The Return of Randy Couture

[LWPD]

The Natural Returns...

Courtesy of Wrestling Observer

"He is coming out of retirement to face Tim Sylvia for the heavyweight title on March 3rd in Columbus, OH in the main event of that show. He signed a four-fight two-year contract with UFC."

LWPD (there's the potential for big money in putting The Natural into the mix of the Heavyweight Division...this fight will be the first time Sylvia can actually headline a PPV...the 'comeback' storyline should draw well)

A Tribute To Captain America

[habbalah]

I wonder if Randy can do the impossible one more time.

[dukedave]

The thing that sucks most about this is that CroCop won't get to be the one to get Timmay off my TV.

[pistonhurricane]

dukedave said:

The thing that sucks most about this is that CroCop won't get to be the one to get Timmay off my TV.

Tru dat.

Double True!!

[vansabu]

I like both Sylvia and Couture and this should be good...I still take Sylvia...I think they are protecting CroCop...How would UFC look when one of their big name signees gets pulverised by everyones favorite whipping boy...people are cryin and moaning about sylvia and have been for years but he keeps proving people wrong and thats why people hate him...he proves people wrong and hey cant stand it . He does his job and wins, not real flashy but damn smart... minimal injuries, keeps the belt..over and over, why not fight that way ? Seems now if you lose one time someone else takes your spot and you have to go to pride or other organizations. He is smart thats all.

[LWPD]

Courtesy of MMA Weekly

Sylvia Responds To Couture's Challenge

by Ken Pishna

Randy “The Natural” Couture officially renounced his retirement last night on “Inside the UFC” on Spike TV, “I've just signed a new four-fight contract with the UFC.” Not only that, but the 43-year old former UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight champion verified the news which broke on MMAWeekly Radio on Tuesday evening, “My first fight will be on March 3rd against the big man, Tim Sylvia. I'm going back after the heavyweight title.”

Today, the “big man” and current UFC heavyweight titleholder Tim Sylvia commented on the news that Couture has decided to return and challenge for his belt, “Am I surprised? Absolutely, fully surprised.” But along with that surprise came a lot of respect. Sylvia isn’t one of the many questioning the UFC Hall of Famer’s abilities as he steps back into the Octagon, “He’s Randy. He can do anything he wants. When everybody counts him out, that’s when he’s at his best.”

Sylvia did, however, disagree with Couture’s recent assessment of him. Speaking with host Joe Rogan on “Inside the UFC,” Couture exclaimed that, “I think in the Monson fight, [Sylvia] showed a conservative attitude that's not going to get him where he wants to be ultimately. He fought not to lose instead of going out and fighting to win. He could have finished that fight.”

“I don’t agree with that,” said Sylvia. “I go out there to win. I wanted to knock [Monson] out, but he wouldn’t stand and trade with me. He was trying to go to the ground all five rounds.” The champ continued, “I defended his takedowns. I tried to finish the fight several times on the ground and the triangle was tight, I really thought I had him there. I always go out there trying to finish the fight.”

But that is really neither here nor there come March 3rd in Ohio when the two step into the Octagon together and the cage door slams shut. The bigger question now is what Sylvia brings to this fight when the two collide. “My size, my reach, my striking ability… he’s been knocked out twice by Liddell. Chuck and I are a lot alike. I believe I’ll knock him out,” responded Sylvia.

Obviously, both men see something that leads them to believe they will walk out of the Octagon the champion on March 3rd, but there is still a lot of respect between these two world-class athletes. “I consider [Tim] a friend, but that won’t preclude me from going out and getting after him,” Couture stated last night.

Just as respectful, Sylvia was also just as confident. “Randy is a great fighter. I even called him and wished him the best of luck. And he’s still going to be a great fighter after the fight,” said Sylvia before adding, “But he wants to take my belt from me and that is something that I will not allow.”

[habbalah]

dukedave said:

The thing that sucks most about this is that CroCop won't get to be the one to get Timmay off my TV.

