Randy Couture Accepts Match With Minotauro Nogueira at UFC 101
by Cannon Jacques on Feb 26, 2009 4:32 PM EST
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According to multiple sources from Couture’s camp, he has agreed to face Nogueira at the yet-unannounced UFC 101 sometime in August. The event may take place in Portland, Ore.
The UFC is now awaiting a response from Nogueira’s camp.
Previously, Couture was offered a fight with Nogueira in the first half of 2009, but his role in Sylvester Stallone’s “The Expendables,” set to film in late March, got in the way.
This is a huge match if it does, in fact, come to fruition. I can't imagine Nogueira turning this bout down unless there were some type of physical or other personal issue that makes any fight in August an impossibility. A win for the Brazilian against Couture would certainly raise his status in the states. Any time "The Natural" steps in the octagon it's a much anticipated event, and this bout against one of Pride's former superstars should be no different.
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Sounds like both guys will have one fight in 2009.
If Randy and Nog face each other in August than who will face the winner of Brock/Mir? Seems like a long time between title fights.
Yup, they will probably try to put Kongo or Gonzaga in there, perhaps.
by MMASuPreMaCy on Feb 26, 2009 2:39 PM EST up reply actions
but carwin will win. :)
http://weoweoweo.deviantart.com/
by Anton Tabuena on Feb 26, 2009 9:04 PM EST up reply actions
The winner will probably face the champion in December.
by Michael Rome on Feb 26, 2009 2:57 PM EST up reply actions
I am excited at the possibility of this fight,
but would have been much more excited 3 years ago.
Arguing on the internet is like being in the special olympics, even when you win you are still retarded.
Can’t argue with that…time has passed these guys by and as much as they deserve a place in the hall of fame, it’s like watching Magic vs. Bird waaay too late in their careers.
Based on each of their last performance, I give Randy the nod – he looks far less spent. And one of Nog’s biggest advantages, the ability to absorb punishment to get the sub has fallen off markedly.
I am the bastard love child of Junie Browning and Diamond Dave Kaplan.
True, but...
He’s 32 going on 50.
I am the bastard love child of Junie Browning and Diamond Dave Kaplan.
by The_Gaijin on Feb 26, 2009 2:35 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
I still have a hard time believing he is 32 &
he looks he is 52.
Arguing on the internet is like being in the special olympics, even when you win you are still retarded.
Someone made a great point the other day that, being from Brazil, there’s a huge likelihood that he’s a lot older than 32 in reality.
I am the bastard love child of Junie Browning and Diamond Dave Kaplan.
That was what I meant
but was kind of pulling back from actually saying it. Sort of like how a lot of Latin baseball players report to be 6 or even 7 years older than they actually are.
Arguing on the internet is like being in the special olympics, even when you win you are still retarded.
He may be 32...
But his mind may be older, and his body may be even older. I mean, watch the beating Fedor landed on his face in PRIDE, and imagine that happening in a lot of his fights… because it has.
Editor-in-chief of MMA-Analyst.com
by Leland Roling on Feb 26, 2009 2:41 PM EST up reply actions
his brother looks just as old as he does… it’s just the way their genetics are and it plays mind tricks on people :)
Or maybe they are both older?
Arguing on the internet is like being in the special olympics, even when you win you are still retarded.
His brother moves pretty well though, he’s far less withered IMO skillwise.
Editor-in-chief of MMA-Analyst.com
by Leland Roling on Feb 26, 2009 3:29 PM EST up reply actions
I thought his movement was excellent, his striking was great, and I’m hoping they put Sobral vs. Minotoro for the next card.
Editor-in-chief of MMA-Analyst.com
by Leland Roling on Feb 26, 2009 3:44 PM EST up reply actions
Lil Nog seems to be hitting his stride. Big Nog has looks like he’s had some of his reflexes beat out him.
The nog twins are pulling the switcheroo WWE style!
When he gets tired, Little nog will roll under the mat then big nog will go in.. Thats why little nog is winning, and big nog is losing, you cant roll under the octagon! :)
http://weoweoweo.deviantart.com/
by Anton Tabuena on Feb 27, 2009 3:01 AM EST up reply actions
Thank you for bringing back memories of Doink.
by Derek Suboticki on Feb 27, 2009 3:06 PM EST up reply actions
His appearance...
is somewhat similar…because they’re twins.
Physically, in a functional sense, they do not look the same (imo).
