How significant was Randy Couture vs Tito Ortiz at the time?

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iboufring**

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I wasnt around then but i watched the fight. If someone can explain to me the beef and everything it would be great.

I see some similarities between that and DC/Jones. Could be way off though.
 
This was the biggest fight North American MMA could cobble together at the time. Liddell/Tito would have been bigger, but Randy had to go and beat the crap out of Chucky before that could take place. It was a huge fight and cemented Couture as arguably the best LHW in the world... very arguably.

As far as the actual fight goes, it was an amazing display from Randy Couture, in my opinion his finest performance. It was also one of the best displays I've seen of pure wrestling in the Octagon, particularly Randy's clinch work. Keep in mind Tito had never been taken down before and he'd been in there against Matyushenko (who defeated Kevin Jackson and Dave Schultz on the freestyle worlds circuit) and Randy just ragdolled him at will and defended every one of his takedown attempts. Tito loved working from the clinch ordinarily, but Randy was just on another level in terms of wrestling skill and I was truly shocked at how badly he beat Ortiz.

The light spanking at the end was hilarious too, but not as hilarious as Tito's intense crying face at the end of the fight as Randy was being announced the winner. Seriously, he looked like a raped ape there.
 
I don't know if the beef was as high for that as it was for Chuck vs. Tito, but I'd say it's a pretty fair comparison...

Chuck vs. Tito was like Jones vs. Rashad

Couture vs. Tito might be like Jones vs. DC, I suppose?

Anyway, as for the actual fight, there was a lot of build-up for it. I think the fight made it clear that Chuck would destroy Tito once they fought, though.
 
I know this thread is probably killing Tito but let me say it a different way

At that time in Mma/UFC EVERY Tito fight was a big deal as he was the biggest star in the UFC by a mile.

Chuck and randy weren't stars until they beat Tito.
 
There was no beef. Tito was ducking Chuck & pretending to have beef with the UFC. Randy beat Chuck and Tito is all of a sudden ready to fight again.
 
It was one of the great story lines that helped the UFC build towards where it is today. I think it was a very important fight with the great story line to go with it.
 
Joker Jiujitsu said:
I don't know if the beef was as high for that as it was for Chuck vs. Tito, but I'd say it's a pretty fair comparison...

Chuck vs. Tito was like Jones vs. Rashad

Couture vs. Tito might be like Jones vs. DC, I suppose?

Anyway, as for the actual fight, there was a lot of build-up for it. I think the fight made it clear that Chuck would destroy Tito once they fought, though.
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Was it shocking how Couture outwrestled him? And was he a big underdog?

Chuck and Randy had so different styles i dont know how you could predict what would happen in chuck vs tito based on the randy fight. But what do i know
 
Back in those days it was all about the 205 pound division, for years. Randy moving down and taking over, Tito, Chuck, Wand, Rampage, and the rise of Shogun.
 
orangecuse said:
There was no beef. Tito was ducking Chuck & pretending to have beef with the UFC. Randy beat Chuck and Tito is all of a sudden ready to fight again.
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I remember Randy talking shit about Titos girl or something
 
Ohioan said:
Tito wasn't the only one who shared this opinion. I remember that right before the fight an announcer interviewed the "celebrities" on hand at the show and ALL of them picked Ortiz to win. I couldn't understand it then and still don't. Exactly HOW was Tito going to beat Randy? I KNEW Couture would win and, in fact, I've never been so certain of the outcome of a supposedly competitive fight.
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This, tito never had hands and Randy was a dude could dirty box and his wrestling was at least on point with Tito's. He also looked really good vs liddell and had been fighting good HW's while Tito had been fighting much easier opponents.
 
Well, Randy was coming off of a career reviving ass kicking of Liddellfor the interim title, and Tito was the champ. Randy owned him and unified the title. It was pretty damn significant.
 
iboufring** said:
I wasnt around then but i watched the fight. If someone can explain to me the beef and everything it would be great.

I see some similarities between that and DC/Jones. Could be way off though.
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2 bums fighting in the bush-league ufc. PRIDE FC was the top promotion at the time. UFC was bottom tier. I heard they got free sandwiches.........well if they won....and Dana liked them.....
 
At the time it was a huge fight and very significant. I remember playin tito would lose cause he was such a punk hiding from Liddell and then suddenly wanting to fight randy.
 
It was a huge fight at the time because we really wanted to see Tito fight Chuck, but he kept chickening out so this was the next best fight in the UFC at the time.

I remember Sherdog and everyone online was picking Tito to win. They all said his cardio would take over in the late rounds, but Randy completely dominated and never slowed down. I would say like 60% to 70% people were picking Tito. Even after Randy's impressive win over Chuck, people still picked Tito because we hadn't seem him lose in so long.
 
Tito didn't want to fight Randy.
And it was one of the biggest fights in MMA at the time, if only that Couture completely dominated Chuck.
 
orangecuse said:
There was no beef. Tito was ducking Chuck & pretending to have beef with the UFC. Randy beat Chuck and Tito is all of a sudden ready to fight again.
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Rico had beaten Randy, and Tito trained with Ricco, so Tito thought he could do the same.
 
As significant as jones vs Cormier 2 will be in ten years when people shit on the stars of today. It's the circle of mma fans.
 
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vs
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Worst old man bullying of all time .

Randy made Tito and chuck look lik 9th graders trying out for varsity!
 
it was HUGE. tito/chuck was the biggest fight possible, at the time, but it was still tito who was the man. randy went through chuck (his best performance, imo) like butter, and tito/randy immediately became some sort superfight. it was tito's best friend and teammate who had last beaten randy (almost one year prior exactly) and sent randy to LHW.

randy became a superstar when he beat chuck. the domination of tito only added to his stardom.
 
