michael Bisping/Chris Leben [or Machida/Silva]
UFC 90: Anderson Silva/Patrick Cote
UFC 91: Randy Couture/Brock Lesnar
UFC 92: Antonio Nogueira/Frank Mir (plus that entire card)
UFC 93: Bj Penn/Georges St. Pierre
Believe me when I say this .. I have nothing against te UFC . I think they have done things the best they can and it shows in the quality of the product ..HOWEVER …….. It’s not like someone couldn’t put together a better matchup than this .An older man fighting a 2-1 ex pro wrestler is more of a gimmick fight .I think the ufc is a bit blinded with the names on this one .I’m sure randy will beat lesnar in the first round via submission ,BUT , I hope he gets beat badly in his second fight so we dont have to listen to anymore talk of couture . Dana talks about elite losing 55 million dollars…… my question is : on what ? why would one company that only needs an arena and a ring be 55 million dollars in debt ?Its not possible
DUDE..gimmick fight?? I think this should be a pretty good match up….two very skilled wrestlers…one of the greatest vs a new guy with alot of potential….and Yea if elite xc doesn’t do well on there next show, there done…they got payroll, equipment, sponsors they need to impress…I could see them bein in the hole…ufc is negotiations with cbs right now since elite xc hasn’t done as well as they thought
I am a big fan of Randy and I hate to count him out, but I believe their styles are matched up to closely and Brock’s strength will be to much for Randy to handle. I know Randy is known for incredible game plans but in this case that plan better involve the use of a large caliber gun.
Hands down Randy has a better skill set but I believe Brock will impose his will on Randy.
Doom,
Its amazing how fast they burnt through cash trying to buy street cred.
I celebrate almost any attention this sport gets from the mainstream press. One of the major problems with ESPN is that it is a very east coast company. And MMA is mainly a west coast sport, so its not really recieved as easily by them. That’s why Yahoosports has MMA ahead of boxing just behind all the mainstream sports, not schockingly Yahoo is a west coast company. As opposed to espn that has the MMA section in the “other sports” section with lacross and poker, like its some fringe sport. And the MMA site isn’t even run by them, its made by sherdog. So hopefully this gets the ball rolling for them to fully accept the sport (which include putting MMA live on TV).
this fight is no gimmick….thats like saying this fight is the equivalent to kimbo vs shamrock…
sham is an old vet who still fights…like couture…
kimbo is a new fighter like brock…who is getting a shot @ a proven vet!!
and there is no way you can compare these 2 fights…come on man!!!
by saying this is a gimmick your basically putting couture n brock in the same boat as kimbo n sham!!! and that is crazzzzzzzy!!! couture is old…but he has proven that he can still win..unlike sham…brock is fresh…but has proven to have a solid mma foundation…unlike kimbo!!! sooo if any fight is a gimmick..its that pathetic matchup that xc arranged!!!
whats with all the hate on randy. he is one of the greatest fighters ever to grace the octagon and has proven time and time againg that he can come back and be dominant. It was only a year and a half ago that he defeated both sylvia and gonzoga, both younger stronger fighters each with more experience if not power than lesnar
I fail to see how he is great . He was really good .. but not great . I’d give him an 8 out of 10 but too many losses and repetitive opponents make him not the best ever .half of his title fights were following losses . WTF? i will go on record right now saying that if he makes it by lesnar he will lose to nogueira or mir . Either one has the skills to beat him at this stage .
I agree with Dr.Doom, in that Randy is overrated as a fighter. he is held as one of the greatest because he was the 1st to hold a belt in 2 weight classes. But he got submitted and KO’d to many times in what should have been his prime. He’s very good fighter but he’s not elite.
However to answer Dr Doom, the reason Elite is 50+ mil in debt is cause of how they spent the money. They bought Icon sports and cage rage for a couple million each. So you have 3 branches spending money on events and fighters, which means a million here a million there and it adds up to the debit they have now. Not to mention the broadcasts on CBS actually put them more in debt cause the deal they made didn’t even cover the expenses for the fights. Which goes to show why Dana White and the UFC will be the only one left standing.
yea i agree doom, but i still feel that this fight is no gimmick, you have 2 skilled fighters clashing. but i always looked at randy’s record and thought what you just said, why is he so great? his overall mma record is 15-8, he has won less than half his fights, yet he is considered a legend. he has not defeated many top fighters…yea he beat tito n chuck, but chuck cme back and knocked his @$$ out twice. tim and gab are not top heavyweights, randy has never really fought and defeated a top heavyweight.
if you fight top guys you lose some
its mma
Give me the helm and you’d see one bad ass mother coming to challenge the UFC . I’d get rid of the other promotions . open up under the name
Elite XC .consolidate the belts via tournament and then use my noggin to put together fights that people will want to see . The talent is there , the TV time is there , they just dont get how to promote it . Has anyone ever been to the elite xc website ? It is a piece of sh!t .. cant even get to the stuff you want to see .As a fan that turns me off right there ..if you can even get a site to work WTF do you think is gonna happen to the organization you wanna run ?
If Couture makes it past Lesnar then he keeps his title Vs. Mir or Big Nog. Couture is to smart to take it to the ground with both of those guys he’ll keep it on his feet with his wrestling and win the stand up, No way Mir or Big Nog has the skill over Couture in the wrestling.
