While Brandon Vera wasn't high on my list of preferred opponents for Randy Couture, he actually fits my published criteria for the type of fights I'd like to see Couture have at this stage.
While a lot of people are clamoring for fights against other legacy fighters such as Mark Coleman, Tito Ortiz, or Chuck Liddell, I'm relatively bored with those options. What do we learn from any outcome in any of those fights? It's almost like watching an intra-team scrimmage. They're all of the same generation, all past their prime, and a win by any of them will be seen more as a sign of the opponent being over-the-hill.
My published list a couple weeks ago was Cro Cop, Wanderlei, Rashad Evans, Rich Franklin, Shane Carwin, and Lyoto Machida.
All of them are intriguing first-time match-ups where "something would be learned" by the outcome. Add Brandon Vera to that list.
What's great about this match-up is that if Vera wins, he legitimizes himself even though he's defeated someone who's lost two fights in a row. It's a way to put Vera in a high-profile fight where he can really gain a lot if he wins, but doesn't lose a ton if he goes down in defeat. After all, it's Couture! Vera, from a marketing perspective, even in losing, would end up with a higher profile and a chance to redeem himself against a second-tier light-heavyweight on the undercard. If he wins, then he's a step or two away from a PPV main event and title fight.
If Couture wins, and he certainly has a chance here, he breaks his losing streak. If he loses, it can be framed as falling to a younger star on the rebound from a discipline setback in recent years.
What also makes this a smart business move for UFC is that it puts Couture on Spike TV in a free main event that could draw a huge TV rating just one week before the Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin and Tito Ortiz vs. Mark Coleman headlined UFC 106 on PPV. It's a great marketing opportunity for UFC to draw in a ton of fans to see the legendary Couture fight a credible opponent and then push and promote UFC 106. They accomplish this without giving away a PPV-caliber main event match-up for Couture. Oh, and UFC can also promote the Wednesday night, Nov. 18 showdown between Mike Brown and Jose Aldo on Versus's WEC 44 event.
It's win-win-win-win for UFC. It gives Vera a fight he is clearly motivated for. It gives Couture that "interesting opponent" to "solve" which will also motivate him. Good move, UFC.
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I have to admit, you make some interesting points. Given that it's on free
TV, giving Couture an opponent who has "nothing to lose" certainly does
make sense.
The main worry I have though is the very strong potential that this fight
will be a stinker. Theoretically both Vera and Couture have fight
finishing potential, but given the strategies that they'll both be
utilizing, the chance of a boring fight going all 3 rounds where both men
come out looking relatively unharmed is quite high.
Generally when the UFC gives away a free TV fight, they like to make sure
the fight is going to be an exciting, reckless style fight.
We'll see what kind of fight they put on, but I'll give you credit, I'm
more excited to see it now than I was 10 minutes ago.
