In 1998, two of the United States’ greatest amateur wrestlers – Randy “The Natural” Couture and Mark “The Hammer” Coleman – were scheduled to meet in a relatively new proving ground called the Ultimate Fighting Championship. That mixed martial arts bout at UFC 17 never happened due to injury, but on Saturday, February 6th, nearly 12 years and six UFC championships later, Couture and Coleman finally square off at UFC 109: Relentless, presented by Bud Light and live on pay-per-view from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nev., for a colossal meeting of Hall of Famers over a decade in the making.
Plus, red-hot welterweight contender Josh Koscheck gets a chance to avenge his lone knockout loss against Brazil’s Paulo Thiago in the co-main event, along with pivotal showdowns featuring Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Brandon Vera, Nate Marquardt vs. Chael Sonnen and Matt Serra vs. Frank Trigg.
“Couture vs. Coleman is one of those dream matchups that fans have always talked about,” said UFC President Dana White. “And when you consider that these are two of the greatest wrestlers turned mixed martial artists ever, and it’s the first time that two guys who have already earned their way into the UFC Hall of Fame are fighting each other, this is not only an intriguing matchup, but a historic one.”
Tickets for UFC 109 are priced at $600, $400, $300, $200, $100 and $50, not including applicable service charges, and go on sale Saturday, Dec. 12 at 10 a.m. PT at all Las Vegas Ticketmaster locations (select Smith’s Food and Drug Centers and Ritmo Latino). Ticket sales are limited to eight (8) per person. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. Tickets also are available for purchase at UFC.com, www.mandalaybay.com or www.ticketmaster.com.
UFC® Fight Club™ members will have the opportunity to purchase tickets to this event Thursday, Dec. 10 at 10 a.m. PT via www.UFC.com. A special Internet ticket pre-sale will be available to UFC newsletter subscribers Friday, Dec. 11 at 10 a.m. PT. To access this presale, users must register for the UFC newsletter through www.UFC.com.
UFC 109 will be available live on pay-per-view on iN DEMAND, DIRECTV, DISH Network, TVN, BellTV, Shaw Communications and Viewer’s Choice Canada for a suggested retail price of $44.95 ($49.95/Canada) for standard definition or high-definition broadcasts (where available).
A five-time UFC champion who has reached the top of the mountain in both the heavyweight and light heavyweight divisions, the ageless Randy Couture (fighting out of Las Vegas, Nev.) is coming off a unanimous decision victory over light heavyweight contender Brandon Vera at UFC 105 in November, and with 14 career UFC wins over the likes of Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz, Vitor Belfort, Pedro Rizzo and Tim Sylvia, “The Natural” is used to facing the best of the best. On February 6th, he will finally get his opportunity to take on “The Hammer”.
“Mark Coleman is another classic matchup for me,” said Couture. “Like (Antonio Rodrigo) Nogueira, this is a fight that was supposed to happen a long time ago and is finally now a reality. Mark has a tremendous wrestling pedigree, and his collegiate and freestyle background has taken him a long way in MMA. I look forward to testing my skills and fighting spirit against another UFC Hall of Fame fighter.”
The Godfather of Ground and Pound, Mark Coleman (fighting out of Columbus, Ohio) used that strategy to earn the first UFC heavyweight championship and a spot in the UFC Hall of Fame. A former NCAA Division I national champion wrestler at Ohio State now fighting at light heavyweight, “The Hammer” returned to the Octagon in 2009 after a successful career in Japan with a memorable battle against Mauricio Rua and a victory over Stephan Bonnar, and on February 6th, he will begin his quest for a title at 205 pounds as he takes on fellow legend Randy Couture.
“This is by far the biggest fight of my career,” Coleman said. “I have nothing but respect both inside and outside of the Octagon for Randy Couture. He is one of the greatest in the history of MMA. It’s an honor to accept this challenge to fight him and a win here would be one of the top highlights of my career. I expect to win, and will prepare for a war. I will do all I can to make this an exciting fight for the fans.”
