UFC 68: Couture pulls the huge upset

[TroubleMan]

I usually don't like Rocky movies because they're too fake, but when a "Rocky" scenario happens in real life, it's very exciting to watch. Couture was Rocky Balboa, and I guess Sylvia would be Klubber Lang (the haircuts are close).

There was no way Couture was supposed to win. Sylvia was too big, too powerful, had a huge reach advantage, and had great takedown defense. Probably 90% of the people were rooting for Randy, but they knew he was going to get taken out by a big right hand...it was inevitable. Couture was about to turn 44, and this was his first fight coming out of retirement. Old fighters coming out of retirement don't beat a dominant champion. They might beat some showcase fighters, but they don't face a champion in their first fight out of retirement and win (albeit it was a short retirement).

So in front of a sell-out crowd, which was very vocal in their support of Randy, he dissected Sylvia, not just on the ground, but even standing up. In the first few moments of the fight, Randy decks Tim with his own big right hand, and nearly finishes him on the ground until a stalemate on the ground ensues for the rest of the round. For the rest of the fight Randy, overcoming the huge reach advantage of Sylvia, consistently beats Sylvia to the punch standing up and takes Sylvia (a guy who is very hard to take down and outweighed him by over 40 lbs) down pretty much at will. You kept fearing, wondering when Sylvia was going to land that big right hand and end the fight, but it never happened. The old guy, the people's champion, the sentimental favorite, and a huge underdog came out of retirement and beat the dominant but unpopular champion. It was right out of a movie script.

The rest of the card was pretty good, too. Rich Franklin and Matt Hughes got back to their old winning ways, and Lambert pulls the upset over Sobral.

These last two weekends have been incredible for MMA. Pride 33 and UFC 68 were both great. Both events left you beaming about them a few days after.

[Ekirh]

1. Someone was kind enough to send me

Couture versus Slvia.. WrestlingObserver (and a few other MMA sites) apparently crashed during this damn fight. I've heard 100 percent positive thoughts on it . .

I'll have to watch it when I get home from work tommorrow. I'M STOKED . . .

But your right... an absolutely block buster of a few weekends for MMA. . 2007's started off strong.

I think I read UFC 68 is now the record MMA attendance in America.

So . . . Couture versus Mirko?

[TroubleMan]

3. 19,049 paid attendance...over $3 million gate

That's the MMA record in North America.

Several MMA websites crashed immediately after the fight. One of the biggest,Sherdog, had almost 9,000 simultaneous users right after the fight and crashed for a good 10-20 minutes. They were actually prepared for that many, but their load balancing failed, so they crashed for a little bit.

If you need to see some fights that you missed, PM me. I know where to get nearly all of them.

[Ekirh]

6. Just watched the fight . . .

First let me say.. damn that's a nice gate.. And I'm pretty sure bigger venues will be around the corner eventually.

Okay my thoughts

First that crowd was insane. . . Every punch every take down Randy got they just went ballistic.. and when the final thirty seconds came.. My ears started ringing . . . dear god. . . just a truly amazing atmosphere.

Second this was no fluke win . . it was just simply beautiful. Two rounds of Randy taking him down . . and then a third round of Tim going for the stand up . . and IT DID NOT WORK! Even though I knew the result of the fight. . I totally got lost in the action and I kept on dreading Tim all of a sudden hitting that one knockout blow . . . but it never came.. and I finally came back to my senes in the fifth round realizing . . that all the headlines weren't lying. Randy was going to do it.

I told my friends at work today Randy won . . I don't think they quite believed me . . but man.. that's just awesome.

I almost want to say Mirko would absolutely win against Randy . . . . . except . . . Randy probably doesn't agree ;).

As usual I'm just a casual MMA fan . . but that's probably one of my fav sports moment of 2007 so far.

"thumbs up"

[Mojambo]

2. I am SO glad I watched this event before I came in the Sports forum

In the future you should consider keeping spoilers like that out of the thread title. Not everyone watches these events live.

That might have been my biggest MMA thrill to date. Couture might be the most aptly nicknamed fighter ever. The Natural. It all appeared to come so easy for him tonight.

Best head movement I've seen an MMA guy bring in a long time. There are boxers who don't do it that good.

I want to say that Cro Cop is gonna destroy Couture, but how can you say it after watching that? How?

Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.

[TroubleMan]

4. Okay...I'll keep spoilers out of the title.

Concerning Crocop vs Couture......on paper it's Crocop easily, but how can you ever count Randy out anymore? This isn't the first time he's done this. His first fight versus Liddell was a huge upset, and so were his wins versus Belfort and Rizzo. He was also a decided underdog in the Ortiz fight as well.

Honestly I can't wait for that fight. It's another David vs Goliath type fight, but Couture seems to be able to win a lot of those somehow.

[Mojambo]

5. He's really amazing.

I mean, there's rising to the occasion, and then there's what Randy Couture did on Saturday night.

Truly remarkable. I'm convinced there's nothing he can't accomplish. Tim Sylvia had a reach advantage of a foot. A foot! And it's not like that's not Sylvia's game. He loves to jab from distance and knock people out as they come in. Couture came in ALL fight long and Sylvia never tagged him once.

I hate to quote Joe Rogan, but that was crazy.

I'll say this, if Cro Cop is as hesitant to use his kick game as Sylvia was then Couture might just have a shot.

Thanks for the help on the spoilers. I've been killed by those in the past and I'm a little jumpy about it now.