Dr Doom. What affliction and elite xc’s problem is they tried to be bigger than they are. You don’t step in the ring with Ali cause you think you can box. Strike Force is doing it the right way, staying small and working their base up slowly. Another mistake was putting all their marbles on former UFC guys with semi names. Nick Diaz, Robbie Lawler, Scott Smith. Or affliction with Vitor, sylvia, arlovski. Yes they carry name recognition but it still mentally puts your brand (sub consciencely or not) below the UFC in the minds of fight fans because they are looked at as guys that couldn’t cut it in the UFC. The key is to get young fighters on the come up and market them. Cause the UFC isn’t any 1 fighter, for every Tito Ortiz or Matt Hughes there is a Lyoto Mochida or Thiago Alves to take there place. So if you marjet young fighters right you can cause a debate as to which organization has a better fighter (kinda like when people wondered what if Wanderlei (then in pride) fought Chuck Liddell). Now instead of looking like the minors, people will start taking your organization seriously. I would also do my best to make contacts with Gyms and help network that way. So while you won’t get all the top fighters coming up you might get one or 2. If there will ever be an organization to rival the UFC, it won’t be some upstart company wasting money like affliction. Its gotta be a owner and president that see the long term goals and are willing to take time and some losses to get there, Just like Dana White and Zuffa did.
I just watched the Lesnar-Herring fight again. I can’t imagine what the referee was looking at during that fight. Lesnar just laid on him on the mat. Why didn’t he stand them back up a few times? They just laid there with Lesnar occasionally getting a punch in, or at least trying to. He’s a great wrestler, no doubt. He controlled Herring the entire time, but he didn’t do anything when he had Herring down. If he fights Couture with that skillset, Couture will make quick work of Lesnar.
I have been thinking… again… re-thinking my position on this fight. I think Randy’s wife, Kim, is pretty good looking. She’s a hottie for sure, but Lesnar is married to Sable! Now, if you think about it rationally, as good looking as Kim is, will she be a distraction for Randy during his training? I don’t think so, but Sable, on the other hand, will be a constant distraction for Brock. How can he keep his mind on training when she walks into the room? Therefore, because Brock will be in such lousy cardio shape, I think Randy wins the fight easily in round 4 or 5.
Just kidding, but what the heck…
Lesnar might be the next kevin randleman lay and pray , lets see if he has a grass jaw
Randy will test it
I wasn’t impressed with Lesnar’s performance against Herring at all. He did dominate in wrestling, but when he had Herring on the mat, he didn’t do anything. He didn’t even try to do anything. Why didn’t the ref stand them back up and make a fight out of it?
Brock needs to train in jujitsu, even up to a green belt level, and he would know what to look out for ect.
if brock had some sort of submission techniques…he would be unstopabble…and sooner or later he will develop his sumbmission skills…he seriously has a great chance @ becoming the worlds most dominant heavyweight!!
it’s not the fact that this is gonna be a fight . I’m sure it will be a half way decent fight in the end . it is more of the fact of what the fight represents . The championship should be fought for by the two best athletes at that particular time and these two aint it . plain and simple . I think if there is a title match involving randy it should have been against werdum and dana knows that a comebacking randy doesnt have what it takes to beat him . The whole deal is over when randy loses and thats what woulod have happens . And it would have been over REALLY fast .
brock doesnt even need a green belt in jiujitsu, he could get away with a yellow or orange belt(traditional japanese jiujitsu, not bjj) he has the postitioning for the submissions he just needs to learn to apply them…. BUT
he isnt the most flexible guy out there, so i dont see arm bars, or triangles happening, same as omoplata’s or kimora’s his arms are big and those moves arent really easy to apply when you are that big… there is a guy brocks size in my jiujitsu club who comes by now and then, strong as an ox, no cardio(hes a juicer) but i can slip out of all of his submission attempts and then submit him myself…
i dont think brock should try any submissions on randy, and he shouldnt try any until he has developed those skills properly… but when has grasped them, my gawd, who will be able to stop him?
if brock beats randy, then he faces nog/mir, if he manages to beat one of them(highly unlikely but possible he almost had mir and mir admited it himself)
then if randy ever fights fedor(most likely loses since he will be 5000yrs old by then) and loses then i can see the stage being set for a fedor brock fight, which would be unreal…
IMO and a weird way, I kind of see this like Shamrock and Royce in the Superfight. Randy is Royce with the insight and skill that the greater knowledge provide and Brock is like Ken trying to fight the perfect mistake free fight.
Rhymeskill15
I couldn’t agree with you more. If Lesnar learns some Jui-Jitsu over the next year or two, he will in fact be The World’s Most Dangerous Man. Until then, he’s just a big strong wrestler.
Hope to god Randy wins this fight, the man is a legend .. and I’m not Brocks biggest fan!
That first 10 seconds of the Silvia fight was one of the best things I have ever seen in the Octagon.
Respect to Brock, he has obviously worked hard and is a scary, scary prospect for any fighter. I think that his size, strength and power could overewhelm anybody (given his strong wrestling background). But really, really don’t want him to be champ. Sorry boys but I just can’t see any like-able aspect to the guys personality!!
Never seen Fedor fight though.. You think he could take Brock?
“overwhelm”
Apologies to Brock fans; maybe I was a bit harsh on the guy! He came across well on the ESPN interview (what a great show by the way!).
@ animal:
Please, Fedor would destroy Brock Lesnar. He’s destroyed many “brock lesnars” before (anyone from hammer house: Coleman, Randleman, Etc…)And he’s annihilated everyone w/ more skill than lesnar that he’s fought(Fujita, Noguira, CROCOP, Hunt, Lindland, etc…) His mix of hard style sambo, boxing, judo, and insane submission game is the best on the planet. Couture might go the distance with him… but Lesnar loses in the first by submission.