A fighter willing to fight anyone at anytime, Josh Koscheck (fighting out of Fresno, Calif.) is coming off one of the biggest wins of his career, as he made a statement to the welterweight division by submitting rising star Anthony Johnson at UFC 106. But the 32-year-old former NCAA Division I national champion wrestler is not about to rest on his laurels; instead he will look for a dose of redemption against Paulo Thiago as he continues on his road to a world title shot.
“I am training super hard right now,” Koscheck said. “This is a big fight for me because I lost the first time. I fought him last February and I’m fighting him again this February but this time I am going to be the one knocking him out. I promise you this fight will not go out of the first round.”
A decorated grappler with knockout power, 28-year-old Paulo Thiago (fighting out of Brasilia, Brazil) made his name on the international scene with his first round TKO of Koscheck in February 2009, and after a memorable battle with Jon Fitch and a victory over Jacob Volkmann last year, Thiago looks to kick off his 2010 campaign in style by repeating his spectacular win over “Kos”.
“Josh Koscheck is a great fighter who I had a lot of respect for before our first fight and who I still respect today,” said Thiago. “But I am still as hungry as I was the first time we fought, and I will do everything I can to repeat my victory on February 6th.”
A former PRIDE star that kicked the door open in his UFC debut, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (fighting out of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) needed less than two minutes to knock out dangerous contender Luiz Cane at UFC 106 in November. The twin-brother of former PRIDE and UFC heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, the 33-year-old Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and former Pan-Am Games boxing medalist is deadly wherever the fight goes, a fact he plans on introducing to Brandon Vera at UFC 109.
Like Nogueira, Brandon Vera (fighting out of San Diego, Calif.) is a feared striker and ground fighter who enjoys nothing better than a good ol’ fashioned war in the Octagon. Winner of three UFC bouts since moving to the 205-pound weight class, and fresh from a hard-fought three round scrap with Randy Couture, “The Truth” is more focused and determined than ever to destroy any opposition in his path, beginning with Rogerio Nogueira.
One of the leading contenders for a shot at the middleweight title, Nate Marquardt (fighting out of Denver, Colo.) has left little doubt that he is ready for a rematch with Anderson Silva after decisive knockouts of Martin Kampmann, Wilson Gouveia, and Demian Maia. But there is still one more obstacle in the former King of Pancrase’s way, and on February 6th, he gets the chance to remove fellow contender Chael Sonnen from his path.
A former U.S. Olympic alternate and two-time NCAA national champion, Chael Sonnen (fighting out of West Linn, Ore.) has used his strong wrestling pedigree to secure 25 wins in his mixed martial arts career, and with wins over Yushin Okami, Dan Miller, and previously unbeaten WEC champion Paulo Filho, the time has come for Sonnen to make his case for a shot at the 185-pound crown.
Former welterweight champion Matt Serra (fighting out of East Meadow, N.Y.) emerged as one of the UFC’s true superstars with his stirring first round knockout of Georges St-Pierre in 2007. But Serra – the first American to earn a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under the legendary Renzo Gracie – was no overnight sensation, having already faced the likes of BJ Penn, Din Thomas, Chris Lytle and Yves Edwards over the course of his career. On February 6th, fresh from an exciting Fight of The Night with Matt Hughes last May, Serra returns to the Octagon.
World-class wrestler and perennial contender Frank Trigg (fighting out of Las Vegas, Nev.) is a veteran of six UFC fights, including two classic battles with then champion Matt Hughes and two finishing wins against Renato Verissimo and Dennis Hallman. This February, the 37-year-old – who has won four of his last five bouts – looks to begin another UFC winning streak.
For more information, or current UFC fight news, visit UFC.com, UK.UFC.com, GERMANY.UFC.com, UFCJapan.jp or UFCEspanol.com. All bouts live and subject to change.
