Did Randy Couture have any weakness as a fighter aside from being old?

Intermission said:
- Olympic alternate Greco Roman wrestler

-learned boxing in the army. Outstruck the karateka/brawler Chuck Lidell in the first fight

- good chin

- Mentally solid


Why did he lose so many fights despite having no glaring weakness?

And what happened in that second Liddell fight? What the hell was he doing? Did he have a brain lapse? Loss of concentration?
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You forgot one non-existent weakness:
- No Known Weaknesses
 
BJJ4Tone said:
I would still list his striking as a weakness.
His clinch boxing was nice, but I don't know if homeboy ever threw a kick.





Maybe his judgement too (see J.O. vid)
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BJJ4Tone said:
I would still list his striking as a weakness.
His clinch boxing was nice, but I don't know if homeboy ever threw a kick.





Maybe his judgement too (see J.O. vid)
<6>
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1733259747170.png Kick to set up the big bomb
 
Couture had 2 of his 3 submission losses when he was brand new in the sport.

Was that really a fair point?
 
Intermission said:
But leaving out Brock Lesnar who is an outlier in every regard, what is the common denominator in his losses?
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I remember Brock, Chuck and Nogueira having success landing their right hand on Couture. To be honest I'm not familiar with Randy's earliest fights as I started watching MMA in 2008
 
He could struggle with elite level heavyweight grapplers, Barnett , Rodriguez and Minotauro all swept and out scrambled him on the ground and put him in danger
IMG_3296.gif
 
He wasn't very good off his back. His boxing was serviceable but he didn't really have much power. It's kind of hard to tell because the 'meta' of the fights in the division were so different then, it would be interesting to see how he would deal with things like calf kicks and teeps when he didn't have much kickboxing ability. I'm sure he would have adapted to include new things, but its kind of just unknown when the only thing you can watch to compare is his fights against 1 dimensional kickboxers who he just took down like Rizzo.

Also, weak eyelids and hairline.
 
Thepaintbucket said:
Lack of punching power. Yes he has TKOs on his record.

Primarily a wrestling specialist. Although he understood BJJ very well, he wasn't the biggest submission grappler.

What you see is what you get type of a fighter. He wasn't going to surprise you with some random move like Anderson Silva.
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Submissions were an early weakness of his like many wrestlers. He got subbed by a few guys overseas, including Enson and Overem's brother, I think. But think he improved his sub-defense, came back to the UFC and never got subbed again. Big Nog had him in some bad spots, but couldn't tap him.

The big difference between him and Hammer House guys like Coleman and Randleman (Randy beat both of them) was that Randy evolved with the sport, though his striking was never stellar nor were his submissions...though he could submit guys like James Toney and Coleman.
 
J'Ghasta said:
His weaknesses were

Stiff/inflexible
Not that fast or agile
Weak submission game
Weak kicking/kneeing/elbowing game
Very limited wrestling (to the greco roman style only)
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Dang, that's pretty brutal and critical for a guy who started at age 33-34 in the late 90s and peaked in the early 2000s when skillsets weren't that well developed. The fact Randy beat so many other wrestlers (Tito, Randleman, Van Arsdale, Coleman) proved he was pretty well-rounded and the best wrestler of his size and generation. Brock was the only wrestler to beat him. Brock obviously had a big edge in size/strenth and youth, though Randy was much more experienced.
 
FreddieRoachsVoice said:
I think Randy was really undersized for a HW and was thus less able to control bigger guys like Mark Coleman/Mark Kerr could. He also doesn't have the freak show neck/T Rex arms of Sherk (who might be the most unsubmittable non-bjj guy ever) so I think he was fairly susceptible to submissions in his early days because he was quite aggressive.

His other main weakness was a lack of power/finishing ability. Randy's stand-up was serviceable but it's hard to get someone to respect it when you lack the power to end the fight in 1 strike. Same goes for submissions; he can get most anyone to the ground but if it takes 3 rounds of softening up to work a submission, your opponent still has a lot of chances to beat you.

Relying on taking all fights into the deep waters is not that sustainable at a higher weight class (just ask Forrest Griffin; Randy's disciple) and while Randy had it in him to beat anyone, it always required a near flawless fight to pull off.

With that being said, if Randy started MMA in modern day at a much younger age at the proper weight class, he would be incredibly successful IMHO. His submission defense improved tremendously as his career went on and his chin was never a major liability until the end. His mind is his greatest strength and he was an absolute master of gameplanning. I think he would evolve with the times and continue to improve if his body wasn't (understandably) giving out
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Fair and accurate assessment.
 
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