I fail to see how that sucks. I'm quite proud all the sherdogers won't be able to go ha ha I told you so now.

[Darth Turkish]

I wish Couture stayed retired. He did not look that good in his last few outings. He is better than the average guy, and more dangerous than most. I am sure the taste of defeat at Liddell's hands as his last fight tastes like ashes in his mouth, but I would rather Couture not suffer the same fate as Ken Shamrock, whose image was tarnished by his comeback.

Timmy is a top level fighter, and I know both will be prepared. I am not so certain that Couture will walk away with this one.

I wish they would re- sign Brandon Vera and give him his shot, before they throw Timmy to CroCop.

[vansabu]

Branon Vera is a topnotch talent and all around good guy I wish he did get a shot at Sylvia for the belt ...I really like guys who bring their all to the ring and are grateful to be where they are. Vera and Syvia seem to be proud and also Randy but Randy has seen betterdays for sure. I know CroCop has been alot of peoles saving grace but I think Sylvia or Vera can beat him - not easily but they have the tools to do so. Turkish, I thought the same thing about the couture - shamrock reference.

[habbalah]

Everyone can't go out like Bas did gentleman. (I'm referring to bas' last fight with the indian Prowrestler where Bas looked like a million bucks).

MMA fighters rarely know when to dip out. And please stop comparing Randy couture in the same sentence to Ken Shamrock. The difference being is right here.. right now Randy would still spank Tito if they fought today. Ken regardless of his age never would even come close.

Hell at least compare him to Mark Coleman if anything. Mark at least has talent. Not the same level as the natural (Mark's pretty much just a wrestler with some mma skill).
If Randy would have been fighting Forrest Griffon...Rashad Evans.. or maybe even Babalu he'd own them.... (at least the first two) Size has Randy behind the eight ball not his age.

[LWPD]

A quick heads up...Tonight's edition of UFC Unleashed will feature the first public airing of Randy Couture vs Mike Vans Arsdale...one of the best 'wrestler vs wrestler' MMA fights I've ever seen.

[habbalah]

You know Mike Van A. didn't really show us anything. Oh sure he gave Randy a great fight.... and than.. well nothing. Babalu owned him and than Matt the law did the same. I always kinda hoped MIke would showed some promise after his fight with Randy... The better your defeated foes look the better you look. And no I'm not suggesting all out mma math... But imagine if you wille everyone you beat went on to do nothing afterwards it would be.... disconcerning.

[LWPD]

habbalah said:

You know Mike Van A. didn't really show us anything. Oh sure he gave Randy a great fight.... and than.. well nothing. Babalu owned him and than Matt the law did the same. I always kinda hoped MIke would showed some promise after his fight with Randy... The better your defeated foes look the better you look. And no I'm not suggesting all out mma math... But imagine if you wille everyone you beat went on to do nothing afterwards it would be.... disconcerning.

MVA was among the most elite level wrestlers to enter into the early days of MMA. I'll always remember that slick keylock he pulled off in his first UFC appearance.

What held him back was that he got involved at an advanced age with a one dimensional background....then took a sabbatical for a few years while the sport continued to evolve. When he came back he was able to put together a nice run of victories based off his athleticism and superior wrestling skills...yet by the time he fought RC he was already 40 years old and his physical prime was behind him. Since that time he's fought top competition but has suffered 3 quick submission loses to younger guys who are more well rounded.

LWPD (if he was younger and came in under today's climate...I think someone Mike Van Arsdale's athleticism would be a real force)

[LWPD]

With Randy's big comeback fight just around the corner...Dave Meltzer offers up an impressive career retrospective. A good read.

Courtesy of The LA Times

Randy Couture has an ageless story

Nearly four years after his last fight, Couture is back and challenging Tim Sylvia for the UFC heavyweight title.

