Randy Vs Fedor: A Lot of Fuss About Nothing

There have been a lot of articles recently published about news that Randy Couture will be in the EA Sports MMA video game, alongside Fedor Emelianenko.

Yet as interesting a story as this is, it is one that isn't really news for anybody who has been paying attention.

While Fedor's signing of an agreement with EA came only a few weeks ago, his participation had been all-but guaranteed.  Having an MMA video game without Fedor, and without the UFC stable would almost surely guarantee a financial disaster for EA.

But while Fedor's participation was something only known a few weeks ago, Couture's participation had been known for a year.

Couture had signed an agreement with EA before he signed his agreement to fight Brock Lesnar.  In fact, the UFC was not happy about Couture's signing but had known of Couture's participation in the MMA game for a long time.

So why all of the recent fuss about the EA Sports game now?

Well, one of the first people to try to bring this story to the forefront was Sherdog editor Loretta Hunt.

Her feud with the UFC has been well-documented.  And while there are many differing opinions on her article concerning locker room credentials, Loretta Hunt has gone off the rails recently in her war against the UFC.

About a month ago, Hunt predicted that the fight between Carano and Cyborg would "single-handedly garner more press and media attention than UFC 100.  Just wait and see."

She stated further that Carano would help usher in a new age of popularity for Strikeforce and for MMA.

Well, Gina's fight has passed, and it is pretty clear that it did not garner as much press as UFC 100.  Not even close.

In my mind, I see a lot of the recent coverage of EA's new game as being an after-ripple of interest following Loretta Hunt's attempt to lash out at the UFC once again.

As for the actual game itself, I can't really predict that it will do well.

The UFC (Zuffa) has exclusive image contracts with most of the top MMA talent in the world across most weight divisions.

EA has Couture and Fedor, and maybe one or two good guys from each of the other weight divisions.

UFC Undisputed has:

Heavyweights: Mirko Cro Cop, Andrei Arlovski, Brock Lesnar, Tim Sylvia, Cain Velasquez, Fabricio Werdum, Cheick Kongo,...

Light Heavyweights: Rashad Evans, Forrest Griffin, Lyoto Machida, Chuck Liddell, Quinton Jackson, Tito Ortiz, Shogun Rua, Wanderlei Silva...

Middleweights: Anderson Silva, Rich Franklin, Michael Bisping, Dan Henderson, Demian Maia, Nate Marquardt, Yushin Okami...

Welterweights: Georges St.Pierre, Thiago Alves, Jon Fitch, Matt Hughes, Josh Koscheck, Matt Serra, Mike Sqick, Anthony Johnson, Diego Sanchez, Karo Parisyan...

Lightweights: BJ Penn, Gray Maynard, Sean Sherk, Roger Huerta, Joe Stevenson, Kenny Florian, Tyson Griffin...

Even if you add in all of the potential people EA could sign, the difference would still be huge.

Even worse, imagine MMA video game commentary done by Mauro Ranallo, Gus Johnson, and Frank Shamrock instead of Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg.

I'm not going to shell out 50 bucks to just to see a simulated fight between Couture and Fedor.

For a real fight? Yes, I'd pay 50 bucks to see that, but Fedor essentially put an end to that possibility when he signed with Strikeforce.