I am the bastard love child of Junie Browning and Diamond Dave Kaplan.
in terms of age... they look the same
Also, nog moves slower and doesn’t look as good of shape because he fights heavyweight in the 230’s, where his bro has to keep the fat off and is at 205.
Right, I mean both of these guys
are by all accounts great people & obviously their careers speak for themselves, but their time at the top has passed.
Arguing on the internet is like being in the special olympics, even when you win you are still retarded.
the viking photography guy’s last post has a lot of clues about crocop’s opponent. it is someone not currently in the UFC but was before and someone transitioning from light heavy to heavy. my best guesses are tito or vitor.
It made me think it was Overeem until I realized Overeem was still under the Strikeforce banner and K-1 now. Tito is the most likely IMO
Editor-in-chief of MMA-Analyst.com
by Leland Roling on Feb 26, 2009 3:03 PM EST up reply actions
Excuse my ignorance
How would the Viking Phot. guy have inside information? Is he friends with Joe Silva, Cro-Cop, Tito? I don’t understand some of these inside connections and would appreciate some illumination. Further, doesn’t the UFC have a “keep your mouth shut” clause in contracts forbidding fighters from disclosing information before they submit an official press release? Not trying to be inflammatory, just curious!
by I don't wear mma t-shirts on Feb 26, 2009 3:17 PM EST up reply actions
Is this aimed at me or Headkick? I’m not even referring to the Viking piece. I just think that Tito is the pick at this point. I heard some things regarding it was someone who was moving from LHW to HW, but I took it as purely speculation.
My initial Overeem impulse was seeing him at the UFC event, but then all the news broke about K-1 and his contract with Strikeforce, which I completely forgot about.
Editor-in-chief of MMA-Analyst.com
by Leland Roling on Feb 26, 2009 3:23 PM EST up reply actions
my comment should have been under headkicks, my bad.
by I don't wear mma t-shirts on Feb 26, 2009 5:12 PM EST up reply actions
Mr. McNeil (Viking Photography guy) shoots for ESPN and is at and around almost every European UFC event. He’s well known around here for his great work, and just doesn’t seem to me like the type who would run around spreading rumors. I definitely consider him a credible source of information.
As for the non-disclosure clauses, well, sometimes it’s tough to keep a secret, especially from guys inside your gym/camp.
Contributor Emeritus - BloodyElbow.com
by Chris Nelson on Feb 26, 2009 3:29 PM EST up reply actions
Interesting...
One of the key questions here is if Nogueira is actually showing age and whether or not his style over the years has completely caught up to him. I like this matchup, but I’m still not a huge fan of his defensive grappling on the floor and waiting for mistakes. I don’t think Randy is going to get subb’ed, and I’m a bit hesistant to believe Mir beating him in the standup game was simply Mir’s training. I think Nogueira is on the decline, to be honest.
Editor-in-chief of MMA-Analyst.com
Right,
this fight goes the same way Couture/Sylvia or Mir/Nog. Randy will keep it standing & probably win that aspect easily & when he goes to the ground is not going to fall into a sub.
Arguing on the internet is like being in the special olympics, even when you win you are still retarded.
Booking dream fights 2-3 years after both fighters begin their downslide = standard operating procedure in the UFC
Yeah, but can we blame them for all of those matchups? Not really. Couture was in limbo with the entire “I got screwed by the UFC” debacle at the time Nogueira came in, and Wanderlei was already sliding after two straight losses in PRIDE.
Editor-in-chief of MMA-Analyst.com
by Leland Roling on Feb 26, 2009 2:42 PM EST up reply actions 5 recs
You take the fun out of trolling,you know that?
by smoogy on Feb 26, 2009 2:46 PM EST up reply actions 4 recs
LOL
Editor-in-chief of MMA-Analyst.com
by Leland Roling on Feb 26, 2009 3:02 PM EST up reply actions
Key Question
What do you do with the loser?
Are they done, or will they be used to fight Carwin or Cain coming off of a win?
That will only happen if Nog loses. Randy has too much clout/sway and if he loses here will only take “money” fights from here on out.
I am the bastard love child of Junie Browning and Diamond Dave Kaplan.
I thought he was already doing that.
:)
Part of his condition to come back to the UFC was to ONLY take “money” fights.
I think he only has 1 or 2 more fights max anyways.
by MMASuPreMaCy on Feb 26, 2009 2:36 PM EST up reply actions
Well...
Not so sure how much of a money fight this is, but rather a “one last chance to fight the winner of Brock/Mir”.
I am the bastard love child of Junie Browning and Diamond Dave Kaplan.
