Saturday night was a lousy night for me. For those of you who read my last blog, you have an idea of why. Randy Couture, for whom I went out on a limb with seven reasons why I thought he would beat Brock Lesnar, succumbed in the second round to the overpowering beast. But that was just the end of the night. It didn't start too well either.
I had the opportunity to watch UFC 91 this time around from the comfort of my own living room. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a bad thing, as I had trouble ordering the PPV. I didn't get to see the first fight between Demian Maia and Nate Quarry. I heard it was a pretty sick display of jiu-jitsu by Maia.
I did manage to find a site streaming the show live in time to see Gabriel Gonzaga demolish Josh Hendricks. (Shhh… don't tell anyone. Besides, I was trying to pay for it!)
I finally got the PPV working in time to see most of the Dustin Hazelett-Tamdan McCrory fight. Hazelett submitted McCrory, displaying what I can say firsthand was a sick display of jiu-jitsu.
I finally got to sit back and relax to watch all of Kenny Florian vs. Joe Stevenson, as short as it was. Florian looked fantastic. Stevenson was annoyed beforehand that people were calling him the underdog. Now he knows why. I think Florian will definitely give B.J. Penn a real run for his money.
And then the main event. I started off well for me I thought. Lesnar landed some solid knees early, but Couture employed a good tactic of leaning on Lesnar against the cage. Couture used his angles in the standup and defended well when Lesnar tried to take him down. Eventually though Lesnar managed to lift Couture and send him to the mat. He tried to mount but couldn't and Couture got up pretty quickly. He actually almost got Lesnar's back, but soon he found himself in half-guard against the big man. After Couture got back to his feet, they both begin firing shots until the bell sounded.
Brock looked tired in between rounds. Couture looked like he was tired too but in the zone. I know it was early but I was feeling pretty positive about my prediction.
In the second round, they went toe-to-toe and Lesnar landed a solid elbow to Couture's right shoulder. He stumbles a bit and shakes it. Uh oh, I thought, he might be hurt. But after they clinch, Couture seems okay. Back to the middle of the cage, Couture continued to use angles and landed a punch that cut Lesnar over his right eye. Lesnar kept having to wipe it and I though this could be good for Couture. That thinking didn't last long.
At 2:50 of the second round, Lesnar jabbed with a left, Couture ducked to the right, leaving his temple exposed to Lesnar's right fist, which hit him square and grazed over the back of his head. Couture went down immediately and Lesnar descended with his patented barrage of hammerfirsts. It was clear referee Mario Yamasaki did everything he could to give the champ the benefit of some extra time to try to survive. But he couldn't wait forever and when Couture had his head exposed to both fists and elbows, Yamasaki called the fight.
So now it's time to eat crow. I didn't give Lesnar enough credit up to this point, but I will now as he's clearly arrived sooner than I thought. A lot of experts felt the same way as me, but some of you readers had it right, so I give you props.
There was one other reason why Saturday was lousy for me. I lost a bet. There was no money on this bet -- no, something much bigger. See I had a wager with a co-worker, Sportsnet features producer Darren Winkler, who has produced many of the MMA features you've seen on Connected or Sportsnet.ca. He was one of the only ones I spoke to who thought Lesnar would win and the bet was simple: Whoever was right on this fight could declare to others, without argument, that he knew more than the other about MMA.
Well, not only am I going to have to let him gloat now, I'm going a step further and will let him give you some of his thoughts on the fight. Here are Darren Winkler's not-so-humble thoughts:
Thanks to Brock Lesnar I officially know more about MMA than James Brydon. I know it's not saying much but, oh how gloating feels so good. Man, did Lesnar come through Saturday night. He is not only the next big thing, he is the real thing. And I don't want to hear anything about a Jason MacDonald curse, The Athlete picks more with his heart than his head.
Talk all you want about Lesnar's wrestling, it's his striking that is winning his fights. Frank Mir fell twice from marginal shots, Heath Herring's face is still broken from a huge right and now the beloved Couture has tasted his enormous power. When I went down to Minneapolis to interview Brock for a recent story his sparring session scared me. He hits the pads so hard Greg Nelson (Lesnar's trainer) could barely keep his hands up. And sometimes he looks like he still doesn't even know how to properly throw yet.
Brock always seems to get killed for being cocky but Saturday it seemed like Couture was the over-confident one. You don't win a round by just pushing the bigger foe into the cage. Yet a look on The Natural's face and it was the same wry smile he carried all week. The look translated into "this guy can't beat me", "I'll tire him out" and "Why am I even fighting this unworthy challenger in the first place?"
Although I think Couture is overrated (a story for another day) he did a great job mixing it up it to start Round 2. But it proved Brock can take a shot and has the heart to overcome adversity in the name of a cut dripping into his eye. When Couture's legs earthquaked from an elbow I knew the champ was in trouble. The ham bone to the temple finished him off.
I don't think Couture is that old I just think Brock is that good. Imagine when he learns some jiu-jitsu! And unlike the taunting after the Herring win, Lesnar celebrated with a kiss to his pregnant wife's belly. Classy. This title reign could be long if he doesn't get submitted by Nogueira or Mir.
So while the "hero" fell, I broke out into a very Couture-esque all-knowing smile. Betting on a hulk like Brock is a no-brainer.
Darren and I spoke again today -- don't worry it was very amicable; he did all his gloating over the weekend -- and we agreed that this puts Lesnar into the top 10 of the heavyweight rankings. In fact, it resulted in quite a shakeup there.
Take a peek at the new heavyweight power rankings:
Top 10 Heavyweights
1. Fedor Emelianenko
2. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
3. Andrei Arlovski
4. Josh Barnett
5. Frank Mir
6. Alistair Overeem
7. Fabricio Werdum
8. Brock Lesnar
9. Randy Couture
10. Gabriel Gonzaga
Couture takes a plunge after the loss. But he fought a very good fight, he just got caught so he remains on the Top 10. Werdum also falls a few spots after getting knocked out quickly to Junior dos Santos at the previous UFC.
Overeem beat Gary Goodridge last week, so he moves up a few spots. And I took other people's advice and dropped Mirko Cro Cop off the list. And Kongo is knocked off as well, replaced by Gabriel Gonzaga, who looked really good on Saturday.