Joker Jiujitsu said:
Tito had already beaten Wanderlei Silva, who was the Pride MW Champ at the time. Shogun hadn't really risen to stardom yet. The only other LHW out there who might've been considered on Tito's level would be Rampage, but those two would never fight each other.
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This, Tito had wins over Wanderlei, Matyushenko, Mezger, Tanner and his only unavenged loss was to Frank Shamrock, and everybody knows Frank retired so he didn't have to fight Tito again.
 
iboufring said:
I remember Randy talking shit about Titos girl or something
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Meh, Tito said something about Randy's ears, and Randy said something like "your wife seems to like them" or something, and Tito got all flustered.
 
It was one of the most significant fight at the time
 
When I let these dogs go I can't always call them back. - Randy. So awesome when Randy said that on whatever sports show he was on.
 
deise69 said:
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Jesus this was great to see! Everyone should watch this video for a history lesson. Randy talked some really good smack back then.

The lines were hilarious......"once I let these two dogs out I cant hold em back" Randy

"Im gonna introduce you to my two friends, TNT and Dynamtite" Tito

Both referring to their fists
 
Cake4Breakfast said:
Meh, Tito said something about Randy's ears, and Randy said something like "your wife seems to like them" or something, and Tito got all flustered.
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In those days Tito would talk shit to hype all his fights. Randy was far too calm to fall for it.

It was a huge fight and even more significant if you take into account how it affected their futures.

It was during training for this fight that Tito first fucked his back up, which started his decline.
 
KAYFABE said:
Tito was NEVER a Top LHW. Let's be honest, the majority of the guys he fought should have been fighting at 185lbs. Has Tito ever really beaten Top 10 guy? Randy and Chuck both Dominated him.... oh I forgot, Tito beat Ken Shamrock.
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Everyone's entitled to an opinion but yours is garbage. Was Tito the top at 205 back in the day? No he wasn't. Was he top 3 or top 5 absolutely. Randy turned out to be a nightmare matchup for him but don't just dismiss his whole career because of the way he finished up in the UFC or his terrible public speaking skills (not promo skills, guy knew how to sell a fight).

Tito was a legit badass before he messed up his back and while his competition while holding the belt wasn't exactly a murderers row he was legit and a pioneer in the sport.
 
Huge fight for the time, second only to Chuck-Tito. And everyone basically thought Tito would out wrestle and GNP Randy fairly easily.
 
like someone else said, every tito fight was huge at that time. Tito was the draw over randy and chuck and that didnt change until they both beat him.
 
"And then he told me of its significance."

"It will be...significant."

Truly this whole chuck/tito/randy triangle was massive. The arenas seemed absolutely electric at the time. A UFC 43 and 44 DVD combo was the among the first fight DVD'S I ever bought. I wish I would've gotten into the sport a little earlier to see it go down live. It seemed unreal though. The way it was in Montreal for GSP/Serra 2 is comparable, except the crowd was split for these fights.

Each Chuck/Tito/Randy fight was massive. These fights and some Pride GP/Shockwave events were the peak of MMA at it's finest for the time. The excitement and energy for those events were insane.
 
Historically, it's an important fight as well. I think it showed that Tito was never the top LHW in the world. Frank Shamrock beat him in 1999 and Randy could've cut to 205 and beaten him any time. (Randy made his UFC debut in 1997. They just didn't happen to fight until 2003.

Having said that, Tito was a top 3 LHW for quite a few years. He did beat Belfort and Wand after all.
 
Tito was a great fighter in his day but Randy proved he wasn't the best.
 
It was a pretty big fight. Tito was ducking Chuck so long that the UFC decided to just take his belt away and give it to Chuck. But they couldn't just hand it to him, they had to make him beat SOMEONE for it. Someone with credibility, but not really a threat to Chuck.

Enter Randy. Old man had credibility because he was a former champ, but c'mon. He's old, right? Chuck should KO him easily.

Well after Randy shocked the world and beat Chuck, he called out Tito.

So Randy was a big deal and Tito had never lost the belt so it was a really big fight. I remember being super excited for it. I'd say it was a bigger fight then than Jones/Cormier is now.
 
As an aside, I dare say Randy circa 2003 was arguably the biggest, strongest LHW I've ever seen. Tito was a huge 205 and Randy was significantly larger and waaayyyy more powerful. It wasn't just his technique that Tito couldn't hang with, it was Couture's old man strength. Age eventually caught up with Randy (sort of) but the guy was an absolute beast at 40 years old.

What's this I hear about Tito messing himself up in training for this one? Never heard that before. Mind you, Tito's got an excuse for every one of his losses so it's totally conceivable he threw that one out for this occasion, but I don't remember him saying anything other than Randy was the vastly superior man that night... and crying very intensely.
 
It was a much much bigger fight than almost any title fight recently.

There were so many fewer events and fewer fights.. fewer giant personalities etc.
 
iboufring** said:
I wasnt around then but i watched the fight. If someone can explain to me the beef and everything it would be great.

I see some similarities between that and DC/Jones. Could be way off though.
Click to expand...

there wasnt really a beef, they just had to fight cos Randy kicked Chucks ass(then spanked Tito's lol) and they had an interview on a sports show where they kinda went back and forth

the significance was massive, pre-TUF Chuck Randy and Tito kept the UFC going. if it wasnt for them the UFC wouldve folded long before TUF happened imo
 
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