I think it ultimately lies in what Randy wants to do. Is he going to start thinking about retirement again if he loses, especially on the heels of more movies? If so, then who knows. He may just ride off into the sunset, but what bugs me is that if Randy decides to continue, he’ll get the Rampage treatment or the Liddell treatment. He’ll get a fight against someone a bit easier, likely win, then somehow miraculously ascend to a title shot.
I have a feeling the UFC will throw Nogueira under the bus, but the problem with that is that Nogueira can likely defeat the up-and-comers, so it becomes an endless cycle.
Editor-in-chief of MMA-Analyst.com
by Leland Roling on Feb 26, 2009 2:40 PM EST up reply actions
Money, money, money, mooooonneeeeeeyyyy....
I am the bastard love child of Junie Browning and Diamond Dave Kaplan.
Uh oh.
If Randy wins, he’ll insist on a rematch with Brock (or, in an alternate universe, a match with Mir) for the title. If he loses, then I actually can see arguing Nog needs to fight someone else (the winner of Kongo/Hardonk or Cain if we wins, since I think the winner of Carwin/Gonzaga gets the first shot) before he gets a title fight.
I really, truly have no desire to see Couture-Lesnar II.
by Derek Suboticki on Feb 26, 2009 2:58 PM EST reply actions
i do, i’m a guy that thought he was winning the round and brock was gassing.
i also heard brock was training w/ couture….. so for that reason i dont see it happening and i think brock would agree that randy was outplaying him in the fight. of course, i dont know this to actually be true.
i take Nog in this fight. we’re so quick to call for someones retirement after one loss.
It's going to be awfully hard
to take advantage of Brock gassing, even if it does happen (which I honestly don’t think it did during the Couture fight). He’s so big, fast and incredible at positional control, that the only guys who can really give him trouble are equally sized wrestlers and there are like…umm, one of those in the UFC? And that guy even complains about the cardio aspect of fighting, not a lot but a little bit.
As to Randy vs. Nog, I just don’t see Nog beating Couture. Randy didn’t look like he’d lost anything when he fought Brock, at least from the physical tools side of things, and there’s just no way that he’s going to get submitted by Minotauro. Still, it’s a fight I’d love to see.
There is no such thing as innocence, only degrees of guilt.
by misterjonez on Feb 26, 2009 10:10 PM EST up reply actions
good points. it’s really a hard fight to call and there are a lot of un-answered questions about both fighters right now in their career. and i really like em both so it’s hard to pick one. still going w/ Nog but aint gonna bet any money on him.
on the brock gassing debate, who knows? i know what i saw and so do you. we all see things thru our own filters. i mean a guy at my gym said fedor was out on his feet against arlovski and he’s not biased generally.
Still a great fight. Honestly, there’s not a better fight for either guy right now in their careers in the UFC. And if the winner gets a title shot in December, I’ll be fine with that as well.
BTW, has the UFC still not officially announced UFC 98? I haven’t seen it on their website, haven’t seen any formal announcements of the venue or the main event/fight card.
98?
i thought it was supposed to be brock/mir 2 and hughes/serra on may 23. as far as anything official, i can’t say. where’s mmalogic on this one? lol.
It is heavily rumored (maybe a foregone conclusion), but I was just curious as to the official announcement, as I hadn’t seen one.
Dana White might’ve mentioned it in passing in a press conference of interview somewhere but there’s nothing on the UFC website so far. I assume there will be once UFC 96 is out of the way. Most likely will be announced then, I reckon.
Shoot, I expect them to have an interview with Rich Franklin between fights at UFC 96, where they announce him headlining UFC 99 in Germany, which is why I figured we’d see UFC 98 announced on the website with a ticket sales date set for fans, etc.
by Hardcharger on Feb 27, 2009 10:20 AM EST up reply actions
Oh Snap!
I am the bastard love child of Junie Browning and Diamond Dave Kaplan.
They need to start numbering the subtitles.
Like “UFC 97: Redemption” and “UFC 112: Redemption II”
They really have to come up with some other form of cataloging these events…the numbers are getting out of control in a hurry, and the subtitles are getting recycled.
There is no such thing as innocence, only degrees of guilt.
by misterjonez on Feb 26, 2009 10:14 PM EST up reply actions
I wouldn’t mind going to the WWE/Pride model of naming shows.
The December show is the Ultimate 20xx, the Super Bowl show is this, the March show is this, etc, etc.
Yeah, that would be alright, too. I understand the notion of not wanting to label the events after the year specifically, since that could create some odd logistical questions about ranking, but they really do need to address it and make a change sometime shortly after 100. It would help the model quite a bit.
