Six days after Brandon Vera battles Randy Couture in the main event of UFC 105 this Saturday, Vera's wife, Kerry, battles Couture's ex-wife, Kim, at the fifth installment of Strikeforce Challenger Series in Kansas City, KS.
Coincidence? Probably not.
The Veras have been training hard for their respective fights, says Brandon, albeit in separate corners of the gym. They plan to attend each others fights. For Brandon, it's his 18th dance in the pros, while it's only Kerry's second.
Brandon says having a fighter for a wife is pretty drama free.
"It makes life easy," he said. "From a guy's perspective, I don't have a girl calling me all the damn time," he said. 'Hey, why are you still at the gym? Why are all those girls talking to you? Hey why this, why that?' From my perspective, I see her training, I'm not like, 'hey, why are you rolling with a bunch of dudes on the mat?'
"We have the same coaches. We train at the same time. We don't train together. So when we train, we come home, we eat, and there's no arguing, there's no yelling, we just watch TV. Everybody's tired.
There is one down side to the fighting couple's life together--their house is like a college dorm.
"The house is going to (expletive)," said Brandon. "Dishes are piling up and the floor's dirty."
Brandon is fully confident, though, that his wife is going to clean up in the cage.
"She's going to whoop (Kim's) ass," he said. "I feel bad for Kim. She don't know what the (expletive) she's going to get into. I like Kim, too. Kim's a nice person. But she should've passed on this one."
Kim Couture, fighter, promoter, and Randy Couture's other half, has won another round in the drama surrounding Xtreme Couture's fallout with Affliction.
In a Clark County filing dated Dec. 12, a restraining order from Couture against former Affliction head Todd Beard has been extended to Nov. 12, 2009.
Affliction clothing produces the Xtreme Couture clothing line, but relations between the two parties soured after Randy Couture returned to the UFC. Currently, the two companies are in limbo as Couture and co. attempt to extricate themselves from Affliction.
Couture originally filed the motion on Nov. 12, stating that Beard was threatening her and her lawyer. A temporary order was granted for 30 days, for which Beard was prevented from "interacting, communicating and/or having any contact with Couture, including attending the events surrounding UFC 91."
Couture said requests for accounting information on the Xtreme Couture clothing line, of which Randy Couture owns a significant interest, led to the dispute.
Beard did not attempt to block or prevent the extension.
MMAInsider recently caught up with Strikeforce executive Mike Afromowitz to check in on the promotion's plans for 2009.
A rumored match-up between Duane "Bang" Ludwig and Phil Baroni at welterweight is currently in the San Jose-based promotion's sights. Afromowitz said the date and details are currently being ironed out, but said it's "definitely a fight we'd like to put together."
Apparently, the wave of Japanese fighters that graced the promotion in late 2008 are MIA. Asked whether a long-rumored meeting between Josh Thomson and Caol Uno would ever materialize, Afromowitz responded, "I don't know." The promotion hopes to bring back fighters Mitsuhiro Ishida and Kazuo Misaki in 2009, but needs to ink the date for their next card before lining up talent.
Speaking of the next card, Afromowitz said the promotion will be in San Jose in "the first quarter of 2009," and may feature the return of Cung Le. Le is currently knee-deep in a film career, taking meetings in Los Angeles for a variety of film projects. Word on the street is that Le was extremely impressive in a recent project entitled "Pandorum," currently in post production and co-starring Ben Foster and Dennis Quaid.
Afromowitz said he's also more than willing to bring Kim Couture back to the promotion. Despite internet criticism at the one-sided outcome of her fight with Lina Kvokov, Afromowitz defended the decision to bring Couture in and said it was not a favor to Andrew Simon of HDNet Fights.
"Kim is obviously very marketable, because her husband is one of the most accomplished fighters in the history of MMA," Afromowitz said. "So we figured we'd give it a shot because she'd been training with a guy we promoted for years, Ray Sefo. We want to bring in marketable women. You don't get anywhere unless you take chances; a certain kind of chances."
On Tuesday night, MMAWeekly Radio welcomes Strikeforce light heavyweight champion, Bobby Southworth and Yves Edwards to the show just days before the big event in San Jose this Friday.
Southworth defends his 205lb title against Renato "Babalu" Sobral, while Edwards faces late replacement Duane "Bang" Ludwig after original opponent Josh Thomson had to drop out of the fight due to injury.
"The Axe Murderer" has a new sparring partner to duke it out with on the mats of Xtreme Couture: Mrs. Couture.
In a recent interview with MMAInsider, Kim Couture described a sparring session with the former Pride champion that turned more than a few heads at the gym.
"That was a treat," she said with a big smile. "I'm feeling very confident with my boxing. So was he, otherwise he wouldn't have gotten in there with me."
They started slow, throwing a few light punches to the gloves, which Silva was unsatisfied with.
"He was like, 'that's good, now hit me in the face,'" Couture recounted.
When Couture turned up the heat, Silva responded in kind.
"He would turn it up and control it," she continued. "As I would turn it up, he would turn it up. He's such a great guy, and has a few pointers here and there."
Being one of the most feared strikers in the world, you would think so. Afterwards, Silva lifted Couture up with a big hug.
"He's a very good sport," Couture said. "Very inspiring."
Hopefully, a little bit of Silva's killer mojo will rub off on Couture when she faces Lina Kvokov at Strikeforce: "Destruction" on Friday at the HP Pavilion in San Jose.
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