Randy Couture versus Father Time

If you care for Randy Couture as a person more than as a fighter, you would probably want him to retire from fighting – from mixed martial arts, from wrestling, from boxing, from mere training for a pro fight. Not many 46-year-olds of the earth’s six billion-plus people can do what Couture can (and make hundreds of thousands in the process). But in today’s three-round tussle against ex-Pride heavyweight king and UFC interim champ Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro,” Couture showed more proof (after the KO loss to Brock Lesnar) that he should just be content to watch UFC bouts ringside instead of being the one watched inside the cage.

The people usually get it right when predicting the outcome of matches, with 77% picking Couture over Nogueira in an online poll. But Nog had other plans, like taking the fight into the ground whenever he could to go for a submission.

Entering the ring with, appropriately enough, the Rolling Stones’ chestnut Gimme Shelter, Nog with his posse in tow including his twin brother Antonio Rogerio “Minotoro” and middleweight king Anderson Silva (making the sign of the cross while Nog was being frisked standing on the Harley Davidson logo before entering the Octagon), Minotauro looks relaxed and ready to rumble.

Couture, wearing an Everlast baseball cap, walks towards the Octagon with his entrance music (a rather obscure tune, since I didn’t recognize it). It would have been perfect if Couture, as opposed to Nog’s Stones song, would have made his entrance to the music of the Beatles' Helter Skelter or Revolution 1 (Couture did revolutionize MMA fighting to a certain degree).

Eleven pounds lighter, an inch shorter, and with four inches of shorter reach, Couture looks smaller than Nog, but he has been here before facing bigger opponents.

Round 1

They keep the fight on their feet in the first minute and 10 seconds, going to the ground only briefly as Couture stands right back up. Nogueira knocks down Couture in 3:01 with punches. Nog goes for an arm-triangle choke, holding it for at least 10 secs, but Captain America amazingly escapes. Couture lands a left uppercut and a right straight. With less than a minute left in the round, they tangle as Couture gets Nog’s back to the fence and they stay there practically doing nothing until the horn sounds to end the round.

In Free-For-All’s card it’s Nogueira 10, Couture 9.

Round 2

At 4:30, Nog catches Couture in a guillotine but Couture struggles loose. Couture takes down Nogueira and finds himself in Nog’s guard. In a wonderfully-executed move, Nog rolls and reverses as Couture defends with a half-guard. Nog gets Couture in a left arm triangle, pulls his left leg for full mount, and punches Couture on the head and ribs. This time, it’s Couture’s turn to perform a great escape as he slips out of the triangle. Couture gets back on his feet as they throw punches at each other, Nog being more accurate. Couture lands two left hooks,
Nog retaliates with a right leg kick before the horn sounds.

Nogueira 10, Couture 9

Round 3

Nog lands good shots on Couture’s head. At 4:25, Nog knocks down Couture again (this time with a beautiful right semi-uppercut) and rains down blows while in Couture’s half-guard. Nogueira pushes Couture to the fence, controlling The Natural with his right arm while striking with his left hand. The referee lets them stay there for some time. At 2:28, Couture gets his right leg on Nog’s shoulder and tries to pull out, but Nog gets Couture’s back and looks to hook
in a choke. Couture tries to pull out from under Nog who is on his back too high unable to do a choke. Couture eventually escapes and reverses, is now on the full guard of Nogueira with a little over a minute left. Nog holds on tight to the back of Couture’s neck. In the last two seconds Nog reverses and mounts Couture but the horn sounds to end the match.

Nogueira 10, Couture 9.

Couture applauds. He could be expressing his approval to both Nog’s performance and his own. They both do deserve to be commend for duking it out unreservedly, going out to win instead of not losing. Nogueira just was too good for Couture today. But lest he entertains notions of challenging Brock Lesnar for the belt, he should not. Couture and Mir tried but were proved wanting. Lesnar needs a challenger who is striker who hits as hard as him and is just as physically imposing. Grapplers are just not good enough to beat Brock.

Surprisingly, one judge scored it 29-28 for Couture, while two had it 30-27 for Nogueira.

UFC 102: Mirror Mirror On The Mat

People get older faster in mixed martial arts than in golf. Even if you have 46-year-old Randy Couture, a former two-division champion, and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, 33, a former Pride FC heavyweight champ duking it out on Sunday, these two with their 79 years put together are mere tots compared to the geezers in golf’s Seniors tours.

