Who is the best fighter Randy Couture ever faced?

Randy fought a lot of guys that aren't considered that good now, but when he fought them they were at their absolute peaks and were very difficult to beat at the time. I'd rank them in this order, considering how tough they were at the time of the fight:

1. Chuck
2. Vitor
3. Randleman
4. Rizzo
5. Sylvia
6. Nog
7. Barnett
8. Brock
 
HHJ said:
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I am curious what responses we will get out of this random question.

My vote goes for Nogueira,but keep in mind that Couture also fought the likes of Josh Barnett,Liddell,Machida etc.

Many top fighters,some of who were at their best when he fought them.
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Hard to pick just one, as they all were great in different ways, and he fought so many, many of which were "dethronings" at the time.

Silva, Chuck, and Tito, were all dominant at the time of their dismantling, Nogeira was on the decline but was a dominant champ in his prime, Machida was a killer and champion, Brock was a monster when Randy faced him, etc, etc. He faced Rizzo and Maurice Smith when they were killers, and the list goes on and on. If not for the ufc feud controversy at the end of his career, and the couple KO losses before he bowed out, and the fierceness of the competition, he would be firmly in the GOAT talks.

He's still one of the truly greats though, only just short of GOAT.
 
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This isn't my answer to the thread...but remember when Randy fought Gonzaga after he Cro Cop'd Mirko? Everyone thought they were feeding Randy to a killer and he was going to get murked. Then Randy went on to absolutely demolish Gabriel.

Edit: Now that I think about it, Gonzaga potentially ruined a dream fight between Couture and Cro Cop while they were still at the top of the heap. He deserved every bit of that beating from Randy. lol
 
Char Jawz said:
This isn't my answer to the thread...but remember when Randy fought Gonzaga after he Cro Cop'd Mirko? Everyone thought they were feeding Randy to a killer and he was going to get murked. Then Randy went on to absolutely demolish Gabriel.
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It was the greatest display of dirty boxing ive ever seen.
 
HHJ said:
It was the greatest display of dirty boxing ive ever seen.
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Yeah, I need to go rewatch that fight just to appreciate it again. I edited my previous post saying Gonzaga deserved the beatdown for ruining the Randy/Cro Cop match up.
 
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Just a quick history lesson for the younger dudes:

Chuck was knocking dudes out left and right. Tito had the belt but was totally ducking Chuck for a loooong time. It was ridiculous. He used every excuse in the book from "I want more money" to "me and Chuck are friends and I don't want to fight friends" (Chuck responded by saying they weren't friends LOL).

Dana got fed up with Tito's antics and finally decided to find a way to get Chuck the interim belt so the division could move forward. Everyone and their mother knew Chuck was the real "champ" of the division anyway, so they just needed a patsy to throw in there to be knocked out so Chuck could finally have his belt.

There was only one problem. Chuck had cleaned out the division. There was nobody left for him to fight that audiences would consider a worthy challenger. Chuck's title fight would be a joke if they just fed him a guy that he's already beaten, or some up-and-comer that's not really proven yet.

The good LHW's outside of Chuck and Tito were all in Pride. Rampage, Wandy, Arona, Hendo, etc.

So Dana came up with a plan. Old washed up Randy Couture. Sure, he used to be good, but he was now pushing 40 and had lost 2 in a row. It was becoming clear that he was either too old or too small for the HW division. But the dude still wanted to fight and he could easily make the cut to 205, so why not? He's a former HW champ so at the very least it won't look like we just handed the belt to Chuck. It will look like we gave him a worthy challenger.

Nobody... and I mean NOBODY expected Randy to do what he did. Until he did it. And it was awesome.
 
Fedorgasm said:
Just a quick history lesson for the younger dudes:

Chuck was knocking dudes out left and right. Tito had the belt but was totally ducking Chuck for a loooong time. It was ridiculous. He used every excuse in the book from "I want more money" to "me and Chuck are friends and I don't want to fight friends" (Chuck responded by saying they weren't friends LOL).

Dana got fed up with Tito's antics and finally decided to find a way to get Chuck the interim belt so the division could move forward. Everyone and their mother knew Chuck was the real "champ" of the division anyway, so they just needed a patsy to throw in there to be knocked out so Chuck could finally have his belt.

