Randy beating Chuck in the 1st fight still might be the craziest thing I have seen in MMA

[Arrrrgh]

Isn't Randy the guy that jerks off in that video?

 

[Bruce Lee666]

Couture is a stud and badass, sad that he got into MMA old, but his grappling + dirty boxing was a pleasure to see.

 

[Gamer2k4]

Thanks for the video. It made me realize three things:
1) There was much more of a WWE feel with the walkouts. Now it's a lot more "standard sports."
2) The level of skill was completely different back then. Didn't matter if someone was dominant then; they wouldn't stand a chance against today's fighters.
3) Mount was handled very differently back then. Today you either have better defense on your back, or you'll roll to your stomach and risk the choke. Back then, the guy on the bottom flailed his arms and got hit in the face.
4) The commentary was way better. Joe and Mike were a great pair, and not at all grating or annoying to listen to.

 

[Bruce Lee666]

old Randy fighting against a bigger doped monster and younger like Brock proves what a warrior this man is.

most "warriors" cut weight to get away from bigger fighters.

 

[DeeDubb]

It wasn’t THAT one-sided. It was competitive on the feet. Randy won every round, but nothing crazy. Chuck gassed badly in the third and got taken down and mounted, losing quiickly. I think OP is using too much hyperbole though.

 

[XThe GreatestX]

Thanks for the video. It made me realize three things:
1) There was much more of a WWE feel with the walkouts. Now it's a lot more "standard sports."
2) The level of skill was completely different back then. Didn't matter if someone was dominant then; they wouldn't stand a chance against today's fighters.
3) Mount was handled very differently back then. Today you either have better defense on your back, or you'll roll to your stomach and risk the choke. Back then, the guy on the bottom flailed his arms and got hit in the face.
4) The commentary was way better. Joe and Mike were a great pair, and not at all grating or annoying to listen to.

I don't really agree with 3 and sorta disagree with 2

Start with 3. Mount was usually handled the same but I don't think Chuck was used to being put on his back. In Randy;s next fight with Tito he mounted him multiple times and Tito to his credit used great technique to get out of it, by rolling.


With 2. The level of skill was different in that guys were specialists. Quite frankly even in today's UFC wrestlers who put people on their asses seem to still be pretty dominant. I think guys are probably more well rounded, but if prime Chuck was getting into striking battles with guys at 205 he still would be great for example

 

[Thepaintbucket]

Randy was 39 years old at the time and was considered old lol.

 

[LHWBelt]

old Randy fighting against a bigger doped monster and younger like Brock proves what a warrior this man is.

most "warriors" cut weight to get away from bigger fighters.

He had a legitimate chance against him too. It didn't work out for him as he got clipped but I saw him as a real threat until the end.

 

[RonMachineGunJhun]

Did anyone else think the Chuck/Vitor fight was super close? I thought it could have gone either way.

The both left it all there that night. Randy was on crutches for a week after that fight.

 

[Dirty Frank]

To set the scene for the young ins.....Chuck at this point was coming off a quick destruction of Babalu, a beatdown of Vitor Belfort, and easy wins over Guy Mezger and Kevin Randleman ( and a tough fight vs Bustamante admittedly). Destined to face Tito for the belt, and in fact after the Randy loss would beat Overeem in 1 round in PRIDE.

Randy on the other hand, had the great run at HW but had lost to Barnett and than Ricco Rodriguez in that weird fight where his orbital got broken, and was already close to 40. He was dropping down to light heavyweight and it seemed the UFC just wanted a recognizable guy for Chuck to beat before the Tito fight.

Randy then proceeds to beat the living shit out of Chuck, both on the feet and on the ground. I am talking scary stuff as he was literally slamming Chuck over and over, and landing vicious shots from the top before they finally stopped it. Pure madness.

Timestamped at the final sequence

Couture was legendary for sure. One of the greats. Too bad Dana and his pettiness threaten to keep newbies from even learning of his greatness

 

[anachronist]

Someone in our office had uploaded Chuck Liddel's knockout highlight videos to a shared folder just before this fight and that was the start me becoming an MMA fan. Also that video had a Sherdog emblem/icon on the top left corner and I thought that Chuck Liddel's name was Sherdog !

 

[MoroccanFan]

The original Khabib

 

[Superman Elbow]

i think i see tim sylvia in the crowd standing up as Randy is punching Chuck? is that him with the hat

If I remember right he trained with randy

 

[moreorless87]

Randy remains very underrated IMO, mostly because Dana does not like him and so the UFC never says anything nice about him (after years of heavily promoting him, of course)

Randy moving down to beat Chuck and then Tito, both in dominant fashion, was one of the biggest accomplishments of that era in the UFC. Going in, I think very few people would have favored Randy to win either of those fights, never mind both

a sliding doors moment was in the 3rd Randy - Chuck fight (might have been the second fight, it has been 15 years) when Chuck did a blatant, non-penalized fence grab to stop a clear take down. at the time, I just viewed it as one of those things that happens in fights. but sometimes I wonder if it would have given Randy the chance to really tire Chuck out and change the course of the fight (if my memory is bad on the above, feel free to correct me)

anyway - thanks to TS for the great flashback

The eye poke in the second fight comes up most often although I do think Chuck also adjusted his gameplan showing Randys power less respect.

By the time of the 3rd fight I think Randy was showing signs of decline personally, he carried on having sucess of course but the way he fought Chuck the 1st time used a lot more speed than he was capable of by then.

 

[Goatenstein]

If fence grabs weren't allowed for Chucky he would've been trounced in the third fight as well.

 

[VinceArch]

This was a tad younger than Chuck/Randy but I flipped out even more when I first saw it.

 

[thewilks]

Not trying to be that guy and correct your post because it's a good post, but Chucks win over Mezger wasn't easy. Mezger almost beat that ass.

 

[EternalNoob]

Was a great win.

I thought Randy beating Tim Sylvia was more crazy though.

While it was still impressive, I wouldn't say it was crazy. Timmy was always hit or miss and aside from his size and reach, wasn't really that impressive.

Also, I'm pretty sure randy was juiced to the gills that fight. He looked massive compared to his old heavyweight self. Getting bigger at an older age usually requires medication

 

[Poirierfan]

Couture's best performance, easily.

Idk, Silva was one that was a bigger win to me. Both were his best wins though Silva was huge compared to Randy.

 

[JustOnce]

To set the scene for the young ins.....Chuck at this point was coming off a quick destruction of Babalu, a beatdown of Vitor Belfort, and easy wins over Guy Mezger and Kevin Randleman ( and a tough fight vs Bustamante admittedly). Destined to face Tito for the belt, and in fact after the Randy loss would beat Overeem in 1 round in PRIDE.

Randy on the other hand, had the great run at HW but had lost to Barnett and than Ricco Rodriguez in that weird fight where his orbital got broken, and was already close to 40. He was dropping down to light heavyweight and it seemed the UFC just wanted a recognizable guy for Chuck to beat before the Tito fight.

Randy then proceeds to beat the living shit out of Chuck, both on the feet and on the ground. I am talking scary stuff as he was literally slamming Chuck over and over, and landing vicious shots from the top before they finally stopped it. Pure madness.

Timestamped at the final sequence

You know, I just realized how good Randy looks physically at his age..

Before USADA. I know people shit on PRIDEFC for having no drug testing and all...but...