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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief Randy Couture is looking to drop back down to the light heavyweight division for his next fight following his UFC 102 loss to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.
The former UFC Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight Champion talked to Loretta Hunt at Sherdog.com about his plans, and said while he hasn't taken a look at the UFC's upcoming schedule to see when he'll fight next, he is "especially leaning towards dropping down...It would be easy for me to make 205 and there's more interesting fights there right now."
Whenever he fights next, a move back to 205 would put him back in that division for the first time since 2006 when he lost the rubber match in his trilogy with Chuck Liddell. Of course, following that bout he retired for over a year before returning to the heavyweight ranks to fight Tim Sylvia. Continuing on in that division after Saturday's loss may not bring the interesting fights he's looking for, as he realizes he was "moved off the track" of getting back toward another shot at Brock Lesnar.
Couture's also got his acting career ahead of him. Set in a supporting role for Sylvester Stallone's "The Expendables," set for an April 2010 release, Couture is trying to hold up his life as a fighter with the acting career coming around. "It's a constant juggling act with all the stuff that I'm doing, so I'll have to get plenty of notice for fights and when I get a fight that comes on the radar that's interesting, I shut everything else down for that nine or 10-week period."
As he told Hunt, he knows he can't fight forever and as such knows he can't pass up more movie opportunities other stuff at this point. With that said, we'll all look forward to his next fight and his likely return to the light heavyweight division, whenever that may come.
Penick's Analysis: Light heavyweight makes the most sense, and just looking at how in shape he still is at 46 it's still a weight he can make. He was a small heavyweight, and only came in at 220 lbs. for the Nogueira fight. There are fights with top tier light heavyweights that can make for big, money making events, including perhaps the loser of the Rashad Evans-Quinton "Rampage" Jackson bout coming up; but regardless of when he fights next the performance on Saturday showed us he'll still be good to go. It's insane what he's been able to accomplish and how he's been able to perform at the age of 46, and we'll all keep watching him to see what he can do at 47 and 48 should he complete his contract.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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