Randy Couture - probably the most talked-about fighter this year.
Where to start? It's been a wild and wooly year in MMA. I'm just gonna throw it all out here. If I missed anything, let me know and I'll add it.
-- Zuffa, UFC's parent company, buys PRIDE, then buries it.
-- When PRIDE was still alive, Dan Henderson beat Wanderlei Silva for the middleweight title.
-- Silva took some time off, left Chute Boxe in Brazil, moved to the U.S. where he hopes to eventually build his own fight team, and signed with the UFC. He's scheduled to fight Chuck Liddell on Dec. 29.
-- Speaking of Liddell, he lost his UFC light-heavyweight title to Quinton Jackson, then lost a decision to Keith Jardine.
-- Henderson signed with the UFC and put his PRIDE middleweight title on the line against Jackson. The fight went five rounds, but the decision went to Jackson.
-- Matt Serra upsets Georges St. Pierre for the UFC welterweight title.
-- Randy Couture beat Tim Sylvia for the UFC heavuweight title, then successfully defended it against Gabriel Gonzaga, who had made headlines months earlier by knocking out Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic with a right high kick.
-- Couture then resigned from the UFC, citing disrespect from Dana White, saying they should have been paying him more money. The UFC said Couture low-balled the amount he told the media the UFC were paying him. Randy also was pissed the UFC could not broker a fight between him and Fedor Emelianenko.
-- Speaking of Fedor, after months of negotiations with UFC, the former PRIDE heavyweight champ signed with Russian-based, but US-backed M-1 Mixfight. Fedor is scheduled to fight Hong Man Choi on New Year's Eve.
-- On NYE, Fedor will be fighting on a card called Yarennoka! which is being co-promoted by M-1 and the staff of PRIDE fired by UFC.
-- There was the rise of Rio Heroes, a Brazil-based organization that is a throw-back to the old UFC - no gloves, no time limits. Rio Heroes built a solid following with its free Internet-only events.
-- California-based EliteXC acquires UK-based Cage Rage, Hawaii-based Icon and California-based King of the Cage.
-- Brock Lesnar, a former collegaite wrestling star, WWE wrestler and (briefly) a Minnesota Viking, signed with the UFC and is scheduled to fight Frank Mir in early 2008.
-- Mark Cuban, billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks, gets into MMA, setting up fights on HDNet Fights, and producing a weekly MMA news show. It has also been announced that he will broadcast Yarennoka! on HDNet, which he owns.
-- Pro MMA fighter Sam Vasquez dies about six weeks after fighting. His death is still being investigated.
-- The Rua brothers, Murilo Ninja and Mauricio Shogun, also left Chute Boxe, and might possibly move to the U.S. And how about Forrest Griffin's upset over Shogun? Nobody thought that was gonna happen, since Rua was the #1 light heavyweight in the world at that point.
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