Couture vs. Coleman at UFC 109

UFC Hall of Famers Randy Couture and Mark Coleman are expected to meet in the Octagon at UFC 109 in February, in a battle of legends of the sport who will be a combined 91 years of age.

Loretta Hunt of Sherdog.com reports that Couture and Coleman have both verbally agreed to the bout, which will take place on February 6 as part of the UFC's annual Super Bowl weekend show. It will be the first time two UFC Hall of Famers have ever fought each other, and it will be a fight with two opponents who have major name recognition among MMA fans, even if they're no longer among the sport's elite fighters.

Couture and Coleman have never fought in MMA, but they did wrestle each other once in 1989, with Coleman winning.

Couture and Coleman have each gone 1-1 in 2009. Couture is coming off a controversial unanimous decision win over Brandon Vera at UFC 105, which followed a unanimous decision loss to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in August. Coleman, who missed all of 2008 because of injuries, lost to Shogun Rua at UFC 93 and beat Stephan Bonnar at UFC 100.

As crazy as it sounds when we're talking about a couple of guys in their mid-40s, the winner of the Couture-Coleman fight could be poised to make a run at the light heavyweight title. Light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida will take on Shogun Rua some time in early 2010, but after that, the light heavyweight title picture will be up in the air. If Couture earns an impressive win over Coleman, he'd be a strong candidate to take on the Machida-Shogun winner. Coleman would probably have to win at least one more fight in 2010 before he'd get a title shot, but if he follows up his upset of Bonnar with a win over Couture, it would be a big step forward in a late-career revival.

Couture-Coleman is expected to be the co-main event at UFC 109, with a middleweight title bout between Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort tentatively scheduled to be the main event.