Throwback Randy Couture vs Gabriel Gonzaga retrospect

Arty

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I just watched this fight yesterday and i can not believe that Randy was a heavyweight champion back in 2007 and the age of 44 with 225 lbs.



Would this Randy beat someone in top 10 today? Maybe Derrick Lewis but i doubt.
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Would this Randy beat someone in top 10 today? Maybe Derrick Lewis but i doubt.
I'd favor him over Gane, Tuivasa, Spivak, Volkov, Lewis

Blaydes has been taken down on 4 of 5 attempts in his UFC career, so it would've been interesting to see what the much smaller Couture would be able to do there.

Don't know enough about Jailton's striking or TDD either.

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Fuck yea, Randy Couture, one of my favorite ever. To come back against Tim Sylvia, and definitely beat him, when the other behemoths couldn't was something. and then to take on prime gonzaga, fresh off the Cro Cop KO was fucking awesome. That immediate takedown he got in the beginning, which also cut Gonzaga, set the tone for the rest of the fight. Randy Couture is an American MMA Legend, the real Captain America. The only thing that I wish, is that we could have saw the prime Cro Cop vs. Randy Couture HW title fight, that so many wanted to see.
 
Makes me wonder how Randy vs Cro Cop would’ve gone.
Hard to say as it seems that by the time Cro Cop got to the UFC he couldn't strike like he could before as he would go on to get knocked out by bums. A fight between them in say 2005 would be Cro Cop as imho Randy wouldn't be able to take him down or strike with he say a KO or TKO lost for him.
 
Herb showed in that fight why he is one of the best before greatgramps goof Dana snipped his balls. Herb immediately took 1 point from Gonzaga for the fence grab. Dana must have given him anal reconstructive surgery after chewing his ass out for that immediate deduction after the fight. Thats why you see him and other refs give like 10 warnings before giving a hard warning.
 
Randy at his peak was an animal. He was obviously the most skilled near the end, but unfortunately his physical peak was very early, around the first Chuck fight since he started MMA so late.

He would still likely be very competitive today, likely a Top 5 HW.
 
We lost CroCop vs Randy for this because of Cro Cop getting LHK'd, sad because that would've been a crazy fight. I think UFC allowed Randy to do his wall and stall more because of his age and how popular he was, but we really don't see any fighters today that win by wearing down their opponents in the clinch. The HWs today are bigger than when Randy used to fight too.

You have HWs who people think have a whitebelt today like Gane, and if you took a time machine Randy could potentially tie up to a dec or tko if he's not caught. That was Randy's game anyways, get KO'd or grind down his opponent. I don't see that much that has evolved to prevent his clinch style. I think UFC just doesn't hire or encourage that style. Usman/Masvidal 1 shows its pretty effective still.
 
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