Sunday, March 4, 2007

Captain America Strikes Again

Damn, Randy Couture is my hero. This is the second time he's made a major comeback, changed weight classes, and shocked the MMA world by winning a match many saw as impossible. The man is just not human.

I am very happy to see Tim Sylvia dethroned, and to have a class act on top of the heavyweight division again. In my mind, all of Couture's criticisms of Sylvia were borne out by his performance; he was entirely too cautious (not bothering to escape from Couture's rear mount for four minutes), and could not come up with a new game plan, sticking with the same old jab and cross. Couture epitomizes the intelligent fighter, tailoring his gameplan to his opponent. Sylvia is a lumbering, one-size-fits-all fighter who counts on his size and reach to win fights.

Speaking of Couture's game plan, his head movement in this fight was awesome. It was almost certainly what kept Slyvia from landing one of his bombs (along with the constant pressure and threat of the takedown), and shows that Couture is always improving and learning new things. If Arlovski had used head movement like that in his fights against Sylvia I'm confident he would have knocked him out.

Couture was already a hall of famer, I think he's just put himself back in the running for greatest fighter ever. Now the only question is, how will he fare against Crocop?

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