By Dave Meltzer, Special to The Times
February 23, 2007

Randy Couture was in grade school when one of the most improbable sports stories of all-time was happening.

It was 1970, and before the season started, the Oakland Raiders put 43-year-old backup quarterback and kicker George Blanda on waivers. They recalled him just before the season opened, and in a crazy twist of fate, on six consecutive weeks, Blanda either threw a miracle touchdown pass or kicked the winning points through the upright, and wound up as the most unlikely most valuable player in NFL history.

Couture actually had a similar experience. After losing consecutive matches for the heavyweight title, once to Josh Barnett and the other to Ricco Rodriguez, he was thought to be finished as a championship-level competitor. UFC asked him to cut down to light heavyweight, largely because they expected Couture to be a name star who would be impressively beaten by Chuck Liddell, that would lead to Liddell replacing Tito Ortiz as the biggest star of the struggling company. And in the end, that ended up happening, just not when expected.

Couture was put in the ring on June 6, 2003, just 16 days before his 40th birthday, on the night UFC built the entire show up for Liddell's coronation. Liddell had been chasing Ortiz for the light-heavyweight title, the UFC's marquee division, but Ortiz had avoided the match for more than one year. Finally, when a contract dispute with Ortiz got to the point UFC questioned whether Ortiz would ever return, or at least ever face Liddell, Dana White announced they were creating an interim championship out of a Liddell vs. Couture match. Liddell was thought to be a good enough wrestler to keep it standing against the aging Couture, and it was inevitable his superior striking would then knock Couture out.

That feeling was wrong. Couture shockingly out struck Liddell standing, and took him down several times before finishing him off with punches on the ground. Ortiz then returned to face Couture and Couture out-wrestled him for five straight rounds to settle any dispute over who the true champion was. The 40-year-old shutting up the loud-mouthed Huntington Beach Bad Boy, who broke down and cried. It was one of the most memorable moments in UFC history, and made Couture into something of a folk hero. Many athletes, including Shaquille O'Neal, would refer to Couture as their favorite sports star.

Eventually, Liddell did beat Couture, twice via knockout, on April 16, 2005, and again on February 4, 2006, each of which were at the time the two biggest money matches in company history. Liddell finally claimed the spot planned for him years earlier, and has since become UFC's biggest star. While training for the latter match, Couture, going through a messy divorce, had decided, win or lose, it would be his last match. He kept it quiet until after being knocked out, when he said this would be the last time you would see him in a cage. UFC head Dana White never quite believed him, and just about every month, would ask Couture when he was coming back.

Nearly four years later, Couture is back, but this time switching back to heavyweight. Due to problems in getting Brandon Vera to sign a new contract, heavyweight champ Tim Sylvia had no opponent ready at a time when the company seemed short on true marquee main events that would do huge pay-per-view numbers. From a pure business standpoint, everything fit neatly into place.

On the heels of the movie "Rocky Balboa," the public was primed for the idea of a legend from the past challenging an unpopular champion for the title. The story line is such that the match on March 3 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, sold out about a week after this match was publicly announced. With in excess of 15,000 paid, it will be the largest paid attendance in the history of the company and second largest in North America in the history of the sport. It is almost a given it will be the best selling pay-per-view event of any kind for over the first three months of the year.

And it has created an interesting situation. Perhaps due to Couture's more famous wins and tremendous popularity, nearly every fan poll picks Couture by a wide margin to win the championship from his 6-foot-8, 260-pound opponent. And yet oddsmakers, and most within the sport, see him as a longshot, with odds at nearly 3-1.

Couture was considered the underdog, and often the longshot, in ten of his 16 UFC matches, and he ended up with his hand raised on nine of those occasions. The doctrine in the sport has always been that you always bet Couture when he's the underdog. You only question him when he's the favorite. The only time he wasn't favored and also didn't win was in his last fight, where he tried to chase Liddell down, and got knocked out.

