Couture ends Coleman’s UFC career

Randy Couture easily defeated Mark Coleman at UFC 109 in the hall of famers match in the main event by rear naked choke. Couture couldn’t miss with his strikes as he battered Coleman from the outside early in the fight. Coutures pace briefly slowed after he was seemingly rocked by a Coleman right hand, but after shaking off the blow Couture turned his attention to the clinch where he punished ‘The Hammer’ with his dirty boxing to finish out the first round. After more of the same early in the 2nd round, Couture scored a takedown and ended up in mount. Coleman gave up his back after taking some punches and Couture scored an easy rear naked choke which put the 2000 PRIDE Open Weight Grand Prix winner to sleep.

The win was probably Couture’s easiest since his first appearance in the UFC. Coleman had absolutely no answers for any of Couture’s game. He didn’t shoot in once, his boxing was as terrible as it’s ever been and while he took a beating, Couture has never really had knockout power in his punches. The only thing that really stood out for me in this fight was the fact that Couture was rocked by the one punch Coleman did land. This for me further emphasises the fact that Couture’s punch resistance and durability has worn thin over the years. As a major Couture fan, I don’t look forward to him fighting one of the younger, more dangerous opponents at 205lbs.

As for Coleman, he has since been cut from the UFC and hopefully he has made some decent money in his last few fights. I’m also glad that Tito Ortiz’s attempts to salvage the Coleman fight were shut down quick as I believe that Ortiz was looking for an easy win and seeing how Ken Shamrock no longer fights in the UFC, he went for the next best thing, another mid forties UFC hall of famer who’s time was in another era. Fighting Ortiz would have been pointless as the man is an absolute legend of the sport having twice been considered the best fighter in the world at different periods in the game and also being one of the men who changed the approach to the sport. Before Coleman most of the real top level wrestlers got takedowns and either held position or in rare circumstances went for submissions. None of them dished out the sort of punishment that Coleman did from top position. Coleman also paved the way for many other top wrestlers to get involved with MMA with the likes of Mark Kerr, Kevin Randleman and Kevin Jackson soon joining Colemans training camp and then going on to win titles in the UFC.

On the undercard, Chael Sonnen earned the number one contenders slot with a gruelling unanimous decision win over Nate Marquadt. Marquadt looked good for the first minute, scoring with some solid punches before Sonnen got the first of many takedowns in the fight. From on top, Marquadt had few answers for Sonnen’s relentless top game and was controlled and punished for the first two rounds. Sonnen survived some scary moments in the third round, including a guillotine choke that only seemed to fail because Marquadts hands slipped apart, but he earned the unanimous decision and the right to face Anderson Silva (should he get by Vitor Belfort Demian Maia in April).

Sonnen-Silva should be interesting and probably the first interesting Middleweight title fight since Silva unified the belts by beating PRIDE champion Dan Henderson. Sonnen has already trash talked Silva and with a victory over Paulo Filho, Silva wil be motivated to avenge his friends loss. I think you can expect to see Silva bring out his A-game on Sonnen when they fight but then again I wouldn’t count Vitor Belfort out of the UFC 112 bout. Belfort has serious knockout power, the likes of which Silva probably hasn’t dealt with in his career. Out of anyone I give Vitor the best crack at beating Silva.

(Since writing this I learnt that Belfort is in fact out of UFC 112 and Demian Maia has taken his place on the card).

In other results, Matt Serra scored a big first round knockout over Frank Trigg. Seriously, if you didn’t think Serra was a top ten welterweight for some stupid fucking reason before this, I think this settles it. Serra is a dangerous fight for anyone at 170lbs. Demian Maia grinded out a unanimous decision win over Dan Miller. Paulo Thiago made it 2-1 v AKA fighters, choking Mike Swick out with a Darce choke which was executed after a knockdown. Thiago is going to be an extremely dangerous fighter in a year or so once he irons out some of the roughness to his game.

(Sorry for the week off, I’ve been busy again and seeing how there were no fights on this weekend I thought I’d catch up then.)

Legends Collide at UFC 109

Some fights just aren’t meant to happen.

The history behind tomorrow’s UFC 109 main event between Hall of Famer’s Randy ‘The Natural’ Couture and Mark ‘The Hammer’ Coleman suggested that this was one of those fights. Originally scheduled to meet at UFC 17 in Coleman’s return fight from his shock loss to Maurice Smith (he would have challenged Couture for the heavyweight title Couture won from Smith at ‘Ultimate Japan’), Couture was forced off the show with an injury paving the way for youngster Pete Williams to fight Coleman and shockingly KO Coleman with a highlight reel head kick. Couture left the UFC not long after, heading to Japan’s RINGS organisation where he’d lose three fights between 1998 and 2001 while Coleman lost a decision to Pedro Rizzo before heading towards the PRIDE.

With both fighters careers looking to be closing down, they both turned it around in 2000. Coleman outlasted a field of eight top competitors to win the PRIDE 2000 Open Weight Grand Prix, a tournament billed to crown the best fighter on the planet (with the exception of two or three UFC fighters at the time, it pretty much did) while Couture returned to the UFC and defeated their heavyweight champion Kevin Randleman before defending it twice against Pedro Rizzo in explosive battles. Again Couture and Coleman were at the top of the sport and were the subjects of the first PRIDE vs UFC champions debate, but their meeting wouldn’t happen. Coleman lost his title to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and his career went on a slide from there while Couture did his thing in the UFC (do I really need to go into detail on what everyone already knows on Couture?) and the fight hasn’t really been talked about since.

