TORONTO — If this is to be Randy Couture’s last fight in the Octagon, he will be leaving quite the legacy.
Most people who have followed mixed martial arts — and the UFC in particular — are aware of the 47-year-old’s exploits.
He’s a five-time UFC champion, in two different weight classes (heavyweight and 205 pounds). He has come out of retirement twice to win fights in dramatic fashion. His trilogy of fights with fellow UFC Hall of Famer and now-retired Chuck Liddell, was epic.
But what many — including Couture himself — are not aware of, is the mark he’s left on the UFC’s statistical record books. The bona fide legend of the sport appears on the top 10 lists of four of the 12 UFC leaderboards shown here.
This is where he stacks up with the best in the world over the past 10-plus years:
No. 6 in total strikes landed (1332)
No. 5 in significant strikes landed (703)
No. 6 in significant strike accuracy (58.7%)
No. 6 in takedowns landed (46)
The fact that he’s been able to accumulate these kinds of numbers over his long and illustrious career may not surprise many people. But it should be noted that for as long as he’s been in the game, he hasn’t fought that many times.
Saturday against Lyoto Machida on the main card of UFC 129 at the Rogers Centre will be just the 30th fight of Couture’s career and the numbers above only include the 20 fights since the UFC began using the Unified Rules of MMA.
Interestingly, perhaps his most memorable moment in the cage — or at least the most stunning — was when he came out of retirement (the first time) after being out of action for 13 months and upset Tim Sylvia to recapture the heavyweight championship for the third time.
The tone for that fight was set in the opening moments, when he planted Sylvia onto the mat with a surprise right to the head at about the eight-second mark. According to the UFC records, it is the only knockdown of his career.
Couture was never known as a guy with the big knockout punch. But he was always well-rounded and relentless. He could pepper you with strikes that counted, both from the standup and ground, and was a master of the takedown, using his Greco-Roman wrestling background. That was also evident in the Sylvia fight, where he registered 138 of his career strikes landed (and 73 significant strikes) and seven takedowns.
Meanwhile, his opponent Lyoto Machida is amassing his own legacy.
For a while the karate black belt was building a reputation for being both extremely elusive and a killer in the Octagon. With his southpaw stance and unorthodox style, he would move in and out on his feet, wreaking havoc on opponents’ timing and cause them to miss repeatedly with their strikes.
At one point, he held a record for absorbing the fewest total strikes among any fighter in the UFC while starting his career 8-0 in the Octagon and he knocked out Thiago Silva and Rashad Evans in back-to-back fights in memorable fashion.
As you can see, the numbers certainly back him up as he too appears on four of the UFC statistical lists:
No. 4 in significant striking accuracy (60.1%)
No. 9 in knockdowns landed (9)
No. 10 in strikes absorbed per minute (1.12)
No. 3 in takedown defence (83.3%)
Now Machida has lost his past two fights, during which he absorbed a fair amount of hits, yet he still remains highly represented in these rankings.
The last stat is interesting considering who he is facing Saturday night. Will Couture attempt to take the fight to the ground rather than stay on his feet — where Machida is so efficient with his strikes and averaging nearly a knockdown per fight, whereas he only has one his whole career? Because as difficult as Machida is to hit with strikes, he is clearly also very hard to take down.
Meanwhile will Machida, who is also a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, try to work his grappling more and look for a submission, considering he has only a slight edge over Couture in the striking accuracy department?
| UFC 129 Sportsnet/sportsnet.ca schedule | |||
| What? | When? | Where? | |
| Pre-fight press conference | Wednesday (watch replay) | Live stream | |
| Skype chat (Jason MacDonald) | Thursday, 4 p.m. ET | Live stream/chat | |
| ‘Super 7’ special presentation | Friday, 3 p.m. ET | UFC live stream | |
| UFC 129 weigh-ins | Friday, 4 p.m. ET | Live stream/chat | |
| UFC 129 live results | Saturday, 6 p.m. ET | Fight card | |
| Prelims on Facebook | Saturday, 6-8 p.m. ET | ||
| UFC Connected pre-fight special | Saturday, 7-8 p.m. ET | Sportsnet | |
| Prelims on Sportsnet | Saturday, 8-9 p.m. ET | Sportsnet | |
| UFC 129 main card (PPV) | Saturday, 9 p.m. ET | Pay-per-view | |
| UFC Connected post-fight special | Saturday, 12-12:30 a.m. ET | Sportsnet | |
| Post-fight press conference | Saturday, 1:15 a.m. ET (approx.) | UFC live stream | |
Machida said Thursday his game plan will depend on what he sees Couture attempt first Saturday night.
“There’s always concerns (fighting Couture),” Machida said (through translator Ed Soares). “But while he can always make adjustments to his game, there’s a certain consistency with Randy Couture, and there’s only so much he can change and so much he can adapt to. The best way we can figure that out is see what his strategy is in the beginning of the fight, and I will adapt accordingly.”
Couture, who said the most memorable fights of his career were the wins against Sylvia, Vitor Belfort, Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell, doesn’t worry too much about the statistics.
“I’m not aware of the numbers. I can remember the guys I fought, but outside of that, I don’t keep track of that,” Couture said. “It’s more about the competition and I think those are what lend themselves to your legacy and how people remember you.”
While the stats are certainly interesting to look at heading into Saturday night, Couture insists he has nothing to prove in this “going away” fight.
“I’ve been doing this simply because I can, because I love it and I have passion for it, and that’s why I think calling it quits when I want to call it quits is important to me.
“It’s going out on my terms.”
Win or lose for Couture, both legacy-wise and numbers-wise, those will ultimately be good terms.
