Randy Couture: The fight against Lyoto Machida could be my last
Posted on March 30, 2011, 07:07 AM by Anton Gurevich“There’s a big chance this is my last fight. I’m not going to be making any official announcements, I don’t think anybody would buy it – I already did that once! But I’m in terrific shape, I’m feeling confident about Lyoto and dialling into the attack and how we’re going to get our hands on him. There’s a lot of other things calling me now, and there’s a chance this is the last one.
I’ve got several other movies lined up, The Expendables 2 is coming up in September, and I’ve got my other businesses like the clothing company and the extension of the gym. Frankly, I’m tired of grinding it out, it’s time to enjoy life.” - ESPN.co.uk
Randy Couture will celebrate his 48th birthday this year, and fourteen years since his professional Mixed Martial Arts debut (at UFC 13). "The Natural" fought twice last year, defeating the fellow veteran Mark Coleman (RNC) in February, and the UFC debutant James Toney (Arm Triangle) in his last fight, which took place at UFC 118 on August 28th.
Couture's UFC 129 opponent, former UFC Light Heavyweight ChampionLyoto Machida, is 15 years younger, currently holding a professional Mixed Martial Arts record of 16 victories and 2 losses.
So what do you think, LowKick'ers? Should Randy Couture hang 'em up after the fight against "The Dragon? Or he still has something to offer inside the Octagon. As always, use your keyboard.
Comments
If Randy retires, there aint nothing wrong. Hes fought against best competition his whole career, and he is living legend.
yes yes yes! randy is the man im glad he has other things lined up
got too love this guy ! couture is in really good shape as all ways for his fights . he could still fight till he was 50 easy .
am sorry i love randy i real living legend, but coleman and toney? they make it sound like he beat 2 top contenders, i really dont see randy beating machida i know hes in a losing streak right now but he sure is no coleman or toney
Your over exxadgerating there arnt you hes been mediocre at best un exciting and has no business fighting machida. he may of been the best of a bad group but thats it!
Randy vs. Cro Cop.
Last fight for both of them. That would be cool.
maybe not :)
Even though I don't want him to, Randy deserves to retire. However, if he beats Machida, he'll have no choice but to work towards another title.
Yeah if he wins, let him fight Jones and he'll have no shame in retiring after that cause loosing to Jones is as expected as KOing Chuck.
I dont think he will want to fight jones, i think he will go out on a high if he wins this me personally
fight bones?! i think randy wants to retire with all his bones still intact
Why not? beating machida is a big deal. If he does i dont think he'll retire if he gets a shot. Randy is a comptitive guy and i'm sure he would want to try fighting Jones, he can always tap to strikes like Shogun did if he's scared to be damaged (Rain of weaks from die hard shogun fans lol). My mma maths matchmaking says Randy fought Vera who fought Jones means Randy can fight Jones and try to avoid the elbows lol Anyway Randy had nothing to prove, he's a legend already.
If he beats Machida he should fight someone like Rampage who right now is above Machida in the UFC 205 division. Well, maybe Rampage is a bad example, but what I'm trying to say is fight someone between Machida and under Jones.
troll ?
Even though I am a Machida fan, and think he will win, I hope Randy somehow manages to get a win, just because it would be sad to see him go out with KO loss.
It would be nice to see a legend finally go out on top rather than fading and ending up being told by everyone it's time. If he beats Lyoto, I can think of nothing more appropriate than retiring on a win against a top-five opponent. He's earned it, it would be so fitting for such a man.
If Randy loses, then there is no other person that deserves to retire more than he does. He surely deserves it. If he wins, one would think he would get the title shot. But how confident is Randy to take that challenge? Bones is obviously top tier and age is definitely against Randy. I'd be extremely happy for Randy if he beat Machida and still decided to retire. No shame in that. I would hate to see Randy take the title fight only to get destroyed and be forced into retirement, the ugliest way possible...
