Who would have seen that coming. Randy walks out and in the 1st 10 seconds of round 1, drops Sylvia with an overhand right. Sylvia talked so much shit before this fight, how he was a superior striker, yet he got out struck by Couture. Not only that, but Couture continually took Sylvia to the ground.
43 years old, and less then 6 months away from turning 44.
Nobody gave him a shot against Sylvia.
Of course aftewards Syvlia says he's injured, and he wonders why nobody likes him. Take your ass whoppin like a man.
The crowd booed him of course and he tried to back peddle a bit.
Randy will be facing the winner of Crocop/Gonzaga. I'm sure it'll be Crocop.
I hope Randy does the same to him as he did to Sylvia.
Hughes won, although that wasnt' too impressive that he went to decision.
Franklin got the TKO aginst JMAC between the 2nd and 3rd round. JMac's corner threw in the towel.
Babalu got KTFO too.

Youtube has some of the fights. I found the Couture/Sylvia, although it was missing the 4th round. I also found the Franklin fight.


http://www.sherdog.com/news/news.asp?n_id=6884

Randy Couture is a god. There's no way around that. The guy will be worshipped from now on as the MMA messiah. It was amazing to watch. Outweighed by 50 lbs., a year in a retirement, four years from fighting at heavyweight, and at 43, he completely dominates Sylvia. The greatest of all time??

I almost feel sorry for Tim at times. But at other times, I don't.

Couture-CroCop?? Man, what a match up. If anyone can beat CroCop besides Fedor, it's Randy.

Franklin looked solid but still has the same gaps in his style that got him destroyed by Silva. I see him losing again unless he fills in the gaps.

Hughes looked like Hughes again. Too bad that GSP is just better.

Babalu needs to start thinking. Talent for miles but he's way too emotional and seems to develop no fight strategy whatsoever.

I was at the fight and it was amazing. When randy clocked him on that first hit the place went nuts. Everyone wanted tim to go down. I stood up screaming like a little bitch just hoping he'd knock him out. I think randy's natural instinct was to jump on him while he could, meaning on the ground. I think if he would have taken a more direct approach to just flat out punching him those first few seconds, while standing, it would have been over there. However, it was nice to see Tim get bitch smacked the rest of the fight.

Crocop vs randy........me think that won't be good for randy, at all.

Very impressive performance by Couture.

That's just so amazing to watch.

Randy can't employ the same gameplan with Mirko unless he wants to be KTFO. Mirko's takedown defense is excellent and we all know about his KO power. But if anyone can beat Crocop, Randy's the one to do it.

I dont think Randy has much of a chance against CroCop, not at 43 years of age anyway. Yes, mans a fucking legend, I almost cried with joy when he dismantled Mr Jabby "Im a superior striker" McShitPants, but CroCop unlike Sylvia is no slob and although I really dont want to see Randy hurt, imo Mirko will beat him up bad.

That Matt Hughes fight was so boring. I don't think Franklin or Hughes will ever get their titles back. The courture win was amazing as was the arm triangle that one dude used. But other than that the card sucked the cock. I guess after Pride 33 nothing else will compare as far as excitement goes.

Now Jason Lambert is top 10, yet Babalu isn't anymore at all.

Besides that travesty, Rashad Evans, who beat Lambert, isn't even top 10.

Goddamn MMA Weekly is stupid.

Agreed, Randy is phenomenal! But, as an interested “outsider”, I have a question.
Chuck beat Randy in their last 2 bouts. Now Randy comes out of retirement to take the HW title. Might Chuck now move up to HW and battle Couture in that weight division?
Guess it seems a bit strange that a guy retires after loosing 2 consecutive fights as a LHW but, returns to win as a HW. Does it come down to styles?

As with any sport with weight classes, it has a lot to do with who happens to be in your weight class. HW might also just be a more comfortable weight class for him right now too.

It does have a lot to do with styles, yeah, and as Kim said, with who is in your weight class.

Chuck has unfinished business at light heavy (Rampage) so I don't think we'll see him go up to heavy anytime soon.

But with the new tricks Randy has learned, plus with all of his personal problems behind him, I could see him beating Chuck again.

Randy can possibly beat Chuck again, but I can't see him beating Mirko. Not at his age anyways. I can't wait till the Rampage vs Lidell fight. I just hope it won't be as disappointing as the last Hughs vs St-Pierre. I think Rampage as the mental advantage in that one, though Chuck seems like the kind of guy that doesn't let that kind of shit bother him.

I still think Chuck is overrated. If he beats Rampage, though, I'll be a believer.

As much as I hate on chuck for beating Randy twice, I am already a believer. Chuck is amazing. The guy trains all the right strategies for winning in the octagon. If he went to japan right now and fought in Pride in a ring against Wanderlei, Shogun, Rampage, Lil Nog, etc... he would have a good chance of losing. But any of those guys in the Octagon, chuck has an excellent chance of winning.

