Couture club

Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2008 | 3:45 p.m.

Here's something you don't see every day: Somebody who makes his living in mixed martial arts praising somebody who promotes boxing.

Randy Couture, who was sort of to the UFC what Rocky Balboa was to pugilism in the movies, is upset he can't fight Fedor Emelianenko, who is sort of like Ivan Drago, outside of the UFC's jurisdiction. Couture wanted to fight Emelianenko on a pay-per-view card promoted by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. But the UFC, which still has Couture under contract, said "nyet."

So Cuban is suing the UFC and everybody is calling each other names and Couture says mixed martial arts fans will be deprived of seeing he and Emelianenko, the two best fighters, gouging each other's eye sockets, or whatever acts of mayhem are still allowed in the UFC. And that's sad, he says, because that's the tenet under which the UFC supposedly was founded.

Then Couture praised boxing as a sport. He said in boxing, rival promoters work together to promote major fights.

That must have brought a tear to the eyes of Don King and Bob Arum.

Meanwhile, Floyd Mayweather Jr. continues to make huge stacks out of $100 bills.