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Rteacher · Joined: 23 May 2005 Location: Western MA, USA

Couture, 43, beats Sylvia for heavyweight title

Dave Doyle / FOXSports.com

George Foreman came out of retirement and won the UFC heavyweight title at the age of 45. Jack Nicklaus won his final Masters in 1986 at 46

And now the sports of mixed martial arts has its first Rocky moment. Thirteen months after calling it quits, 43-year-old Randy Couture is the new Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight titleholder.

The undersize former light heavyweight took it to 6-foot-8 former champion Tim Sylvia and stunned the MMA world with a commanding unanimous decision. A sellout crowd of 19,049 paying a facility record of $3 million at Nationwide Arena saw Couture, who was giving up 41 pounds to the 263-pound Sylvia, win all five rounds on the three judges' scorecards...

"I didn't really realize what I had done until there were 10 seconds left," Couture said at the post-fight press conference. "At that moment, I sort of looked up and looked around and realized that I actually did it and I was able to enjoy it. But not until then."
http://msn.foxsports.com/boxing/story/6526670?MSNHPHMA

A more detailed run-down of the fight can be found here -
http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/FOXSportsMMA

I heard an interview that Tim Sylvia (aka "the Maine-iac"...) gave on a pro-wrestling/MMA talk show "Between the "Ropes" a few days before the fight with Couture, and he seemed to discount Couture's chances because of his age and past trouble with big heavyweights and big strikers. He maybe overconfidently stated that he was the "biggest heavyweight" and "biggest striker" that Couture had ever had to face ...

(I still listen to "Between the Ropes" because I used to live in Orlando, Florida, and it was on the main sports talk station. They're pretty funny discussing wrestling and have good contacts within the world of mixed-martial arts (MMA)
http://www.betweentheropes.com/

Fresh Prince · Joined: 05 Dec 2006 Location: The glorious nation of Korea

Yeah that was a good fight. I liked how Couture said, "not bad for an old man," when interviewed at the end of the fight. His opening attack was brilliant. He had the mental advantage after that.

Even better was the good sportsman Sylvia, that waited around for the post fight interview. Can't say that too many people would wait for a post fight interview, after they lost.

rednblack · Joined: 12 Jun 2006 Location: In a quiet place

Agreed, Fresh Prince. Very humble in defeat. Didn't like the boo's from the crowd however, when he briefly stated he was carrying an injury. He wasn't trying to detract from Couture's win.

manlyboy · Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 4:33 pm Post subject:

You dirty spoiler, you! I was going to watch it later. A pox on you!

JeJuJitsu · Joined: 11 Sep 2005 Location: McDonald's

George Foreman was a UFC Champion? Wow!
Not so interesting. Most of the fighers in NHB fighting these days are around 40 years old. I mean Tito Ortiz is like the baby of the NHB fighters and he's over 30.

Rteacher · Joined: 23 May 2005 Location: Western MA, USA

I guess I couldha/should've given a spoiler alert - and the Fox sports reporter apparently was trying to use a metaphore. Of course, George Foreman - at age 45 - won a couple of the alphabet soup boxing titles (WBA and IBF) from Michael Moorer...

Except for mega-events like the upcoming Oscar de la Hoya - Floyd Mayweather Jr. bout and Wrestlemania, UFC pay-per-views get more buys than boxing or WWE ppv's...

Sylvia developed a reputation among fans for being too defensive-minded, resulting in some boring fights. He reportedly (according to Matt Hughes) considered pulling out of this fight after sustaining a back injury in training, but maybe he wanted to match the effort Chuck Liddell gave when he beat Tito Ortiz with a bad knee...

Actually, UFC, PRIDE and other MMA promotions aren't that dissimilar to pro-wrestling (arguably they're all fixed to varying degrees whenever they can get away with it...)