“Captain America” Couture is not only still healthy, he is ageless, immortal. He will be around for Christ’s Second Coming, if he has his way. The comicbook Captain America may be dead but this Captain America can still stop attacks on his person without the aid of an
adamantium-vibranium shield. Nogueira, on the other hand, is almost as indestructible. Run over by a truck at age 11 in Brazil, he spent 11 months in the hospital for an operation and convalescence and ultimately became one of the toughest light-heavyweight/heavyweight MMA warriors on the planet.

Sunday’s UFC 102 main event of Couture versus Nogueira is a sort of battle of the ages, with the Octagon smelling of liniment and smelling salts. There is little concern that any or both will undergo cardiac arrest. What every MMA fan is looking forward to is slam-bang technical action from these two veterans. Couture (16-9) is a great wrestler who has developed decent standup striking (“dirty boxing”) skills, while Nogueira (31-5-1) is a splendid Brazilian Jiujitsuka with fantastic submission moves coupled by just as decent striking abilities. They are almost mirror images of themselves stylistically and physically. Couture at 6-feet-2 inches and Nogueira at 6-3 are giants of the MMA game. Aging giants but still imposing. Their three-round tussle should be a doozy.

Let’s see how they match up.

Speed:
Neither Couture nor Nogueira is Speedy Gonzalez. None of them will overwhelm their opponents or each other by being seen as blurs. They are more of the wear-you-down types. Couture with his excellent wrestling and dirty boxing, Nogueira with his out-of-this-world jiujitsu and decent boxing. In a sense, they are mirror selves, reflecting on each other their speed or lack of it.
Advantage: Even

Power:
One would think that Couture with his bulkier look would be stronger. He had no problems taking down the likes of Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell, and Tim Sylvia. If he gets his paws on Nogueira, Minotauro will go down. But then, that’s exactly where Nog wants Couture to be – in his world. A BJJ black belt of Nog’s caliber should have in his arsenal a strong takedown or slam. Likewise, if Nog gets the edge position-wise, he should be able to take Couture down to the ground quickly.
Advantage: Even

Stamina:
Couture’s work ethic and conditioning are legendary. He wouldn’t have made it this far in time and stay competitive if he didn’t keep himself constantly in fighting trim. You could probably give him a week’s notice to fight any of the top 10 heavyweights in the world and he wouldn’t bat an eye agreeing. Nog, on the other hand, looks road-torn and weather-beaten more than Couture. They have both been in battles to cripple lesser fighters. It is a testament to their strong stock and discipline that they are still around fighting. But let is give the edge to Couture in this category, just a little.
Advantage: Couture

Smarts:
Couture was a world-class Greco-Roman wrestler before he made the switch to the much more demanding MMA field. He transformed himself from a man used to taking the fight to the ground to being able to stay on his feet striking with his fists. He is not exactly a well-rounded fighter (did you ever see Couture knock out an opponent with a kick?) but his three quarters of warrior skills is better than most fighters’ all-around game. Like Madonna, Couture reinvented himself and still surprises many. And he is not known as "The Natural" for nothing. While Nogueira, being a native Brazilian, trained himself (at least by being aware mentally) to fight in all categories. He focused on judo as a child, and added boxing to his repertoire, before concentrating in Brazilian Jiujitsu. He eventually earned black belts in judo and BJJ at 23. Nog knew how to fight and knew how to fight in many modes. This widened his martial horizons early on. Couture didn’t see the necessity to train in other avenues of fighting until his 30s. But considering the results for both fighters, Couture has overachieved – hence smarter.
Advantage: Couture

Winning two out of four categories on paper, Couture is set to win their fight. But as we don’t tire of saying: in MMA, on paper is not worth the spit it is written on.

Other bouts of note, for Filipino fans at least, are the Brandon Vera-
Krzysztof Soszynski light-heavy and Mark Muñoz-Nick Catone middleweight match-ups. Vera and Muñoz are both Filipino-Americans, both are trying to pick up speed after experiencing road bumps. Should they lose tomorrow, the UFC won’t have much reason to look beyond their present contracts. It is drop-your-opponents or your contract gets dropped.

In Soszynski, Vera will have not only a heavy-handed striker but also a ground fighter adept at submissions. Vera is a wrestler with modest skills and outstanding kickboxing talent. He will have to avoid being grabbed or taken to the ground. A clinch will be like a kiss of death to Vera. Keeping the fight a stand-up tussle will be to Vera’s advantage despite Soszynski’s power. Vera is quicker and more mobile. He can pick Soszynski apart as long as he doesn’t get tagged early on by one of the latter’s KO punches. Vera will have a very dangerous time figuring out Soszynski.