But there was a reason he made the move to light heavyweight. Even though he was a stronger wrestler than his opponents, dealing with 30 pound heavier opponents over five rounds ended up being too much at the age of 38 and 39, and Couture is facing an even larger opponent this time.

"Technically, I'm a lot better," said Couture, as compared to when he last fought as a heavyweight. Couture, who plans on weighing 225 pounds for the match, finishes his final day of hard training Friday, before tapering down leading into the fight.

Couture, who signed a four-fight, 18-month contract with UFC, has brought a series of monster-sized guys into camp over the last two weeks, including Dan Christison (6-8, 260), Wes Sims (6-10, 250) and Eric Pele (6-3, 300), as well as a 6-9 kick boxer and a 290-pound college wrestler.

He has also concentrated more on heavier Olympic lifting to give his body more explosive power. Although the added weight at his age may on paper look negative, Couture sees it differently. At 205, he was really a 220-pounder who would dehydrate down. Now he doesn't have to worry about dehydrating and rehydrating the day before the fight, and the affect it will play come fight time on his stamina and his legs. He has also been less stressful about his diet, and unlike before his last fight with the divorce proceedings looming, he has been able to shut off the outside world a lot more effectively the last two months.

Still, he has a lot going on. He's in the process of opening two Extreme Couture gyms, setting up a gym franchise, doing television commentary for The Fight Network (a 24-hour fight channel in Canada) and working on an autobiography. Adding a third heavyweight title to his resume as the most decorated world champion in the sport's history, to go along with two light-heavyweight titles will only aid in outside projects.

And while he said money is not a motivating factor, the UFC's explosion in popularity on pay-per-view really dates its start to Couture's last match. As one of the key guys building the foundation during the days when nobody knew if UFC would be successful or not, most of his paydays were in the $150,000 to $250,000 range until his last fight. If everything goes well on pay-per-view, he could take in $2 million for this fight.

At the start of camp nearly two months ago, he was wondering what he'd gotten himself into, battling against guys so much bigger than he is. But he said now the tables have turned as he's rounded himself into top shape and he's throwing the big guys around and training to get out of every foreseeable bad position where he'd potentially have to handle all that weight.

As for his longevity, he never really stopped competing and never let himself get out of shape. Even though he hasn't fought since the Liddell fight, as recently as November, he faced one of the best submission experts in the world, Jacare, and battled him to a draw in a submission wrestling match. His ability to do that made him even more confident that he could have a successful comeback, but Jacare is also a light heavyweight.

He also credits genetics and luck for his being competitive at an age long past when anyone in MMA history has ever been truly competitive at the top level.

Couture has had no major joint surgeries, which is unheard of for someone who has competed consistently at the highest levels of wrestling and then fighting for a quarter-century, joking that he has Teflon joints.

He's quite convincing, saying he has studied Sylvia and has his game plan. Sylvia isn't as fast as Liddell, nor as technically good a wrestler. But he has the ridiculous size, knockout power if he chooses to open up, and can use his height to throw vicious knees. He's 23-2 as a pro, and turns 31 two days after the fight. No matter how many fights Couture has appeared to be ageless in, that has to be a major factor.

Jeff Monson, Sylvia's last opponent, was a good wrestler, and could only get Sylvia off his feet once in five rounds. Rodriguez, also a good wrestler, never even came close. Even getting Sylvia down leads to more problems because of his height. Couture will have to pass guard and be aggressive on top consistently through the fight to have a shot at winning.

Couture has also looked back at his losses to Barnett and Rodriguez. With Barnett, he blames the loss on having trained so much Jiu Jitsu, he had developed a Jiu-Jitsu mindset. He had trained too much on his back that he wasn't fighting for takedowns, and even pulled guard once in a scramble. But being underneath such a talented fighter ended up costing him the match and his heavyweight title.

