When you think of the Ultimate Fighting Championship in comparison to all other things, the last thing that comes to mind is poker.  But, somehow, the connection was made by Full Tilt as they recently signed former Heaveyweight Champion Randy Couture to their mix of celebrity players.

Couture is fresh off of the beating that Brock Lesnar handed him for the UFC title, but is long revered as one of the greatest mixed-martial artists of all time.  And even though he is 45 years old, many believe he still has the stuff to make it back to the top if given another shot.

Still, how all of this fits into the scheme of Full Tilt Poker I’ll never know.  The room seems content to throw money at anyone who will agree to whore themselves out in Full Tilt logos.  In his match with Lesnar, Couture made his way to the ring covered in FT garb which only foreshadowed what was to come. 

In addition to signing Couture, FT also grabbed two other UFC stars in Matt Hughes and Mike Swick.  But Couture remains the big name in this deal since he is a world-renowned fighter who walked away from millions in the UFC at one point just so he could go up against the best fighter in the world at the time – Fedor Emelianenko.

The signing of these UFC fighters has me wondering where Full Tilt is going to go looking for players next.  Maybe they’ll start hitting up athletes in other sports such as basketball, baseball, soccer, and football; who knows?  All I know is that it’s a good bet Randy Couture, Mike Swick, and Matt Hughes aren’t exactly the world’s greatest poker players.  If this is the case, it would be nice to catch them online at some point.