Randy Couture Week is an intense look at an MMA legend on the brink of a big fight at this weekend's UFC 91 in Las Vegas.Having vanquished Maurice Smith to capture the UFC heavyweight title, it seemed Randy had nowhere to go but down. Randy found another place he could go: Japan. It was the first time, but not the last, that Randy would get into a contract dispute with the UFC, which was owned by Semaphore Entertainment Group at the time. When Randy and SEG could not come to terms on a contract, the UFC stripped him of his title. It would be three years before he stepped foot in the Octagon again.
In the meantime, Japan was the place to be. Undefeated, Randy the champion went overseas ... and promptly lost his first two matches to journeymen Enson Inoue and Mikhail Illoukhine. What happened? It was simply a problem with the rules. The organizations he competed in, Vale Tudo Japan and RINGS, were not really MMA at all. Since they did not allow any striking on the ground, only submission grappling, they were more akin to "hybrid wrestling," which is what proto-MMA organization Pancrase called themselves. For Randy, the change in rules was disastrous. His stand-up was rudimentary at best and once on the ground, he was outmatched in the submission department by more experienced opponents. His best weapons -- take-downs and wrestling -- became a liability in organizations without ground striking.
By now it was 1999 and Randy made one last run at making the Olympic team in Greco-Roman wrestling. But as in his last three attempts, he came in second place in his weight class and was designated an alternate. With his Olympic dreams now permanently dashed, it was back to MMA. Randy adjusted and won his next two matches in Japan, but at the same time, the UFC came calling again.
vs. Kevin Randleman
When Randy was stripped of his title, it left the UFC in a lurch. To compensate, they put on a multi-event heavyweight tournament. After three events, the finals were set between Pancrase star Bas Rutten (pictured right) and NCAA champion wrestler Kevin Randleman. In what remains one of the most controversial decisions in MMA history, Rutten got the victory and got the title. There was more bad news in store for the UFC: Rutten turned around and retired, vacating the title they had worked so hard to award.
The UFC gave Randleman a second shot at the belt against Pete Williams, which Randleman won, despite doing almost nothing but laying on top of Williams for 25 minutes. Randleman's first title defense was even worse. When he wasn't lying on top of Pedro Rizzo doing nothing, the two were endlessly circling each other on their feet, still doing nothing. Randleman got the decision win, but the fight was so dissatisfying that the live crowd booed and threw garbage into the Octagon. The UFC needed Randy to take out the trash.
This would be a significant test for Randy, because it was the first time he would face an opponent with equal or better wrestling skills. Sure enough, Randleman put Couture on his back for the first time within 18 seconds of the first round. The first round was all Randleman, and while he didn't land anything too devastating, it looked like he was executing his smothering style perfectly. The second round was a change of pace for the first two minutes. Randleman came out striking and landed multiple combinations, staggering Randy for the first time in his career. But Randleman eventually defaulted to what he knew best, and the remainder of the second round was spent exactly the same way as the first.
Clearly behind on the scorecards, it was time for Randy to make his move. The fight now took place wherever he dictated, mostly in the clinch, but eventually, it was Randy who got the takedown. Tired and unaccustomed to being on his back, Randleman had no answer for Couture. Randy rained down unanswered blows, passed Randleman's guard, mounted him, and got another stoppage victory. Randy had now regained the title he never lost.
vs. Pedro Rizzo
For his first title defense, Randy was matched up against Pedro Rizzo, a vicious, though frustratingly inconsistent, striker. You never quite knew which Rizzo was going to show up. Would it be the Rizzo who beat nine of his first 12 opponents with strikes, or would you get the tentative, cautious, and inactive Rizzo who did virtually nothing against Randleman and looked uncertain during periods of his other bouts?
For the first round, it looked like the bad Rizzo had shown up. More importantly it was the old Randy Couture that showed up, the one who used clinch and ground strikes to put away Vitor Belfort. Had the round gone on just a little longer, the referee likely would have stopped it; such was the punishment Randy was inflicting. During the round, Randy landed 32 significant strikes and 84 strikes overall. Rizzo landed just 4 significant strikes and 10 overall. This was a 10-8 round if there ever was one.
Rizzo came out for round two looking physically worse, but it was Randy that looked like the wearier fighter. Trying so hard to finish at the end of round one, Randy had tired himself out, leaving him unable to take Rizzo to the ground on any of five attempts. On his feet, Couture was vulnerable to Rizzo's Muay Thai. Rizzo dropped Randy with a kick to the body and reeled off seven of the most thunderous leg kicks you'll ever see, further hampering Randy's mobility. This, of course, left Randy open for other strikes. By the end of the round, it was Randy that was saved by the bell. As clear as round one was for Randy, round two was for Rizzo.
