Many scholars and adventurers have traveled the world searching for the fountain of youth. All those that have tried, unfortunately, to our knowledge, failed. However, when Randy Couture came away with the UFC Heavyweight belt on Saturday, the mythical concept of immortality was revived to all those who had the chance to bare witness. Randy “The Natural” Couture, former UFC Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight Champion, came out of retirement at the age of 43 to reacquire the UFC Heavyweight Championship from the heavily favored Tim “The Mainiac” Sylvia, a fighter ten years his junior.

It won’t be long until the US government will investigate Couture for the secret of his longevity.


Randy Couture v. Tim Sylvia

When I saw Couture get knocked out by Liddell in their championship rubber match, I figured his age had got the best of him and his announcement of retiring after the fight came to no surprise. So when the UFC had Couture make a comeback fight against Tim Sylvia I cringed a little, for not only did I believe his age had got the best of him, but no longer is he training like a pro fighter and the cage rust would get the best of him. Boy, was I wrong.

Couture did everything he was supposed to do in order to defeat Sylvia with bobbing and weaving his head, throwing the overhand right into clinch, and absolutely controlling Sylvia on the ground. It looked like he took a page out of Dan Henderson’s book of fighting despite parting ways with Team Quest and creating his own team of training partners and coaches down in Las Vegas. Regardless, it was the right method and a very old David defeated a heavily favored Goliath. However, now that Couture is going to stay in the UFC until his next title defense, he really needs to rethink his strategy of bobbing and weaving while keeping his hands down. Couture had lady luck on his side in that Sylvia couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn, but with a more precision striker, Couture will get KO’d as easy as he did against Liddell. Overconfidence in his striking game is his pandoras box. Couture should stick to taking his opponents down and beating them to a pulp.

Tim Sylvia needs to do something about his ground game. It is heart wrenching to see someone in Sylvia’s guard and he doesn’t go for any type of submission attempt especially with the long stature that he has. Despite Sylvia having the belt many times over, there is no secret on how to defeat the native Maine behemoth. If his ground game doesn’t improve, he will see his dreams of retaining the Heavyweight belt become that much harder.


Rich Franklin v. Jason MacDonald

Rich looked a little timid in his outing against Jason MacDonald. Clearly, Jason was the weaker of the two fighters, but I felt Franklin never let his hands fly. Maybe he is still a little gun-shy since his last encounter against Anderson Silva. Franklin may need to lean down a little bit and try acquire some flexibility in his striking technique. He fights like a bulky fighter and that has both its pros and cons. It was absolutely apparent when he absolutely man-handled Jason MacDonald in the clinch even when Jason had many single-leg opportunities and Rich was hopping on one foot. Furthermore, the fact that Franklin kept his ground game simple and applied just a simple sweep to pound out MacDonald goes to show how solid fundamentals is all it takes to make a good fighter into a great fighter. I cannot wait for the re-match against Silva. Yet, I’d still put my money on Silva.

Jason MacDonald needs to learn how to make a proper takedown. It took him about three or four times for him to finally “turn-the-pipe” on the deep single legs he had on Rich Franklin. If MacDonald wants to break through as an elite fighter, he must refine his takedown skill, his boxing, and explosiveness. He comes into fights way to relaxed and eats so many shots that in the case with Rich Franklin it caught up to him. Hopefully MacDonald can move up from here.


Matt Hughes v. Chris Lytle

Matt Hughes proved once again why he is one of the best in the game. The fact that he beat Lytle wasn’t surprising, but the absolute domination did come as somewhat of a shock. Hughes stuffed everything and anything Lytle through at him, even reversing the turnover Lytle placed on Hughes. Hughes’ training with Jeremy Horn has paid off over the years and was able to keep a cool head and fight off some very tight guillotine choke attempts.

Kudos to Chris Lytle for never giving up and giving everything he absolutely had against Hughes. He fought out of many submission attempts, his reverse on Hughes, and even the reverse triangle attempt showed how much heart Lytle had. Lytle came into this fight with a lion’s heart and definitely will be returning to the octagon a better fighter. Some things Lytle can work on his expanding his ground arsenal. He has beat many opponents with his tight guillotines but Hughes expected it each and every time. Therefore, being able to string a series of moves together off of such attempts will make him an elite welterweight.


Renato Sobral v. Jason Lambert

When I yelp, groan, and bitch about keeping your hands up, these types of fights are the reason why. Either Sobral didn’t take this fight seriously or, well, he just didn’t take this fight seriously. After Sobral’s initial barrage of trumping Lambert on the ground, Sobral became exhausted eating more hard shots that an experienced veteran of his caliber should have. In the end when Sobral thew an idiotic kick, Lambert crushed Sobral with a left-hook sending the Brazilian hard to the canvas. Not to take anything away from Lambert, but Sobral simply got full of himself in this fight and in the end became the victim of his own cockiness. Congratulations “Babalu”.


Drew McFedries v. Martin Kampmann

Martin Kampmann is becoming a dark horse of the middleweight division with the beautiful submissions he is starting to pull off. Despite eating many nasty shots via the initial onslaught by McFedries, Kampmann recollected himself and initiated his game plan by taking Drew to the ground and whipping the Militech-trained fighter on the canvas. The arm-triangle is a thing of beauty when executed correctly, and the young Dane made a textbook example out of McFedries. If Kampmann can refine his standing technique a little bit, he will become the next big thing in the Middleweight division.


Dark Bouts

Jamie Varner defeated Jason Gilliam via Rear-naked Choke in the second minute of round one. Gleison Tibau managed to pull out the unanimous decision win over Jason Dent. Jon Fitch Rear-naked Choked American Top Team prospect Luigi Fioravanti midway in the second. TUF 3 star Matt Hamill pounded out Rex Holman late in the first round.

- Bardia Mehrabian, BuddyTV Staff Columnist