Randy Couture signs new 3 fight contract with UFC

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

This fight is going to do ridiculous business. I've got some friends who are excited about the fight and I know for a fact they don't even know who Randy Couture is. Just the idea of Brock fighting for the title has some nonMMA regular fans pumped.

[Lei Tong 0]

Using Randleman and Rizzo as examples is kinda silly because of what wildly inconsistent flakes they are. Silly. Though, specifically speaking, Randy has proven to take a shot as well as go toe-to-toe with other highly regarded wrestlers.

 

I wasn't using either as an example he would take Lesnar (indeed,I picked Lesnar to win in the very same post), but as you pointed out, I was simply offering a rebuttal to the ideas that:

 

a) Lesnar punches harder than anyone's Couture's faced (Rizzo, Liddell).

 

b) Randy hasn't faced a wrestler of Lesnar's caliber (Randleman, Van Arsdale), or is actually a lesser wrestler himself (2-time All-American and years of international experience).

[Hawkius Maximus 0]

I don't think anyone said Randy hasn't faced anyone that hits as hard as Brock. There have been people who have said (myself included) that Randy won't be able to take that kind of punch without going down. Does that mean KO'd? Not necessarily. It means knocked down, and there's enough evidence to support that. Do I think Brock could kill Randy from there? Yeah. Doesn't mean Brock has one hit KO power though.

 

As for the wrestler thing...You can say Randy's a better wrestler or equal (As Meltzer pointed out, it's hard to judge with Brock what level he was fully at because he was swooped by WWE pretty much right after college), but that doesn't change Brock's sheer size and power which enhances his wrestling ability. Randleman MIGHT be close in terms of power, but I doubt it, but Brock is much larger then Randleman and Brock has already proven to be a much more intelligent fighter then Randleman. In fact using Randleman at all is iffy because he had all the gifts in the world, he was just a dumb as rocks fighter. The man never LEARNED from anything he ever did in the sport. Brock already has. Which if anything makes Brock more dangerous then Randleman ever was. Brock learns from his mistakes. Randleman just kept repeating them.

[AboveAverage484 0]

I don't know if we can say at this point that Brock has learned from his mistakes because: (a) Heath doesn't have the submission skills that Mir has, so we don't know if Brock is any less susceptible to subs, and (b) We've yet to learn if Brock's learned from his other mistake, not finishing off an opponent when he is in a dominating position for practically the entire fight, because that was his last fight. Yeah, I'm considering that a mistake, because a fighter with more ability than Heath might take advantage of Brock's inability to finish them by coming back with a sub or a KO.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

So, thinking about this fight and I for some reason am not as interested in it as I should be. At the moment I honestly care more/am intrigued more by bouts like Lyoto/Thiago and Alves vs Diego. Weird, no?

[Lei Tong 0]

I don't think anyone said Randy hasn't faced anyone that hits as hard as Brock. There have been people who have said (myself included) that Randy won't be able to take that kind of punch without going down. Does that mean KO'd? Not necessarily. It means knocked down, and there's enough evidence to support that. Do I think Brock could kill Randy from there? Yeah. Doesn't mean Brock has one hit KO power though.

 

"I don't think Randy can survive (that one big shot)" seems to say "I think Brock one shots Randy if he lands," but whatever. Point taken.

 

As for the wrestler thing...You can say Randy's a better wrestler or equal (As Meltzer pointed out, it's hard to judge with Brock what level he was fully at because he was swooped by WWE pretty much right after college), but that doesn't change Brock's sheer size and power which enhances his wrestling ability.

 

That doesn't make Brock a better wrestler... it just makes him bigger (I pointed this out already in saying that the size difference will make the difference in the wrestling exchanges). An Andre Voit may have outwrestled a Kenny Monday in an open-weight match, but that would have more to do with a 40+lbs. weight difference than actual skill. At the end of the match, Voit would still be a two-time all American, while Monday would still be a 2 Olympic medalist and NCAA Div.1 Champion. To simply say that "Brock is a better wreslter than Couture" is to discredit how much of a role the weight will actually play in the fight. Ricco Rodriguez is a strictly average wrestler who managed to score takedowns on Randy due largely to size difference and fatigue.

 

Randleman MIGHT be close in terms of power, but I doubt it, but Brock is much larger then Randleman and Brock has already proven to be a much more intelligent fighter then Randleman. In fact using Randleman at all is iffy because he had all the gifts in the world, he was just a dumb as rocks fighter. The man never LEARNED from anything he ever did in the sport. Brock already has. Which if anything makes Brock more dangerous then Randleman ever was. Brock learns from his mistakes. Randleman just kept repeating them.

 

I would say Randleman may not have Brock's sheer strength, but (cliché warning) Randleman's explosive strength is about as high as anyone's in the sport. Even as a medium-sized HW, he managed to ragdoll guys like Waterman. As far as his wrestling goes, he's probably the best folkstyle wrestler to have made a career in MMA, with two National Titles out of 3 Finals appearances, 3 Big 10 titles, and an awesome career record(108-7-3), all in 2 highly competitve divisions (167lbs. & 177lbs.). He may have been one of the biggest MMA busts of all time, but it doesn't take away from his strength and wrestling ability, both of which he used in full against Couture. And, as AboveAverage pointed out, Brock hasn't shown any particular growth in his game aside from being more conservative on the ground, which in turn makes it harder for him to finish.

 

The irony is that, through all of this, I'm not saying Lesnar is going to lose or that he can't become a great fighter. I just want people to temper their erections for the guy and chill on the ridiculous (and sometimes outright untrue) statements about the guy, but I guess that's due at least in part to his pro wrestling background.

[Lei Tong 0]

So, thinking about this fight and I for some reason am not as interested in it as I should be. At the moment I honestly care more/am intrigued more by bouts like Lyoto/Thiago and Alves vs Diego. Weird, no?

 

 

Machida/Silva will be a largely boring point-fest from LYOTO, but Alves/Sanchez should be tits, assuming Sanchez has learned at all how to defend leg kicks.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

I'm simply interested to see if Silva is the guy to give Lyoto problems. Not saying he'll win but the gameplan for Lyoto seems to be balls-out agression which Thiago has.

[Hawkius Maximus 0]

That'll be an interesting fight, but I'm not sure bullrushing Machida's the answer. All it takes is a quick stepback and a straight as they charge. Machida's a counter fighter. Just seems like charging with all your momentium plus his punch's momentium = Bad idea.