THE PROPHET'S TUESDAY TAPOUT: ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE!

by The Prophet, ProphetFighting

There's an old saying to watch what you wish for because you just might get it. After bitching about a few slow news weeks in the boxing/MMA world imagine my surprise as all hell broke loose last week. The events of the past seven days could literally change the landscape of the sport and I don't think we've seen the last of the fallout. So with Halloween just around the corner and with all hell breaking loose in MMA take a gander at a sexy devil girl and lets get to the news...

FEDOR EMELIANENKO SIGNS WITH RUSSIAN M-1 PROMOTION:

In what *would* have been the biggest news story of a normal week, Russian fighting god Fedor Emelianenko extended his beefy middle finger to the UFC, the Japanese K-1 group and all of the other capitalists throwing money at him and signed a deal with the Russian M-1 group. Or did he? Until last week M-1 had been owned by Fedor's advisor/agent, the Cold War era James Bond villain-like Vadim Finkelstein. However subsequent to the announcement that M-1 had secured Fedor's services came the announcement that the group had been bought by an as-of-yet-unnamed "American entertainment company". From the sound of it, this group assured Fedor that they could get him big fights while paying him big money and letting him compete in Russian Combat Sambo tournaments. The group today announced that they'd signed veteran PRIDE fighter Ricardo Arona, whom some are speculating will be Fedor's first opponent.

RANDY COUTURE QUITS UFC, VACATES HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE:

UFC President Dana White didn't even have time to spin Fedor's snub of his group's big money offer as the result of the scheming of "crazy Russians" when he had an even bigger problem on his hands. The morning after the news of the Fedor signing with M-1 was made public came a real shocker--UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture had faxed in his resignation from the organization, relinquishing his title in the process. The fact that he did this while filming a sequel to "The Scorpion King" in South Africa gave White some fodder, and he launched into a tirade blaming Couture's decision on "Hollywood agents" and Internet fanboys.

Of course Couture's side of the story is quite different--at the age of 44 there isn't a lot left for him to accomplish in the sport. He was hoping for a potential fight against Fedor Emelianenko, but the UFC couldn't get that deal done. At this point he was basically pissed that he wasn't anywhere near the top of the UFC's pay scale. According to Couture, he had taken a meeting not long ago with White and the UFC's "money men" Frank and Lorenzo Fertita. As the story goes, they told Couture that he was the #2 paid fighter in the company (behind former light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell). Couture knew this wasn't the case, and is accusing the UFC braintrust of flat out lying to him.

The major point of contention is now the status of Couture's contract with the UFC. According to them, he's got two fights left on his deal and regardless of when or if he fights he's contractually bound to the UFC. Couture suggests that there's 9 months left on his UFC deal after which he becomes a "free agent". Word on the streets is that several investors are trying to put together a Fedor v. Couture fight independent of the UFC brand.

How this will all be resolved is anyone's guess but one thing that is certain is that the UFC's belief that they're the "only game in town" took a serious hit with Couture's resignation. Basically, the sport and the fighters in it are now bigger than the organizations they work for. This may change the entire pay and promotional structure of MMA to more closely resemble boxing, and I said as much in an article I wrote yesterday.

UFC DEAL WITH HBO FALLS APART:

The UFC received another blow last week with the announcement that a potential deal with HBO wasn't going to happen. The two sides had been in negotiations for awhile, with the main sticking point being control of the production. UFC wanted to retain their creative control, while HBO wanted to broadcast it similar to boxing and hire their own announcers and production staff. The UFC wouldn't budge on this point and the result is that if MMA comes to HBO in the short term it won't be the UFC.

KIMBO SLICE SIGNS WITH ELITE XC:

In last week's edition of the Tuesday Tapout we reported that there was some hope that the canceled fight between Kimbo Slice and Tank Abbott would happen after all. With the announcement that Kimbo Slice has signed a longterm deal with the Elite XC promotion the fight is currently "off". Elite XC has a sweet TV deal with Showtime and could very well want to promote a Kimbo v. Abbott matchup themselves but my guess is they'll want to promote their new fighter for awhile in order to milk the event for everything its worth.

We'll be back next week with another Tuesday Tapout and, as always, you can get the latest boxing/MMA news and commentary at ProphetFighting.com.