I mean really, who (as a new fan) wants to watch part 112 without having watched at least 110 and 111? The numbers can be a bit of a turn-off…and while it’s not a huge deal, they’re doing themselves a disservice in the marketing arena, however small.
There is no such thing as innocence, only degrees of guilt.
by misterjonez on Feb 26, 2009 11:09 PM EST up reply actions
That's actually a pretty nice card.
At least, the names are nice.
There is no such thing as innocence, only degrees of guilt.
by misterjonez on Feb 26, 2009 10:12 PM EST up reply actions
yup, i already bought tickets. :)
http://weoweoweo.deviantart.com/
by Anton Tabuena on Feb 27, 2009 3:03 AM EST up reply actions
UFC 101: Class is in Session
LOL
Editor-in-chief of MMA-Analyst.com
by Leland Roling on Feb 26, 2009 3:26 PM EST up reply actions
I hope they don’t really call it "UFC 101."
That’s their combined age at this point.
"BJ on the BE" - Kierkegaard
Randy is wisely positioning himself. If he wins here he will get a title shot, and I’d put the probability of Fedor getting a UFC title shot in the fall at around 20%. If it happens, Randy has a shot at getting his dream match.
I do not believe Randy is going to retire if he does well. The man loves fighting, and if he feels like he is getting better, then he’s not going to want to stop.
I can see Randy becoming a “special event” type fighter and doing one or two mega-fights a year in the future, he’s at a point where he doesn’t really have to retire and he doesn’t really need to fight three or four times a year either, fighting once or twice a year between movie roles could keep him going for years to come.
He won’t ever fight more than 1-2 times a year now. Fighting is essential to building the brand empire that he’s building.
by Michael Rome on Feb 26, 2009 5:28 PM EST up reply actions
Meh. I don’t really feel excited about this one. Randy should win. Whatever. If it happens, it happens.
what other matching involving couture and nog would be exciting though? the only one i can think of is nog or couture vs crocop
Couture vs. CroCop would be pretty fun, assuming Mirko’s gotten some of his old form back.
There is no such thing as innocence, only degrees of guilt.
by misterjonez on Feb 26, 2009 10:15 PM EST up reply actions
People are writing these two off too much for their last performances. Randy looked as good as a 220 lbs. fighter cold look against Lesnar in my opinion. The size advantage was ridiculous and I think Couture was starting to turn the tide in the second round.
And according to a few different sources, Nogueira was suffering from a number of different things before his fight with Mir that hindered a decent training camp. Whether or not that turns your chin to jello or not is beyond me but this is still a top class heavyweight fight, not to mention a dream match-up that has been a long time coming.
I’m with you completely, but there is one thing about this match that bugs me still: it’s only three rounds. I don’t care what rule needs to be broken for it, but this requires five rounds.
"I see him beating Anderson Silva. I see him picking him apart. Him at a 131 years old...(trails off)." - Tito on Belfort at Affliction:DOR
by Rundownloser on Feb 26, 2009 10:32 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
Rec'd.
This is an issue which seriously needs to be addressed. Maybe make there a mutual option for 5 rounds, if both fighters agree, and at least one of the fighters is a former champion? I mean, that seems awfully easy to do, right? If both fighters don’t agree, then fine, it’s a 3 rounder. Maybe put an incentive there, something like an extra $50k per fighter if they agree to a five round fight?
There is no such thing as innocence, only degrees of guilt.
by misterjonez on Feb 26, 2009 11:12 PM EST up reply actions
Agreed. Some fights you can just get the sense that to do it justice, it will need 5 rounds. I felt strongly about that before Franklin-Henderson, and it turned out that 3 rounds didn’t do that fight justice.
On the matchup, even though I may realize that both Randy and Nog are on the tail end of their careers, I still wouldn’t put it out of the realm of possibility that one of these guys can still capture the UFC HW title before they retire. The odds may be against them, but it is still possible, IMO.
And there’s just something about Couture headlining a UFC that gets me as excited for a fight as I am for nearly any other Main Event.
by Hardcharger on Feb 27, 2009 10:23 AM EST up reply actions
Agreed on Couture looking solid but I’m not sure about Nog. Once your chin and recuperative powers are gone they’re not coming back, if Nog can’t adapt his style to avoid being hit flush he’s done as a top heavyweight.
For me Randy takes this fight by TKO or decision. I would have said Randy by decision before seeing their recent fights but a TKO is a real chance now.
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