UFC
74 “The Passion Of The Couture”
As an athlete matures both emotionally as well as physically
the technical ability develops and improves as well. Then
until nature starts running its course and begins to deplete
the human animal of its youth, it is technique and experience
which will take over, overcoming the wild strength and passion
of youth. Intelligence and mental toughness are essential
in this formula, and thus you have the oldest man as king
of the heavy octagon.
This may be a bit poetic, but it is the scenario, which lurks
in the jungle of the heavy weight octagon, as Randy
Couture has proven the passion of the “old man”
who is no old man whatsoever, and who is having the greatest
youth any forty plus male could ever wish for, that is if
you are willing to train endlessly and sacrifice everything
for this sport. Especially now, with Extreme Couture
expanding further than the octagon into Canada and having
some of the top fighters in MMA in their camp, Randy Couture
has become the biggest name out there since Royce
Gracie, Kazushi Sakuraba,
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Fedor
Emilianenko. The only issue here is, can
Couture handle the two later names I have uttered, one of
which refused to sign on to Zuffa’s
low labor wages.
The question here, which should be asked is; why does the
biggest MMA organization in the world still have a “limited”
Heavy Weight division? Sure we are now seeing all the
fighters from PRIDE swarming in,
but most of those big boys are past their prime. A friend
and UFC veteran who fought as a
welterweight told me he was thinking of putting on some more
pounds and challenging the heavyweight champion division because
this division leaves alot to be desired. The real joke though
was that in general, the heavy weight division is the “least
competitive” in almost any sport. In wrestling, this
was always the case. The light and middleweights were stacked
with talent, while there was one or another heavyweight available,
who usually got manhandled by the little guys. Lighter and
middleweight divisions were very competitive and stacked with
experience, usually the heavy weight wrestlers got a later
start, perhaps nudged by the football coach to get in shape
via wrestling. Of course Randy Couture is an olympic level
greco roman man who has been involved in a few coup de estats
insid ethe octagon. He is dominant and established his place
in MMA by taking out an unbeatable Vitor Belfort in his prime.
Then there is the other top talent among the heavies and if
Nogueira winds up as champion waiting for Fedor to enter the
octagon will bring back a PRIDE
like déjà vu.
Did Herb Dean really have to stop the fight when he
did?
Although Gabriel Gonzaga did not complain,
with all due respect, the ground and pound was not really
doing much damage. The damage had been done two minutes into
the fight when the champion’s head unintentionally crunched
Gonzaga’s nose as Couture brought the Brazilian to earth while
his arm reached for the fence.
A problem I’ve seen too often in the UFC (except for Yves
Levigne) are the referees, whose factor of error is very high,
particularly when fighters begin a ground n pound flurry.
Many times it’s simply the illusion of danger being implied
by the top man that leads the referee to stop fights. When
this fight was stopped only a couple shots landed or where
truly “dangerous,” although Gonzaga had probably
been dispirited by then, he was still keeping his elbows up
and defending.
A great part of Gonzaga’s defeat came from having to swallow
his own blood for ten minutes, although he seemed the more
dangerous of the two fighters in this match. That is too say
his power (especially the high kick which Broke Randy’s arm)
was exceptional even against Couture’s own imposing striking
and clinching power.
Although Randy Couture only gets better with time, it was
unfortunate that this fight has this incident factored into
it. As an old dude, I can definitely say my heart is with
Couture, but Gonzaga is a formidable foe that gave it all
his heart could as blood drained from the broken bridge of
his nose, pouring from his nostrils into his mouth and throat.
It will be interesting to see if Gonzaga resurfaces through
the ranks perhaps encountering Andrei Arlovsky along
the way.
GSP Show
There is a tremendous difference between a four-time All
American Division One wrestler and a four-time
All American Division Three wrestler.
All the big names such as Iowa, Iowa State, Ohio
State, Michigan, Pennsylvania, etc… which produce
the top collegiate wrestlers are division three schools. Not
to say that a formidable wrestler cannot go to a division
one school, but the competition won’t be as packed and wont
necessarily prepare you for the best, if not in wrestling
itself in this case for MMA.
When GSP, from Kyokushin Karate,
the worlds largest karate organization, completely dominated
Josh Koscheck in the grappling facet it became clearer that
we were not talking about a division three grappler in the
first place. Koscheck was not able to avoid the takedowns
and they became an uncomfortable position for him to fight
from. Although Koscheck has been developing his stand up,
he lacked the angles, tools, variation and element of surprise,
which GSP implemented and got caught tasting his own medicine.
Actually being on your back is the worst place in the world
when you come from a “traditional” wrestling background.
In the end the complete domination left yet another welterweight
outclassed in a limbo from the true elite in this division.
Harsh
Perhaps the fight, which stole the headlines for this show,
was Renato Babalu Sobral’s old school lesson
delivered to feisty student David Heath.
Yes the man made a mistake by holding that choke a lil' longer,
but Heath was no worse for the wear in the aftermath except
for perhaps an injured ego. For the cross border authorities
and Zuffa to clamp down on Babalu and chop his head off is
a bit draconian. Let the man have his purse and let him keep
fighting for a living. Besides he is a great gatekeeper for
the octagon in the light heavyweight division. Why overreact
when the fight wasn’t even featured for the PPV audiences.
The whole world wasn’t watching and Babalu
is an experienced fighter who possesses the ability to judge
the danger of his own weapons. He like Dan Henderson,
Nogueira, Fedor, etc...came by way of RINGS and is a legend,
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