Lesnar ascends to his throne…
By Robert Przybylo
BPrzybylo@opubco.com
(AP Photo/Eric Jamison)
I was in no position to give play-by-play of the Brock Lesnar and Randy Couture. I was out among the people there at Buffalo Wild Wings who just witnessed one great and dare I say historic night of MMA. I wasn’t about to bring my laptop into that type of scene.
Thanks to the fellas at Sherdog, someone actually was doing the play-by-play. Here’s the report of Lesnar’s second-round KO of Couture.
Randy Couture vs. Brock Lesnar
Lesnar enters the cage to the sounds of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman.” The champion follows as Aerosmith’s “Back in The Saddle” plays.
Round 1
Referee Mario Yamasaki gives the final instructions in the center of the Octagon. The fighters stare intensely into each others eyes and Lesnar cracks a smile. The fighters touch gloves and the action is on. Couture goes straight to the clinch as he backs Lesnar up against the fence. Lesnar smartly knees the thigh of the champion as he switches control against the fence. Now pushing Couture against the fence, Lesnar backs off absorbs a hard right hand to the jaw. Lesnar drops levels for a single-leg takedown, which is defended nicely by Couture. Lesnar switches to a double and gets the takedown. The challenger works from half-guard. He briefly has the mount, but Couture has none of it. Couture nearly sweeps Lesnar to his back. Lesnar picks an ankle and counters with a beautiful trip. Lesnar, from half-guard, pins Couture’s right arm down with his leg while punching the head. Couture scrambles to his knees while Lesnar controls from the top. Couture makes it to his feet and has Lesnar pushed against the cage. Lesnar grabs the fencing twice to avoid a takedown and is warned by Yamasaki.
Jordan Breen scores the round: 10-9 Lesnar
TJ De Santis scores the round: 10-9 Lesnar
Mike Fridley scores the round: 10-9 Lesnar
Round 2
Lesnar lands a standing elbow that stuns Couture to start the second round. Couture recovers and clinches with the challenger, where he lands a left knee to the head. Lesnar lands a clean knee to the body and Couture answers with a right hand. Lesnar is cut above the right eye in the exchange. Couture goes right back to the clinch and tastes a right-shoulder punch from the much larger Lesnar. The fighters separate and Lesnar lands a hard right knee to the chin. Lesnar follows with a right hand on the temple. Couture collapses and Lesnar swarms with hammer punches. Yamasaki watches closely as Couture does not answer. He steps in to save Couture. Brock Lesnar takes Randy Couture’s UFC heavyweight title with a second-round TKO. The official time is 3:07 of round two.
And an hour removed, here’s what I remember off the top of my head. The atmosphere was electric all night. But when Couture and Lesnar finally stepped in, it hit home. This was it.
I gave the first round to Brock. I thought it was interesting that Couture actually tried to test Lesnar’s chin right off the bat. Lesnar did a great job of staying calm. He looked like he was a little out of breath during that final minute, but he never got flustered.
The first round was all about battling for position. Couture tried to wear down the ginormous Lesnar. Normally Couture lays on someone to set up knees and inside strikes. Not tonight. It was all about trying to empty that gas tank.
Joe Rogan was going nuts about something Couture was doing with Lesnar’s leg. I couldn’t see it on the telecast but had me excited, whatever it was.
Lesnar was definitely sucking wind as he was grabbing the fence to stay on his feet in those final 30 seconds. He did more than survive that first round. Most people (yours truly included) thought Lesnar would try to make a huge impact right from the get-go. He played it cool.
Things picked up in the second when Lesnar buckled Couture with a standing elbow, which is not something you see everyday. Couture got Lesnar back to the fence to recover and busted up the right eye of Lesnar in an exchange.
Lesnar, again, did not panic. Brock did a great job with his knees tonight. Duh, he has a lot of power. But if you don’t throw those knees correctly, you’re negating your strength.
Eventually Lesnar down Couture with a beautiful right hand to the temple/back of the neck. Couture stumbles to the ground and Lesnar hammers him repeatedly before it’s stopped at 3:07 of round two.
Wow, just like that.
Even if you have a great chin, you never know how a temple shot will hurt you. I can’t think of a temple shot without going back to April 15, 1985, in the unbelievable Marvin Hagler and Tommy Hearns fight. Hagler was on his way to winning it but a right hand to Tommy’s temple is a lasting image in boxing.
Saturday, it’s what did in Couture. Rust was not an issue. Couture said it before and after the fight, and it was pretty obvious. It really wasn’t.
The key was the evolution of Lesnar. He didn’t come in like a crazy man and expend useless energy. When he got cut, he didn’t press the panic button and get into a precarious spot. He fought with intelligence that he has talked about but never really displayed until tonight.
It’s weird because even though Lesnar was trying to be gracious in victory, that Vegas crowd was still loving The Natural and booing Lesnar.
MMA postfight interviews are some of the best. There is no BS in ‘em. I can’t repeat some of what both men had to say, but it was honesty 100 percent.
So Brock Lesnar, in only his fourth MMA fight, is the NEW UFC heavyweight champion. Ironically enough, it was Couture’s fourth fight when he won his first of three hwt. titles.
Undercard
Solid. Not one fight on the main show went past the first round, so we saw a lot of pre-PPV bouts. But that’s fine. People made statements tonight.
I don’t know if it was because of the buzz behind Lesnar and Couture, but it seemed like everyone wanted to try to steal the show.
Demian Maia executed a textbook rear-naked choke. Gabriel Gonzaga and his meancing look of destruction wiped out Josh Hendricks with a brutal right. Dustin Hazelett (and his crazy beard) got another armbar submission victory. If not for Lesnar, Hazelett was the most impressive. And Kenny Florian served notice to B.J. Penn that he’s coming with a rear-naked choke.
And those prelim fights were nuts, too. Jeremy Stephens’ uppercut TKO on Dos Anjos is something no one will forget anytime soon. And him running head-first into the fence was something I’ll never forget. You never know what grown men will do to celebrate happiness. Like I said, great, great night for UFC and MMA.
Fun stuff all around. And a special thanks to BWW who put on the Jermain Taylor and Jeff Lacy boxing fight on a very small TV so I could watch Taylor tattoo his former Olympic teammate. Long been a fan of Taylor but almost felt sad for Lacy. Good to have you back, Jermain.
But this night was all about Lesnar. UFC 92 is Dec. 27. Um, that’s my birthday. Anyone want to buy the PPV for me as a present? C’mon. Nogueira and Frank Mir will battle it out with the winner taking on Lesnar.
Whoo, what a week. I hope you enjoyed my week-long look at Brock Lesnar and Randy Couture. I didn’t think it was possible, but it got me even more fired up about everything.
This next week we go local as we start looking at a boxing bout for the vacant Oklahoma lightweight title between Noah Zuhdi and George Colbert, both of OKC. Also, 24/7 is back with de La Hoya and Pacquiao.
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