There was only one problem. Chuck had cleaned out the division. There was nobody left for him to fight that audiences would consider a worthy challenger. Chuck's title fight would be a joke if they just fed him a guy that he's already beaten, or some up-and-comer that's not really proven yet.

The good LHW's outside of Chuck and Tito were all in Pride. Rampage, Wandy, Arona, Hendo, etc.

So Dana came up with a plan. Old washed up Randy Couture. Sure, he used to be good, but he was now pushing 40 and had lost 2 in a row. It was becoming clear that he was either too old or too small for the HW division. But the dude still wanted to fight and he could easily make the cut to 205, so why not? He's a former HW champ so at the very least it won't look like we just handed the belt to Chuck. It will look like we gave him a worthy challenger.

Nobody... and I mean NOBODY expected Randy to do what he did. Until he did it. And it was awesome.
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"RANDY COUTURE IS. AN. ANIMAL."
 
Char Jawz said:
This isn't my answer to the thread...but remember when Randy fought Gonzaga after he Cro Cop'd Mirko? Everyone thought they were feeding Randy to a killer and he was going to get murked. Then Randy went on to absolutely demolish Gabriel.
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Wow I'd forgotten about that but you're right. Randy's made a career out of winning fights where people thought he had no chance.
1. Chuck
2. Gonzaga
3. Vitor (was the undefeated phenom at the time)
4. Sylvia (HW champ at the time, and it was Randy's first HW fight in years after he'd been run out of the division because he was too old and small, and now he's returning after he's even older and he's fighting a huge guy who's known for being good at using his size/reach to his advantage. There was no way he should've won this LOL, but it was Randy being Randy)

If I remember correctly I think he was an underdog to Randleman and Rizzo too but I don't remember by how much.
 
Fedorgasm said:
Just a quick history lesson for the younger dudes:

Chuck was knocking dudes out left and right. Tito had the belt but was totally ducking Chuck for a loooong time. It was ridiculous. He used every excuse in the book from "I want more money" to "me and Chuck are friends and I don't want to fight friends" (Chuck responded by saying they weren't friends LOL).

Dana got fed up with Tito's antics and finally decided to find a way to get Chuck the interim belt so the division could move forward. Everyone and their mother knew Chuck was the real "champ" of the division anyway, so they just needed a patsy to throw in there to be knocked out so Chuck could finally have his belt.

There was only one problem. Chuck had cleaned out the division. There was nobody left for him to fight that audiences would consider a worthy challenger. Chuck's title fight would be a joke if they just fed him a guy that he's already beaten, or some up-and-comer that's not really proven yet.

The good LHW's outside of Chuck and Tito were all in Pride. Rampage, Wandy, Arona, Hendo, etc.

So Dana came up with a plan. Old washed up Randy Couture. Sure, he used to be good, but he was now pushing 40 and had lost 2 in a row. It was becoming clear that he was either too old or too small for the HW division. But the dude still wanted to fight and he could easily make the cut to 205, so why not? He's a former HW champ so at the very least it won't look like we just handed the belt to Chuck. It will look like we gave him a worthy challenger.

Nobody... and I mean NOBODY expected Randy to do what he did. Until he did it. And it was awesome.
Click to expand...

That was a pitch perfect description for how that all unfolded.

The young bucks will gain some much needed knowledge from this. Most of them probably just judge Randy on his record, not knowing the facts of Legend.
 
Char Jawz said:
That was a pitch perfect description for how that all unfolded.

The young bucks will gain some much needed knowledge from this. Most of them probably just judge Randy on his record, not knowing the facts of Legend.
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Yup. 19-11 doesn't look like a great record, but when you consider that literally 50% of his fights were for the title, it changes your view a bit. You're bound to lose sometimes when you fight that much top competition. Unless you're GSP.
 
Fedorgasm said:
Yup. 19-11 doesn't look like a great record, but when you consider that literally 50% of his fights were for the title, it changes your view a bit. You're bound to lose sometimes when you fight that much top competition. Unless you're GSP.
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Top competition that was at least 10 years younger and a few were 50 lbs heavier. Even more perspective.
 
Chuck. Wanderlei pretended to want some, but was really just being a bitch boy for the pride executives. Randy would have fucking dominated Wand, btw, in case anyone was curious.
 
Best fighter at the time they fought would be Liddell.

Belfort would go on to be a much better fighter, while Nog was past his prime
 
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