Exhausted, both fighters basically used round three as a breather. Randy regrouped in round four, but Rizzo came out on top in round five, thanks to a flurry of strikes in the last 30 seconds of the match. So the question was, how do you score a fight in which each fighter emphatically won one round, each pretty clearly won another, and neither did almost anything in the remaining round? That depends on how likely you are to score a 10-8 in the first two rounds or a 10-10 in the third. And while the scores were not announced, the judges' calculations put Randy on top with a unanimous decision. (Full stats are available here.)
This decision left a bad taste in Rizzo's mouth and still rankles some fans to this day. The UFC (owned by Zuffa by this point) saw fit to grant Rizzo an immediate rematch, a rarity in a title fight that doesn't end by injury.
vs. Pedro Rizzo ... again
The second Rizzo fight was not nearly as close. Randy's conditioning did not betray him and Rizzo was unable to land the punishing leg and body kicks that worked so well the first time around. This was also the first time we'd see Randy do something he'd become famous for: oustriking the superior striker. During the fight's 13 minutes and 32 seconds, Randy outlanded Rizzo 29-16 on the feet. Compound that with the 67 shots he landed on the ground and Randy had now convincingly dispatched the man he said had given him his greatest challenge.
vs. Josh Barnett
The landscape of mixed martial arts had been changing. The "dark years" where the UFC was banned from even pay-per-view were over and the old guard of single-talent fighters was starting to give way to the new breed of competitors who cross-trained in every discipline and had the athleticism to back it up. Josh Barnett was definitely from the second category. At just 25, Barnett was 14 years younger than Couture, had KO power, excellent grappling, and was well-versed in the art of catch wrestling, a hyper-active submission discipline. Most importantly, he was also the first opponent to significantly outweigh Randy since his second pro fight.
The start of the fight was business-as-usual for Randy. He wrestled Barnett to the ground and poured on the ground striking. Barnett was game, though, staying out of serious danger, and constantly looking for submissions. He was also the first opponent that Randy had trouble controlling on the ground. To this point, every time Randy took his opponent down, he either ended the fight or stayed on top until the end of the round. Barnett's size and quickness meant he was the first person to ever scramble back to his feet against Randy Couture.
The size differential would manifest itself more significantly in the second round. Though Randy was again able to get Barnett to the ground, he still couldn't quite control him. After a scramble during which Barnett looked for a leg lock, Barnett was able to take top position and he never let up. Randy had been on his back against Randleman, but only absorbed six significant strikes in 10 minutes. Once Barnett was on top of him, Randy took 31 shots in less than two minutes before being saved by the referee.
The fight was an eye-opener. It was Randy's first loss in the UFC, the first time he'd ever been beaten up, and the first time he was unable to hold down his opponent. And at 39 years old, people had to wonder if time hadn't caught up to him.
vs. Ricco Rodriguez
Luckily, Randy would get an immediate chance to regain his title, though not against Barnett. After testing positive for steroids, Barnett was stripped of the title and has never returned to the UFC. With a vacant title, it was up to Randy and Ricco Rodriguez to decide the future of the heavyweight division.
Unfortunately for Randy, Ricco posed the same problems as Barnett did. Rodriguez was much larger than Randy, was an excellent wrestler and had striking good enough to knock-out all four of his opponents in the UFC thus far. If there was one knock on Ricco, it was that he relied too much on natural ability and was never quite in shape. This was his first championship match and no one was sure what Ricco would look like if the fight went late into rounds four and five.
In the first round, Randy showed a different strategy than the one employed against Barnett. Perhaps realizing that he wouldn't be able to keep the larger man down, Randy chose to strike instead, and proved that his stand-up had markedly improved from the days when he was just a wrestler. By round two, Randy had done enough damage that when he did get Rodriguez down, he kept him there. Unloading a bevy of punches in the final seconds of the round, the fight was nearly stopped and Ricco was saved by the bell.
The fight began to turn in round three. While it began with more punches from Randy, a takedown, and strikes on the ground, it wasn't enough to finish Ricco. Midway through the third, Ricco got his takedown and started putting it to Randy for the first time. The momentum had swung in Ricco's direction, so much so that it was Rodriguez who stormed out to start the fourth round with a takedown. Just as against Barnett, Randy was unable to extricate himself from underneath Ricco, who controlled him for nearly four and a half minutes, landing 50 strikes in the process.
Depending on how you scored round three, the fight was now even. The smart money before the bout was on Randy should it make it all the way to round five and he started the final frame by landing a few staggering strikes on the feet. But Ricco showed no signs of fatigue and landed a takedown that was the beginning of the end. Randy couldn't get up, and though Ricco didn't get out of Randy's guard, he hardly needed to. Ricco landed 35 unanswered strikes before the referee stopped the match with just two minutes left to go.
Randy had now lost two fights in a row and a pattern had emerged: he had a hard time dealing with much larger opponents who were proficient on the ground. But if larger opponents were out of the question, perhaps it was time for change in weight class.
Coming Next ... "2003-2004: Reborn at 205"
