According to MMAWeekly, Randy Couture has rejected an offer by the president of UFC Dana White to return and defend his heavyweight title against former PRIDE champion Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira at UFC 81: “Breaking Point” on February 2.

From Couture:

We’ve cleared the air, and hopefully we’ll move forward with some sort of relationship. I’ve got a lot of fighters and a lot of things that hinge around mixed martial arts and the UFC as well. I want to continue to work with them and I think that they want to continue to work with me, so we’ll figure out how that happens…I have a contractual obligation with the UFC. There’s been some haggling and things going on with all that, and Fedor signing with M-1 made the possibility of that fight very difficult because of that and because of those contracts…I think more than anything at this stage of things I want to slow down a little bit…I’ve got a nice house and I don’t even get to spend any time in it hardly, so take a little time now and just smell the roses so to speak.

– Now the Tim Sylvia vs Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira rumor gains a bit of weight and perhaps it will happen down the line, time will tell.