Couture's end game?
Dana White was very vocal in his desire for Chuck Liddell to retire from the sport. He claimed the Iceman had nothing left to prove and shouldn’t even bother stepping into the Octagon again.
Why doesn’t he have the same rap about Randy Couture? He’s retired before and came out of retirement when he saw a beatable (in his eyes) heavyweight champ in Tim Sylvia. He defended his title, had his contract dispute and then lost his title to Brock Lesnar. What does Couture have left to prove? He’s an MMA legend and former champion, and other than his bout this weekend with another MMA legend, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, there’s not much left for Couture at the heavyweight level.
There may be other interesting fights for Couture, but he certainly shouldn’t stick around to be the gate-keeper of the heavyweight division, assuming he loses. We don’t need to see him fight Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos. A fight with Mirko Cro Cop could be interesting, but both are past their primes.
Couture has stated he would go down a weight class to fight Lyoto Machida if the UFC was interested, but I don’t think that’s realistic. The light heavyweight division is deep enough to keep Machida’s plate full of challengers. Although that might not be a bad way for Couture to fade into the limelight.
He has one fight left on his contract after UFC 102. If he beats Nogueira, let him go out with a title shot against a man he can’t beat. Lesnar is only getting stronger and has already defeated Couture. Still, Couture is a big draw and that could be an interesting fight, promotion-wise.
Either way, Randy needs to start thinking about the end game. He’s still one of the best heavyweight fighters in the UFC and can still fight. But so can Liddell. Couture is 46 and, like Liddell, has nothing left to prove.
Why doesn’t he have the same rap about Randy Couture? He’s retired before and came out of retirement when he saw a beatable (in his eyes) heavyweight champ in Tim Sylvia. He defended his title, had his contract dispute and then lost his title to Brock Lesnar. What does Couture have left to prove? He’s an MMA legend and former champion, and other than his bout this weekend with another MMA legend, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, there’s not much left for Couture at the heavyweight level.
There may be other interesting fights for Couture, but he certainly shouldn’t stick around to be the gate-keeper of the heavyweight division, assuming he loses. We don’t need to see him fight Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos. A fight with Mirko Cro Cop could be interesting, but both are past their primes.
Couture has stated he would go down a weight class to fight Lyoto Machida if the UFC was interested, but I don’t think that’s realistic. The light heavyweight division is deep enough to keep Machida’s plate full of challengers. Although that might not be a bad way for Couture to fade into the limelight.
He has one fight left on his contract after UFC 102. If he beats Nogueira, let him go out with a title shot against a man he can’t beat. Lesnar is only getting stronger and has already defeated Couture. Still, Couture is a big draw and that could be an interesting fight, promotion-wise.
Either way, Randy needs to start thinking about the end game. He’s still one of the best heavyweight fighters in the UFC and can still fight. But so can Liddell. Couture is 46 and, like Liddell, has nothing left to prove.
Comments
Do you think maybe there's a chance that Dana sees the light heavyweight division as so much more competitive than the heavyweight division that maybe he thinks Liddell has a better chance of being seriously hurt than Couture? That doesn't ring true to me, but I'm not sure why Dana would call for the end of one career and not for the other. Seems like he must have some reason in mind, but I can't say I have much of a guess as to what that reason would be. It would maybe make sense that he's trying to protect fighters' legacies by asking them to step away, but it doesn't make sense why he'd do it for one and not the other. The only other thing I could think of and this doesn't ring true either is that maybe Dana thinks Randy is smart enough to absolutely know when he's done, whereas he doesn't think Chuck is either smart enough or not hard-headed enough to know. I'm not sure, but it is certainly odd. You can add some other fighters to that list as well, I think. You're always going to have people who will argue that guys still have some left in the tank, and really, who knows? It's a weird judgment call.
Posted by: Nicholas Sadaka | August 25, 2009 3:18 PM
This nigga Couture is the best, he will beat the has-been Nogueira because the only thing he can do is get beat down for 5 rounds. Couture will not knock him out but he will make him look sorry. One love peace and No doubt muh Nig!
Posted by: Rosco Lopez | August 25, 2009 4:24 PM