Randy Couture recently took aim during an interview at the structural problem he believes is holding MMA back, and he did not hold back in comparing the current landscape to pro wrestling.
Speaking about the promotion’s return to a Grand Prix tournament format, Couture explained why he sees it as a fix for what ails the sport.
“I think that is true martial arts,” Couture said. “We don’t have the luxury of the Muhammad Ali Act to create transparency in our sport and separate the powers of the promotion and the sanctioning body. The promoter has a stable of athletes, the sanctioning body has rankings and a title. And that’s the same guy in MMA, and that’s the flaw in our sport right now.”
That flaw, he said, is on display with the heavyweight division’s ongoing chaos. With Tom Aspinall forced to vacate the title due to a detached retina, the belt continues a pattern of champions leaving it behind rather than losing it in the cage, following Jon Jones and Francis Ngannou before him.
Couture connected that pattern directly to how promotions control both the fighters and the rankings.
“I think it lends itself to the flaw in our sport,” Couture said. “Each one of these promotions has created their own little exclusive fiefdom, where they’re setting the rankings and the titles and they have a stable of athletes that they, if they’re on your good side, they’re going to get ranked and they’re going to get a shot at that title.”
He pointed to his own era as proof of what gets lost.
“The Fedor match should have happened. When he was in Pride and I was in the UFC, that should have been allowed to happen. And because those promoters weren’t willing to risk their reputation in the sport, it never happened.”
He argued that closed system pushes MMA away from real competition.
“It’s more akin to WWE and all about talking smack than it is traditional prize competing, where the IBO guy is going to put his belt on the line against the WBO guy. And now let’s see who the real champ is.”
