(MMA) Huge pair of MMA Rumors

[SirFozzie]

From today's Sherdog radio show..

A)First, they said numerous sources have said that the UFC and Randy Couture have reached an agreement to let him out of his contract. They also said that once released that Randy would be going to Mark Cuban's HDNet Fights.

Looks like that Huge Randy Couture-Fedor fight might just happen after all... M-1 may be a part of the HDNet network soon..


Second, they said CBS wants the UFC Superbowl Saturday show on their network. UFC wanted $15 million to compensate for lost PPV revenue, but CBS only offered $5 million. UFC said no and CBS immediately started negotiating with M-1. The UFC then quickly came back to the table and took the offer

If this is true, this is fucking HUGE. This is the sport of MMA rising out of the ashes, and taking its place as an equal of boxing, truly. While it's not as huge when the biggest boxing cards were on network TV (just because the networks have declined in ratings ever sincec the debut of cable), but as a sport, it's that MMA has arrived, and truly gone national

[SirFozzie]

Here's a bit of evidence to back up the UFC-CBS possible connection

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/show...s-evident.html

[Calis]

Both very surprising and completely unexpected.

The UFC letting Randy out of contract early seems exactly the opposite of what Dana would usually do, and I figured they'd keep him as long as they possibly could, so that's pretty surprising if they do that. Would love to see it though. If that happens, and either HDNet or M-1 signs Barnett as well, they'd have a very valid HW division.

I never expected I'd see an MMA event on a big 4 network in my lifetime, and especially not on CBS. They would've been my last pick to go for that. I'm sure that'll cause a huge controversy if true but it'd be a giant deal for the sport, really hope it happens.

[dervack]

I hate bumping old threads, but I just read on MMAJunkie.com that Dana White and Randy Couture have a meeting next week for dinner, with the hopes that they can work out their differences and schedule the Superbowl Saturday fight between him and Nog. We'll see if anything comes from the meeting.

Also, the Strikeforce event tonight in San Jose is being offered on Yahoo Sports for free tonight if you live 150 miles outside of San Jose. I'm guessing it's not close to being sold out. They are having the first ever MMA tournament sanctioned by the CSAC tonight and also feature a Heavyweight Championship fight between Paul Buentello and Allistair Overeem. Plus, Cung Le is scheduled to fight as well.