Muñoz (5-1) is a former NCAA Division I national champion wrestler. Catone (7-1) is not as accomplished as Muñoz in his college wrestling career, but he had achieved in the national level. Muñoz, with the moniker “The Philippine Wrecking Machine,” is a strong puncher – if he hits his foe. In his UFC 96, Muñoz earned his title in a reverse manner, by being wrecked by Matt Hamill with a head kick in the first round for a KO loss – the first of his pro MMA career. Muñoz dropped down 20 pounds for tomorrow’s fight. We will find out if it’s the right thing to do. Muñoz has three TKO victories, same as Catone, in keeping with the doppelganger theme of UFC 102. But Catone has more balanced skills judging by his three submission wins. On this we can conjecture that the only way for Muñoz to win is by making sure that he stays on his feet.

Of Missed Opportunities And Equestrian Idiocy

UFC 73 – Stacked
July 8, 2007 Arco Arena

THIS one didn’t have the MMA world-shaking upsets of the previous three UFC tournaments or the blank space in my mind of UFC 72 (which I didn’t see) but it sure lived up to its “Stacked” title. Although the main event welterweight championship between Anderson “The Spider” Silva and Nate “The Great” Marquardt was ironically the least exciting of the card.

The Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira-Heath “The Texas Crazy Horse” Herring barnburner is the figurative perfect match to start a martial arts tournament. The legendary heavyweights, picking up from where they left off in Japan’s Pride, exchange punches. Herring falls while Nogueira gets side cradle control and goes for back control but Herring suddenly stands up to escape. On their feet, the Minotaur hits the Horse with a strong left straight that slightly buckles the latter. Later, with about 30 seconds left in the round, Nogueira misses a left straight and Herring counters with a left roundhouse head kick that hurts Nogueira a lot more than he hurt Herring earlier. Nogueira falls to the canvas and Herring follows him to the ground to deliver a pounding.

Inexplicably, Herring disengages, gets back on his feet and motions for Nogueira to do the same. Nogueira does not look a gift horse in the mouth (heh…) and Herring again fells him. With Herring in Nogueira’s guard and punching out Nogueira, the Texas Crazy Horse, true to his moniker, acts crazy and again stands up while motioning with his hands for Nogueira to get back up. Nogueira survives Round 1 with his wits and poise intact. In our scorecard, we give it, of course, to Herring, 10-9.

In Round 2, Nogueira, fully aware that he has to rally, tries several submission holds on Herring, which the strong and patient Herring all escape from. On those failed submission attempts alone, Nogueira wins the round, 10-9.

Herring, in the last round, again does one of his great escapes from Nogueira’s chokes and Kimuras, the most dangerous looking is a rear-naked choke that locks on the lefts side of Herring’s face, Herring bides his time and pulls out of the hold and even manages to reverse into a dominant position while landing on Nogueira’s guard. Herring fights on but is obviously fading, while Nogueira having gone back to boxing Herring, increasingly gets more confident and does enough to win Round 3 to add to his points from Round 2 – no mean feat, considering the dire straits he was on in Round 1. Nogueira, 10-9.

The UFC judges had it officially at 29-28 for Nogueira just like Free-For-All’s. To beat a dead horse (sorry, the pun is irresistible), we have to question Herring’s chivalry, sportsmanship, stupidity, or a combination of all. Although, it’s no big mystery. Even though Herring was on the verge of taking out Nogueira with his striking while the Brazilian was dazed and very vulnerable on the ground, the two previous defeats (a decision and submission by Anaconda choke) he suffered to Nogueira had planted the seeds of fear and respect in his mind. Nogueira can submit anybody anytime when all his resources are locked on predatory mode. Perhaps also flushed with his power, Herring wanted to show the world that he could end the fight on his feet instead of on the ground.

Everyone is welcome to post their opinion on the matter. I used to write a sports column just as long as this one in a local English news daily where I was getting paid a pittance (everything is relative), so you can’t blame this Free-For-Aller for reserving the rest of the card for (no, not three or four days later, as my schedule had it then) next time when I feel like it. Take that, editors of all stripes and egos! No deadlines this time…and no column pay either. Well…c’est la vie.