After Barnett was stripped of his title after failing a steroid test after the fight, Couture and Rodriguez battled for the vacant title. Couture believes he had won the first three rounds (which is how virtually everyone saw that fight), but he got caught underneath in the fourth round. Rodriguez scored with an elbow that broke his orbital bone and Couture tapped out. The break required surgery and threatened to end his career. His feeling is if it had not been for that elbow, he'd have lost the fourth round. But even if he lost the fifth round, he was still getting the decision. In early 2003, Sylvia won his first championship beating Rodriguez via knockout in the first round.

Couture says not to expect any high slams against someone so big. As a former multi-time Greco-Roman wrestling national champion (1990, 1993 and 1997), his goal is to close the distance, get a clinch, use the cage as an ally, and try a trip or foot sweep to get Sylvia down. If Sylvia tries a knee or a kick, Couture is looking for that as his opening. He believes Sylvia, who is in love with the belt, will come in shape, but his goal is to fight at a light-heavyweight's pace. Nobody has ever done that with Sylvia, who aside from Couture is the only two-time heavyweight champion in UFC history.

"I'm looking for a long fight," he said. "I don't think he'll be giving up early. I have to push him and keep up a pace that he isn't used to, tire him and get him down. I have to be ready for a battle of attrition."

Whomever wins figures to have a summer title defense against Mirko Cro Cop, who is the real-life version of the Ivan Drago character that Rocky faced in one of his movies. That's the one where even Rocky's friends and family start worrying about his safety.

NOTES: UFC's expansion into the United Kingdom begins on April 21 with Cro Cop vs. Gabriel Gonzaga as the main event. This is still hoped to be the first UFC show on HBO, but the deal has not yet been finalized. . . The first MMA event on Showtime took place on Feb. 10 in Southaven, Miss., with the debut of the EliteXC promotion. The positives were it was the first promotion other than UFC to show some legitimate ratings success. It also created a new potential superstar in woman fighter Gina Carano, son of former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Glen Carano. Carano won a three-round decision of Julie Kedzie and fans gave both fighters a standing ovation as the consensus fight of the night. With her actress looks, Carano has a very legitimate shot at being the sport's first mainstream star. . . The main event between Frank Shamrock and Renzo Gracie in a grudge match between the two most famous families on the U.S. scene turned into something of a fiasco. Shamrock knocked out Gracie, delivering two knees from underneath Gracie to the back of the head, which are illegal, and he was disqualified at 2:00 of the second round. It has turned into perhaps the most hotly-debated fight in recent history, particularly since two of the three judges had Shamrock winning the first round. Gracie took Shamrock down at will and achieved what would be considered dominant positions. But Shamrock constantly threw knees from underneath, while Gracie inflicted no damage to Shamrock. Shamrock was winning the standing exchanges easily, but the match never stayed long on its feet before Gracie took Shamrock down. The post-match debates on the fight were endless, as supporters of both fighters thought their fighter was easily beating the other. Shamrock, the most polarizing figure in the sport, made things even hotter when he claimed Gracie wasn't hurt nearly as bad as he was acting as he stumbled around, and that he could have continued but took the easy way out. How much of that he believed and how much was him in his heel pro wrestling character building up a rematch in unknown, but it only inflamed those who hate him even more. Gracie was diagnosed with a mild concussion after the fight. It appeared at first to be a terrible way to end a debut show, but a few days later it became clear it was exactly the opposite. A rematch will deliver far bigger ratings than any other possible match the promotion could headline with. However, a legal settlement with the Strikeforce promotion led to a pre-match agreement that Shamrock's next fight would be against Phil Baroni. Promoters of Strikeforce and EliteXC are both aware of far more interest in a Gracie rematch, but a lot of issues have to be worked out for that to happen.

[dukedave]

dukedave said:

The thing that sucks most about this is that CroCop won't get to be the one to get Timmay off my TV.

Hey, how about a #1 contender of Timmay vs CroCop. I'm sure that CroCop would be more than happy to stand with him and Timmay would not have to give the puppydog eyes to Big John begging for the fight to be stood up.