Look for Kurt Angle to challenge Couture if he can hang on to the title (by avoiding "Cro Crop"...) for a few months. Apparently they are friends from the time Couture was an alternate on the U.S. Olympic Greco-Roman team, while Angle won the Olympic Freestyle Wrestling Gold Medal, despite competing with a broken neck and other serious injuries...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Angle

This site looks good for MMA news: http://www.mmafrontpage.com/index.html

Young FRANKenstein · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 1:24 am Post subject:

Rteacher · Joined: 23 May 2005 Location: Western MA, USA

Many of the MMA guys are crazy, too. Here's an interview recently given by Chuck Liddell (where the TV guy feels compelled to ask him if he's feeling alright - obviously he's drunk ...)http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/VideoPlayer/videoPlayer.php?vidId=125084&catId=104

And get a load of who Liddell says he's looking forward to fight next - a real blast from the past for die-hard heavyweight boxing and Rocky V fans: Tommy Morrison (aka "Tommy Gun"...) Prior to a recent come-back fight after finally testing negative for HIV, his last fight was an exhibition in which he was knocked out by a 44 year-old journeyman sparring partner. He was also brutally knocked out by Ray Mercer, who later didn't look very impressive himself as an easy target for high kicks in K-1. Morrison (grandnephew of John Wayne...) would seem to be too old at this point, but at 38 he's five years younger than Randy Couture...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Morrison

Angle is a year older than Morrison, and arguably much smarter, faster, and craftier. Listening to an interview he gave a couple weeks ago, I got the impression that he's serious about fighting briefly in UFC (or one of its MMA competitors ...) to compete for a title, and he at least seemed sober, somewhat realistic, and coherent ...

The host of the show made the following comments in retrospect -

...There are a lot of people that have questioned what Angle has said in prior interviews and believe that he has really been �out there�. I think he came off as a well-spoken, insightful, level-headed person when he was on the show with us. He gave some precise answers to questions and never shied away from anything that was asked. Some people may think he was long-winded at times but I thought it was more in-depth and thought provoking.

There are always going to be some things that people will question but it�s wrong to call him or anyone else a liar unless you have absolute proof. Can you prove he was not offered a huge offer to fight in Pride or that he was asked to do multiple movies while working with the WWE? I know I can�t. Yes, you can have your doubts about things that were said but it is wrong to call him a liar... http://www.betweentheropes.com/2007/02/15/last-nights-btr-with-kurt-angle-and-more/ That Angle interview can be found here (probably in the second segment of the show: http://www.betweentheropes.com/2007/02/13/show392-kurtangle/

chevro1et · Joined: 01 Feb 2007 Location: Busan, ROK

Anybody follow PRIDE FC as well? I can hardly believe that Dan Henderson KO'ed Wanderlei Silva. Maybe the dream of seeing Wanderlei vs Liddell will come around now...

chevro1et · Joined: 01 Feb 2007 Location: Busan, ROK

Anybody follow PRIDE FC as well? I can hardly believe that Dan Henderson KO'ed Wanderlei Silva. Maybe the dream of seeing Wanderlei vs Liddell will come around now...

cangel · Joined: 19 Jun 2003 Location: Jeonju, S. Korea

I watched that Sylvia fight and a good fight it was NOT... How boring. One smaller guy taking it obviously weaker fighter who, and please forgive my MMA ignorance, probably won the championship using only his size because he obvisouly has minimal skills-or so it looked. The Matt Hughes fight was much better.

Rteacher · Joined: 23 May 2005 Location: Western MA, USA

I've heard one analyst compare Wanderlei Silva's loss to "Cro Cop" to Mike Tyson's loss to Buster Douglas - neither would ever be the same caliber fighter after a devastating knockout...

Both Silva and Silvia were not anywhere near top physical shape in their recent losses, though. Silva had a strep throat and was on antibiotics, while Silvia fought with a bad back (which really seems like a stupid thing to do in that kind of competition...)

Here's some good background on Wanderlei:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanderlei_Silva

Young FRANKenstein · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 6:02 am Post subject:

Snowmeow · Joined: 03 Oct 2005 Location: pc room

I watched the event on Sunday morning with great interest, and again I was disappointed by the booing of the fans whenever the action was not quite as bloodthirsty as they wanted. Seems they can't appreciate tactics at all. And to me the ultimate in irony occurred when the fans booed Anderson Silva while he was being interviewed, presumably for speaking in Spanish rather than English. Turns out, Anderson Silva was actually speaking very kindly and politely towards the fans.