You know if Randy wins this fight the UFC is going to give him the next title shot after Rashad. People like Bj Penn, Gsp, Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar will always find themselves in title contention even with recent loses
it does reak of favouritism a bit but really it just saves time, 2 fights a year isn't a lot, and just 'cos someone loses it doesn't always mean they should have to take a bunch of 'easy' fights for a year when we all know they're better than that
lets face it if gsp loses to shields for example, what are they gonna do with him? after a long reign of beating the #1 contenders it seems like anyone outside the top5 is just being fed to him
As much as I like / love Randy, respect and appreciate all that he has accomplished and done in and for the sport, I cannot pull for him; certainly not against a younger, more vibrant fighter, who wishes to compete and maintain his career.
It would make no logical sense in my mind, to pull for RC over LM, if all The Natural can say (repeatedly, this is an "old song", now) is that this may / will / could be his last fight.
Machida wants to regain the belt and hold it. He's taken two losses in a row (the second of which was a dubious decision loss - IMO) and can ill-afford a third one; not to a guy whose closing 50 & looking to retire.
I respect Randy and wish him all the best in his movie career (playing the same character over and over, again) , but for the sake of Machida's career & the overall health of the 205 division, I shall be pulling for Lyoto, in this one.
Thanks for the memories Randy, but as the ring announcer (always) says....It's Time.
I think Randy has to not just win, but win convincingly, before he'll stick around.
And if he doesn't win, still not a bad way to go, fighting in the biggest MMA event ever.
it technically wouldnt be the biggest mma event ever. biggest ufc yes, but the first shockwave was something stupid like 90,000 people.
dude he was on a good run. Maybe if he wins,keep going,if lose,maybe hang em but the old guy was doin pretty good his last fights,well go out swinging
He really should hang it up after this fight & enjoy life. The guy has nothing left to prove.
(shoop that Coleman)
When this fight was initially announced, I was ready to pick Randy to win... Now I find myself on the fence because he is obviously not focused the same way he has been in his past fights. And there is nothing wrong with that, because as so many of you have already said, he is a legend and deserves to retire as such. But Machida can be a dangerous opponent if not handle with an appropriate gameplan... That, plus he is hungry coming off losses. It will be interesting for sure.
when you start talking about retiring all the time thats when you lose. Look at cro cop and fedor, before their fights they kept rambling about whether to retire or not and they ended up losing. you gotta enjoy fighting
that's just unfair. It's like saying to Machida "if you beat me I'll quit".
How can Machida fight at 100 % faced with such an outcome? ;)
my second favorit fighter he's the man no need to prove anything just retire now enjoy life keep your health
he also has only a 500 winning percentage weak me but itsa true
A 500 winning percentage would be 10 - 10
and besides, the vast majority of his ufc fightes were title shots. him and penn have similar (to some maybe unimpressive) records by number but both have always fought the best at the time, excluding james toney.
can't see him retiring while in top5 of a division, anyone in top5 is a moment away from a titleshot and it takes big balls to just walk away
read between the lines, he's saying 'if i lose i'll retire' because if he suffers a loss now it puts him too far away from the belt to consider another run at his age
then by that logic he thinks hes probably gonna lose to machida. he wouldnt plead for a fight that he thought he was gonna lose.
Couture is not top 5, Machida will prove why.
Hell Yeah, I believe he can fight until the day he die for some reason....
Randy vs Fedor anyone? Assuming Randy looses to Machida.
Think machida will win this fight.. but randy is a legend and will never be forgotten...
I think he should retire and lyoto is going to win.
I have Lyoto in the picks but I will not be too surprised if Randy beats him.
IMO this is none of my business BUT if I were in Randy's shoes I'd do the following; If he beats Lyoto (I give him a 40-50% chance) he should take the title shot that he will undoubtedly be offered. If he loses, then he would be making a good decision in retiring. Every legend should go out being defeated by a future legend and he has other things in his life now.
I am afraid that win or lose, Randy will fight Shogun next.
I'd fight Shogun too, for a cool million or two bucks.
Afterward, I would have the pretty nurse in the hospital count my money while I was in traction.
I had a feeling before this fight came up that his next fight would be his last fight, and I think he pretty much feels the same judging by his words. I don't think he'll beat Machida, but I know better than underestimate randy lol, I'm hoping he gives us a great show/effort for his last hurrah, I'll be rooting for em and I'm sure he'll get the send off worthy of a legend .