IN FACT, I'll put it all on the line right now: IN THE OCTAGON, CHUCK WILL BEAT RAMPAGE. Unless he lets the drugs/partying get to him, then pretty much anyone could take him once he gets that first beat down by a focused Rampage.

So, in conclusion: Focused Chuck will beat Rampage in the cage. Same fight in the ring? I may go with Rampage.

Chuck can't knock Rampage out. That's been shown.

Here's what happens- Rampage eats Chuck's punches like they're butterscotch and keeps coming forward, eventually melting the Ice.

Would love to see it happen, but it is not to be in the Octagon. It will take more than post-Silva, post-Shogun Rampage in the Octagon to beat a focused Chak. That's just the way it is...

In fact, I can't think of another fighter that really has a chance vs chuck in the octagon. Shogun maybe? But even then... Maybe if Fedor cut down to 205 just for one fight? Or crocop... Cro could do it maybe.

Oh and Randy could probably do it again too, lol. It would just figure.

What are your reasons for thinking the Octagon itself makes such a big difference?

Chuck uses the cage to posture up against to get back to his feet. Can't do this with ropes hence why Rampage was able to keep him down and pound on him. Chuck can KO Rampage, that Crazy Monkey defense will eventually get him caught, didn't work to well for Tito. Jackson still seems to have problems dealing with the clinch so if Chuck has decent knees he may take Page out.

I wonder if Chuck would fight Hendo to unify the belts as he would have the weight and likely strength advantage. Also Chuck likely walks around in the 220s so there's no reason he couldn't fight hws like Fedor or Crocop who are maybe in the 230s at most.

Chuck can knock anyone out. He just didn't before, when he was an inferior fighter. If Rampage can't regain the fire he once had, he has no chance.

That's only a little bit of the reason he could't get back up when Rampage took him down. The biggest reason is that he was worn the fuck down. He threw everything he had at Rampage and couldn't hurt him. Meanwhile, Rampage was sticking him with all kinds of shots. It was the same thing in the first fight with Randy. When Randy took him down the last time, Chuck had nothing left.

The "Crazy Monkey" defense works for Rampage because his chin is much better than Tito's.

Chuck with knees? When has Chuck ever used his knees, especially in a clinch? You're talking about Chuck as if he's a fighter that evolves. He doesn't. He does the same shit he's done for years and years. Chuck is definitely no Randy in that respect.



How is Chuck a better fighter now? Because he's knocked out guys who are tailor made for him to knock out? Randy twice, Jeremy Horn, Tito, Babalu, all primarily grapplers who can make Chuck look good. If anything, Rampage may lose because of his nerves.

The talk of him fighting CroCop is total garbage. He would get destroyed by CroCop. Any "pretty good" striker will stick it to Chuck, as history clearly indicates.

I would love to see it, believe me.

A good striker vs. chuck would be a good fight. Heck even Wanderlei would STILL be an awesome match. But again, I think that the octagon will favour chuck in that matchup as well. Hendo would be very interesting as well. I would love to see chuck fight more top level fighters, for sure. But he is a top level fighter as well, and I have to admit he plays his game very well.

Yeah. The head kick was there all day for the lame iac. But he was too afraid of being taken down which happened anyways. Cro cop is going to hurt him bad methinks.

I've read before most fighters agree that there is something "different" about fighting in the octagon as opposed to the ring, so it can definitely make a difference I believe. Chuck will come in ready to fight. He knows the pressure is on and you just know he wants to prove to himself he can beat Rampage after losing to him the way he did. He will come in focused and in top notch condition. I think Rampage has better KO power but if Chuck catches him flat-footed he can definitely floor him. I believe this fight will go to the guy who's in better condition.

I hope Randy does his homework if he wishes to avoid making a trip to the hospital. He could do it if he were younger, but Tim was not a cream-of-the-crop fighter Randy is on a collision course with.

I still want to see Randy fight Wandi, but that fight will never happen

Randy is a very, very bad match up for Wandy.

Randy is a bad style match-up for Wand and again it really depends where the fight takes place. But Randy is also a limited fighter, his ground and pound isn't the best and his subs are poor. He had numerous opportunities to go for leg locks on Tim but had to resort to pinning him down and winning on time.

It's also, IMO an absurd notion that Rampage has better KO power than Chuck. How many people has he KOd? And people wonder how much chuck has improved, well since he hasn't been tested we really don't know. We know he has improved on his footwork though as evident by his KOs over Babalu and Randy.
But as of yet no one has really been able to keep him on the ground. People also doubted Anderson Silva's ground game and assumed he would be dead if on his back with Lutter. But he was able to defend even when mounted and ultimately pulled off a win from his back.

Chuck has also fought competant strikers in Overeem and Belfort and beat them both. But fighters like Shogun, Rampage, Wand, Hendo and Crocop to name a few would be interesting match-ups for Chuck.