Showing posts with label Randy Couture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Randy Couture. Show all posts

Monday, November 17, 2008

MMA: UFC 91 Results, Brock Lesnar is Your UFC Heavyweight Champion



Saturday Night's main event was all it was cracked up to be. In one corner there was the legendary champion and huge fan favorite Randy Couture. In the other corner was the MMA newcomer and a huge beast of a man Brock Lesnar who was appearing in just his fourth pro fight.

The crowd was super hot for the fight with chants of, "Randy" during the introductions and voracious boos all around for Lesnar. In the first round both fighters were clinched up against the fence. Brock is so big and strong that his knees to Randy's thigh actually lifted Randy off the ground. It was an amazing show of size and strength.

Brock eventually took Randy down to the ground in the first round. Randy was able to reverse it and get on top which caused a huge crowd pop and more chants of, "Randy!" Randy was only on top for a moment before Brock rolled him back over and took mount.

Brock Lesnar won the first round on all three judges scorecards.

In the second the fighters exchanged some punches and Randy cut Brock open under his eye. Brock then hit a big right directly to Randy's temple and the world champion crumpled straight down. Brock immediately hit a hammer fist to the face as he pounced on Randy and delivered 35(!) unanswered shots before the referee finally put an end to it all. I had already been screaming, "Stop it! What are you doing, stop the fight?!?" The crowd booed their new champion.

In the semi-main event Kenny "Ken Flo" Florian beat Joe "Daddy" Stephenson in a little more than 4 minutes with a rear naked choke. Ken Flo came down to the ring in this awesome jacket. After his match I took Brookie's iPhone and tried to look up the jacket, but iPhones suck apparently.

Kenny Florian understands how to build and sell a fight. The first words out of his mouth in his post fight interview in front of the crowd was, "I want BJ's belt," BJ Penn is the current UFC Lightweight Champion. Ken Flo added, "I consider BJ to be a master. It's time to kill the master." I want to see this fight so bad!

UFC 91 was an awesome show from top to bottom. With the exception of the main event every fight on the main card ended in the first round. Only the fight of the night award winners Jorge Gurgel and Aaron Riley had a fight that went the distance. The main card fights were so short that every prelim fight was shown on the pay per view to fill time. This is one of the greatest shows in UFC history filled with quick knockouts and submissions. There was not a boring fight to be found.

The next pay per view is UFC 92 on December 27th which has a stacked card with a triple main event. On that night we will get to see Forrest Griffin defend the Light Heavyweight title against Rashad Evans, Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira will defend the Interim Heavyweight Title against Frank Mir(winner to face Brock Lesnar to unify the titles), and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson returns to fight Wanderlai Silva. It's going to be spectacular!

Saturday, November 15, 2008

MMA: UFC 91 Preview



Tonight is the biggest UFC fight in....well....EVER!!!

Tonight is the UFC return of Heavyweight Champion Randy "The Natural" Couture as he defends his title against monster MMA newcomer Brock Lesner.

Brock comes into this fight with just a 2-1 career record. His last fight came on August 9th when he dominated Heath Herring for 3 rounds on his way to the unanimous decision. The highlight of the match was when Brock started the fight with a punch to the face which caused Herring to do a backwards somersault. It was AWESOME! At the start of this match Brock will have close to a 50 pound weight advantage on the champion.

Randy Couture
is 45 years old and his last fight was against a scared Gabriel Gonzaga on August 25, 2007. It has been absolutely ridiculous that Couture has fought at this high of a level as long as he has, and sooner or later his luck will run out. I hope that happens tonight.

If I was booking this match I would build up Brock Lesner as the super awesome unstoppable babyface and future of the UFC Heavyweight division. Randy Couture is the obvious heel, the man who "retired" while UFC Heavyweight Champion because he wanted to go elsewhere(ie-Affliction) to fight Fedor. He sued the UFC to get out of his contract while the UFC filed a countersuit for breach of contract. THEN Couture appeared and was interviewed on the first Affliction pay-per-view. It was only after he made that stupid mistake that he renegotiated a new contract with the UFC at which point this fight was announced. I would paint Couture as a UFC turncoat. As a man who doesn't care about the company while he still holds the belt. I would build him up so that the fans will hate him and boo him relentlessly. All great fighters have to be able to work as a babyface as well as a heel.

