UFC 91: Couture VS Lesnar

By: Christina Sears

searstina@hotmail.com

By now it’s probably spread like a wild fire that UFC president Dana White has announced that not only is Randy Couture returning to the cage, but his next opponent will be 2-1 Brock Lesnar.

The UFC says that this will be “the biggest heavyweight title fight in years.”

Lesnar and Couture will throw down at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday, November 15 2008.

“I have a lot of respect for Brock as an athlete and a collegiate wrestler, but I know exactly where he’s at, he’s trying to make the transition from a wrestler to mixed martial arts,” said Couture. “I’ve been there, done that, and I know what the pitfalls are. This will be an interesting matchup, and it will be very nice to be home in the Octagon for this fight” says Couture.

“It’s an honor to fight Randy Couture, he’s a legend in this sport, and to get the chance to test myself against him is a gift,” said Lesnar. “A lot guys would love to have this opportunity, Randy is the UFC heavyweight champion. There is one goal that I’ve had since I started training in MMA and that is to capture the title. Now that I’m getting the chance, nothing is going to stop me. I’m walking out of the Octagon with the belt around my waist” says Lesnar.

But I can’t help but think about Antonio Nogueira, and his last bout with Tim Sylvia for the INTERIM heavy weight championship. Now, is it me? Or shouldn’t Nogueira be getting that title shot? I mean he did train hard, and paid his dues to get to that spot. AND from what we’ve seen in the UFC’s past is that the person who holds an interim title, are next in line to get that legit title shot! And while on the topic I don’t understand why there was an interim bout in the first place, Couture is still the champ and wasn’t stripped of his title. Could this have been a fight that was created solely to get rid of the “Maine-iac,” I wouldn’t put it past Dana White!

Randy is known for his high caliber wrestling (just like Lesnar), however Randy has had time to grow in this sport and really transition from a wrestler, to a mix martial artist! And when he says that he knows what the pitfalls are, rest assure that he knows what he’s doing. Couture is very good at picking apart his opponents, we seen him do it with Sylvia not to long ago which won him the belt in the first place. He’s also not your average man in his forties, he’s in great shape and still has fights in him.

Lesnar is still a baby in the world of MMA. For those of you who haven’t seen his pro debut in K-1, he not only was much, MUCH bigger then his opponent Min Soo Kim, in that fight we saw a wrestler just starting to touch base with MMA. He went to his roots and took down Kim right away, he managed with out any effort to grab mount and began to (as the commentators would say) “unleash punches” from the mount.

However, it seemed like even though he was clearly much bigger he was having a hard time controlling his mount. He made the rookie mistake to not secure his position before he started releasing those “bombs” on Kim.

So, now Lesnar wants to be in the “big show” the UFC and he gets the contract. He says he wants to face the best of the best right away. And I agree to be the best, you have to beat those high ranked guys and earn your respect.

The UFC throws Frank Mir at him in his UFC debut. Everyone knows who Brock Lesnar is from his reputation in the WWE so that alone put the asses in the seats. The fact that Frank Mir,  who at one time was one of the top heavy weights,  was going to be his opponent the anticipation for this fight was through the roof.

BUT  there was a controversial call by referee Steve Mazzagatti, who warned Lesnar about hitting the back of the head and then stood them up at a point in that fight where Mir looked like he was going to get the losing end of the stick. BUT he managed to pull out a submission, and get the win over Lesnar.

Many people said that Brock didn’t look as good as he was hyped to be, other said that he would have won that fight if it wasn’t stopped.

SO in his second UFC bout they give him a man who has had a lot of cage experience, Heath Herring.

In the first round, Lesnar throws a flying knee that looked more like a skip which “amazed” everyone, and then hit Herring with straight right which sent him across the cage and Lesnar didn’t waste anytime and charged at Herring head first (as if he was going to spear the guy).

You could tell that he was still pretty fresh in the cage because he had many opportunities to get his hooks in and take Herrings back while against the cage and instead he tried to land some punches and knees from there.

I think that in that fight Lesnar relayed a lot on his roots (which is wrestling) and brute strength (which he has). He had some hard punches but he looked off balanced and he was wide open to be countered when he threw anything.

Brock has his strength, speed and wrestling which are all great weapons to use in the cage, HOWEVER Couture’s got the same wrestling, great jiu jitsu, great hands, and he’s quick for an old guy.

This bout on November 15 2008 makes no sense.

The UFC won’t sign a heavy weight like Fador and have him fight Couture (which will make them so much more then what they would pay to have Fador in the UFC) AND they will ignore the fact Nogueira has the interim belt (and he should be next in line for that title shot)?

AND IN THE END IT WILL BE LESNAR AND COUTURE?

Come on… its obviously going to be an exciting fight but really?

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