UFC 105 win shows Couture won't be too exciting
The big debating point after Saturday's UFC 105 was Randy Couture's
controversial victory over Brandon Vera and what the future holds
for the multitime UFC champion. In his first fight outside of North
America in almost a decade, Couture managed to earn a close fight
by unanimous decision despite Vera, UFC commentator Joe Rogan and
many in the crowd believing that Vera had done enough to defeat the
"The Natural."
This was Couture's return to the light heavyweight division
and was his chance to prove that away from the super-heavyweights
that increasingly dominate the heavyweight division he could still
be a contender within the UFC. The move down in weight was a
tremendous risk as he would lose the speed and conditioning
advantage that had helped him defeat Tim Sylvia and Gabriel
Gonzaga. Against quicker fighters such as Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria
and even Brock Lesnar, Couture had struggled as he couldn't use his
speed and footwork to effectively work in the clinch or the pocket
while avoiding getting hit. A move down to light heavyweight means
Couture fighting against even faster opponents and having to change
his style to mitigate his opponents' speed advantage.
And Saturday, he did precisely that although even he had to
admit that his tactics were not entertaining to watch. As he had
hinted at in his prefight interviews, Couture focused on using his
wrestling to wear down Vera. The second there was an opening, he
was going for the clinch or takedown, pushing up against the cage
and just wearing Vera down. Now that is a tactic that Couture has
used repeatedly in his previous fights but the extent to which he
avoided the striking game in the first two rounds and his failure
to remain active in the clinch was different. And whereas usually
Couture's charisma and fan-favorite status stops the fans getting
bored, the Manchester fans tired of these tactics by the second
round and repeatedly called for the fighters to be separated.
The problem is that Couture can't win any other way. He is 46
years old and he cannot risk getting drawn into a brawl because he
no longer has the speed or the resilience to stay out of his
comfort zone for long. Like Lesnar and Nogueria, Vera was able to
get hard shots in on Couture throughout the fight and really should
have finished him when he got the knockdown off a knee to the head
in the second round. Unlike the other two, he wasn't able to
dictate the pace of the fight or control where it took place. The
consequence of that failure was that Couture was able to wear Vera
down to the point where in the third round he finally felt
confident enough to put some boxing combinations together and
become more active in the clinch.
When the buzzer went at ringside, my snap judgment was that
Couture had lost the fight by 29-28 with the last round being very
even and being decided largely on Vera getting the one takedown of
the round. However taking the fight as a whole I am struck by the
coherence of Couture's strategy and the single-minded way he
implemented it. Vera did cause more damage but it was Couture who
dictated where the fight took place. And toward the end of the
fight, Vera was the one who was visibly tiring, suggesting that the
wrestling that had so infuriated the fans had been effective in
wearing down Vera.
But as we look toward to the next Couture fight (which may
well be a shot at the light heavyweight title) I feel increasingly
uneasy. At his peak Couture was a rounded fighter who intelligently
used his wrestling as the foundation to an effective and
entertaining mixed martial arts fighting style. As his age finally
catches up with him, he is becoming an increasingly limited fighter
who cannot comfortably fight outside his ever-decreasing comfort
zone. The whole evolution of mixed martial arts is of fighters
becoming more comfortable in a variety of different styles and
developing new ways to merge different martial arts into a coherent
fighting style. At his best Couture was able to do that but now he
is forced to fight a slow, Greco-Roman wrestling match to avoid his
chin being tested by a fighter who hits harder or his conditioning
being tested by a faster fighter. When it works its enough to keep
him competitive with the very best but it hardly marks him out as a
the elite fighter he once was.
Today's Randy Couture has the same grasp of strategy that he
always had. He is the best in the world when it comes to thinking
about a fight and developing a strategy that will get him the
victory. But as we saw Saturday that strategy is becoming
increasingly unappealing to mask his physical limitations. His
fighting style is slipping dangerously close to self-parody as he
threatens to become the limited, boring wrestler that his critics
always accused him of being. I don't want to see any fighter end
his career undermining his own legacy, let alone a fighter who has
achieved as much for this sport as Couture. With his first victory
in over two years, Couture will step into the octagon again, but
perhaps he shouldn't.