But alas, Brock Lesner is a natural heel, so despite me wanting to see Randy Couture get knocked out in 30 seconds the fans will be chanting, "Randy, Randy!" Whatever.
Regardless of the winner this should be a great fight, and probably the best heavyweight fight that we have seen in a long time.

The most intriguing fight on the undercard is the lightweight matchup between Ultimate Fighter alums Kenny "Ken Flo" Florian and Joe "Daddy" Stephenson. Ken Flo has won 5 straight fights including his August fight where he completely shut down Roger Huerta in dominating fashion.
I hate Joe "Daddy" Stevenson. I hope that Ken Flo chokes him out in 30 seconds.

Other fights on the undercard:

-Nate Quarry vs Demian Maia
-Gabriel Gonzaga vs Josh Hendricks in a fight between two heavyweights that no one wants to see fight.
and Dustin Hazelett vs Tamden McCrory in a fight that is only on the main card because The Ultimate Fighter winner Amir Sadollah had to pull out of his fight due to an infection on his leg. The best thing that I can say about Hazelett is that he was knocked out in amazing fashion when he lost to Josh Koscheck.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

MMA: Randy Couture Returns to UFC


Randy Couture is the current UFC World Heavyweight Champion. Last August he destroyed Gabriel Gonzaga, and then two months later he announced that he was resigning as UFC champion. This happened right after the negotiations between the UFC and heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko, which was a fight that Couture had publicly stated he wanted.

Then it came out that Couture was not actually retiring, and he felt his pay level was a sign of disrespect.

In February Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira beat Tim Sylvia in a match for the UFC Interim Heavyweight title. Couture was never stripped, because UFC contracts have an automatic roll over if you are a champion. Your contract won't expire until you lose the belt. Randy Couture being the Heavyweight Champion helped the UFC's legal standing.

He sued to be released from his contract, the UFC counter sued, and then Couture appeared on the Affliction PPV in July. The court date for his contractual dispute was schedule for September/October, and I guess Couture realized that he had no legal standing.

A week ago www.f4wonline.com had reported that Couture was in negotiations for a new 3 fight deal with the UFC. Yesterday the UFC held a press conference where they announced the new contract for the 45 year old Couture.

His first fight back will be at UFC 91 on November 15th against Brock Lesner. It will be a 5 round title fight in Las Vegas. Then winner of the Couture-Lesner fight will face the winner of December's Interim Heavyweight title fight between Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Frank Mir sometime next Spring.

UFC President Dana White, Randy Couture, and Brock Lesner were all present for yesterday's press conference. Many of the questions were about a possible Couture-Fedor fight, which is a fight that would make a ton of money. Dana White said that they were interested in that fight, but Fedor is under contract with Affliction and he is not interested in tampering. The Fedor questions continued, and Brock Lesner had finally heard enough and he responded with the highlight of the press conference:

"Who give a shit about Fedor? I'm sick of hearing about fucking Fedor. He's not with the company, he might not ever be with the company, so who gives a shit?"

This was awesome! If Fedor ever does sign a deal with the UFC then the pre match hype videos will be filled with that quote, and everyone will want to see that fight. Brock Lesner is a former WWE professional wrestling champion, and he knows how to sell a fight.

Also in the press conference Dana White says that the Couture-Lesner fight will top 1 million buys. The UFC has not yet reached the 1 million buys mark, so it's difficult to estimate that high but this is definitely going to be a huge fight.

The next few months of UFC action is going to be very exciting, and the company is about to make a ridiculous amount of money over the next quarter. Affliction on the other hand? Well, Dana White said in the press conference that he would be shocked to see Affliction in business come January, and I can't say that I disagree with him.