UFC 102 in Portland announced: Couture-Nogueira
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Recently defeated former UFC heavyweight champions Randy Couture and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira will fight in the main event of UFC 102 in Portland, Ore., on Aug. 29, the UFC announced today.
Couture, who’ll turn 46 later this month, will return for the first UFC event in Oregon, where he formerly coached wrestling at Oregon State after being an All-American wrestler at Oklahoma State.
He hasn’t fought since November, when he returned from a 14-month-plus legal-dispute layoff with the UFC and was defeated in a second-round TKO by current heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar.
Nogueira held the UFC’s interim heavyweight belt in Couture’s absence until suffering a second-round TKO loss to Frank Mir in December.
‘Nogueira is the type of fighter that is dangerous everywhere,” Couture said in a UFC news release. “He’s difficult to knock out and he’s a world class jujitsu player. I will have to train very diligently and very specifically for him. Also, the fact that I’m fighting in Oregon makes me want to put on a great show and win for these fans.”
-- Lance Pugmire