The funny thing about it is that it started off just really by interest and a hobby about two years ago. My background is actually in advertising and marketing. I own a mid-sized agency here in Toronto, Canada which is co-owned by my brother Barron (Lau) and we have done for a lot of different clients. For example, we have done stuff for Calvin Klein, Yahoo and all sorts of stuff. One of my big interests for the past eight or nine years has been mixed martial arts. I am not a big NFL fan, I watch a little bit of hockey but my die hard passion for the past eight or nine years has been MMA. Because of that, we started getting a few clients through the advertising agency and through those relationships I actually got the chance to work with Randy Couture. The story is pretty funny, Randy and I met through work where we were associates and ended up becoming really good friends. Around the spring of 2007, Randy was coming to Toronto and asked if I wanted to meet for dinner. I said “Absolutely, I would love to meet for dinner”. At that time, UFC and MMA as a whole had really started blowing up and was beginning to get really, really big. Randy was the UFC champion at that time, so at dinner we were talking about some business ideas that we thought would be great for the sport, considering how mainstream it had gone. Randy said to me, “Wouldn’t it be cool if someone created plastic cauliflower ears to wear at the fights!” I thought that it was pretty funny and in response to that I said “Wouldn’t it be neat if someone decided to create figurines or action figures of MMA stars.” We both sorta paused for a second and said “Hey, that’s not a bad idea!” Randy said to me that if I ever decided to do that to let him know and that he would love to get involved. That is how I got involved with the business, literally on a whim. I thought it was a great idea. I thought that the concept was good and fresh, especially in a sport like MMA where it is so dominated with merchandise that basically leans toward t-shirts and fight clothing. We brought in a breath of fresh air to the industry and created a category within the industry that has been very, very successful.
Ninety five percent of our contracts are exclusive agreements with the fighters on multi-year terms. What we did was create a program for what we felt that would benefit the fighters extremely well and that would benefit the fans as well. One of the key points is that we pay very, very high royalties on our program because we want to make sure that the fighters benefit from it and more importantly, that they would be more interested in becoming involved with the process of creating the product. We allow our fighters to have approval rights on the product which is a rarity in the toy industry, just due to a lot of the back and forth that can happen between a toy company and its respective license holder. Since we have given the fighters high royalty rates and approval rights, it gets them really involved with the process of creating the product. The fighters then want to make sure that the product sells, looks good and represents them really, really well. They are involved in every step along the way in the product development from the pose of the figurine, to the sculpting and molding, even down to what logos are on the shorts. I think for the fans it creates a lot more of an authentic product. As a fan, it is great to know you bought a Quentin “Rampage” Jackson figurine and know that he played a major role in development and that the product got a thumbs up from Rampage himself.
It really varies but artistically speaking, it takes about six to twelve months to develop something. When I tell people that, they think it is crazy, but the process gets really in-depth. We usual start by setting up a photo shoot, so that we have reference images to use. After the photo shoot, we move to clay sculpting. Clay sculpting usual goes into hundreds of revisions between the internal product development team and obviously, the approval from the athlete. After clay sculpting, we usually go into creating a painted sample. The painted samples are a hardened clay with paint on them. We begin selecting the paint and working with sponsors to get the appropriate rights to reproduce their logos. After that, we go into molding and that goes into product and plastics engineering. After plastics engineering, it goes into Pantone paint samples. We have to have dozens of paint colors that have to be manually selected for everything between the eye color to the color on the shorts. Then there is still the product packing, marketing, mass production, shipping logistics and distribution! It is a very large and intensive process to create the product that ends up in the customers hands but it is very rewarding for sure!
Obviously, what is really a hot topic right now is Brock Lesnar. I think he is one of the most interesting characters out there, for many different reasons. Who would have thought Brock Lesnar would have become a heavyweight champion? I think that coming over to the sport from WWE and all the attention that comes with it, only training MMA for a few years and having only one or two professional fights before winning the championship is a very odd situation. He is a physical specimen in himself, but I think the question is “Will his physical attributes carry him far enough in the sport?” where he can become a champion that everyone respects as an undisputed champion. He lost his first fight coming into UFC and everyone completely wrote him off. Everyone thought that although he is big and he is huge, when it comes to fighting against a true mixed martial artist, he is going to lose. After that he came back and beat Heath Herring in a pretty dominate fight using mainly wrestling. Then he came back and beat Randy Couture. I think a lot of people thought physically he could dominate Randy Couture but skill set-wise, I think a lot of MMA purists really expected Randy to win.