Tomorrow the two MMA legends meet at Light Heavyweight in the main event of the UFC’s annual super bowl weekend card (for anyone who gives a shit I’m picking the Colts). The fight is of little significance right now. Although it does push Couture very close to another title shot should he win, should Coleman win he’ll likely be fed to an up and comer and brutalised. Still, probably the most anticipated fight in MMA history (apart from the one where somehow or another Fedor fights the reigning UFC Heavyweight champion) was when Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva were ruling their respective organisations’ 205lb divisions, and when they eventually fought it was off the back of consecutive losses and their fight was an absolute war. The Couture-Coleman fight is definately one to check out.

While both men come from wrestling backgrounds (Coleman was a 92 Olympian, Couture was two time Olympic alternate) their styles are much different now. Coleman has often been criticised for not evolving and his style very much relies on his ability to get the fight to the ground and get on top. Couture on the other hand as learnt how to box and has learnt submissions and learnt them to the levels where he has used them to win fights. Couture’s weaknesses have been against much bigger guys or guys who could hurt him standing and stuff his takedowns. Coleman definately has the wrestling pedigree to stuff Couture’s takedowns, but his stand-up has always been primitive in terms of technique. The other big factor besides the overall game of both men is conditioning. Couture is always in top shape while Coleman has lost many fights due to his lack of gas. Even though Couture’s durability has looked suspect in recent fights and while Coleman probably looked the best he’s ever looked in his last fight, I doubt he can outstrike or outlast The Natural.

I think this fight will see a clinch battle for the first round with both men trying to get the other on their back. The big difference will be that Couture will likely score with punches that lead to the clinch and then will likely have the upper hand in the ‘dirty boxing’ game which he is a master of. Couture’s clinch game will wear on Coleman’s conditioning which will make Coleman’s takedown shots become desperate and open him up to punches as well as takedowns from Couture himself. I think if Couture gets on top at anytime in this fight he’ll end it, while if Coleman gets on top Couture will probably escape. I really don’t see anyway in which Coleman wins this fight unless he somehow outworks Couture. I can see the fight ending in one of three ways; ground and pound, rear naked choke or some sort of choke off the sprawl with Coleman too gassed to fight it. Either way I think Randy Couture wins this fight in the 2nd round.

The undercard is fairly appetising with the co-main event to decide the next Middleweight title challenger. With Nate Marquadt’s defeat of Damian Maia and Chael Sonnen being the man to finally defeat Yushin Okami as well as Dan Henderson’s depature from the UFC, the winner of this fight is the most logical challenger for the title since Henderson himself. This fight is interesting in terms of style, similar to the Couture-Coleman fight, as Sonnen has a strong wrestling base while Marquadt is the more well-rounded fighter. Marquadt is definately the more dangerous fighter in terms of striking and submissions, but Sonnen’s wrestling is that good that he could overwhelm Marquadt and take a decision. Sonnen has been submitted in the past, but I’d hardly but Marquadt in the submission league of Damian Maia, Jeremy Horn or Paulo Filho. Still, I think Marquadt’s well rounded game will give him the edge, and I think he’ll win a close decision in a competitive fight (I’d like to see Sonnen win just to see him cop a bashing at the hands of Anderson Silva because he’s an A-grade douche bag).

Also on the main card, Mike Swick attempts to further avenge the knockout Paulo Thiago inflicted on fellow AKA fighter Josh Koscheck (Fitch already beat him last year). I don’t see Thiago handling Swick. His striking, despite scoring the knockout over Koscheck, is full of holes and Swick is the best striker from AKA and I think he’ll tear Thiago a new one inside a few minute. Former Welterweight champion Matt Serra takes on Frank Trigg in a semi-old school battle as both men have been around sinde the 90s. I think Trigg will finally do the job and send Serra back down to 155lbs where he should be, although Serra is going to be dangerous for the entire fight with his knockout power and submissions. Trigg’s size advantage and wrestling base should see him through to a decision win. Damian Maia also returns, taking on Dan Miller. Miller has the tools to make this fight hard for the submission ace, but I think this fight hits the ground at some point and Maia submits him when it does.

On the undercard, Mac Danzig should break his losing streak against Justin Bucholz, I’m picking Ronny Torres to submit Melvin Guillard because he’s a BJJ fighter and Guillard has no submission defence, Nover to destroy Rob Emerson, Rolles Gracie and Phil Davis to win their UFC debuts and YAMMA Pit Fighting veteran Chris Tuschererererererer to defeat Tim Hague.

UFC 95 Predictions

I’m keeping this brief for a few reasons. First, I don’t give much of a crap about this card. The only fight that interests me is Demian Maia vs Chael Sonnen and the rest don’t really have an impact on anything. Second, I’m going to be away for a few days and couldn’t be bothered writing up a big thing on it.

Main Card
Diego Sanchez vs Joe Stevenson
Prediction- Sanchez by 2nd round TKO

Wilson Gouveia vs Nate Marquadt
Prediction- Marquadt on points

Demian Maia vs Chael Sonnen
Prediction- Maia by 2nd round submission

Josh Koscheck vs Paulo Thiago
Prediction- Koscheck on points

Dan Hardy vs Rory Markham
Prediction- Markham on points

Preliminaries
Junior dos Santos vs Stefan Struve
Prediction- Struve by 1st round submission

Brian Cobb vs Terry Etim
Prediction- Etim by 2nd roubd submission

Mike Ciesnolevicz vs Neil Grove
Prediction- Ciesnolevicz on points

Evan Dunham vs Per Eklund
Prediction- Eklund on points

Paul Kelly vs Troy Mandaloniz
Prediction- Kelly on points