Gonzaga vs. Couture

[quote]Zap Branigan wrote:
Donut62 wrote:
Speaking of Gonzaga’s terrible fight with Kevin Jordan that keeps getting brought up, you must under the circumstances. Gonzaga missed the last several weeks of his training camp because he was in the hospital with his wife who was in critical condition after their child died during birth.

Gonzaga had no intention to fight that night, but they desperately needed money to pay hospital bills so he had no choice but to literally take a cab from the hospital to the airport and right into the octagon with no training. It isn’t well publicised because Gonzaga refuses to make an excuse for his poor performance.

Damn. He has a new fan in me. [/quote]

Hold your applause until you’ve wasted your time watching that particular fight please.

Man the MMA world is crazy at the moment. Sokoudjou knocking out everybody, Diaz beating Gomi, Couture owning Sylvia, GSP losing to Serra, and then Gonzaga.

If this current trend continues, Couture will probably get knocked out via a flying cartwheel kick 2nd round. You heard it here first.

Once he gets his head together again and gets motivated, I’d now like to see CroCop fight Tim Sylvia. That would be fun to watch. :wink:

[quote]Mick28 wrote:

A fluke is a lucky punch, kick or submission.

[/quote]

That is exactly what happend. A fluke.

[quote]meat1wad wrote:
Mick28 wrote:

A fluke is a lucky punch, kick or submission.

That is exactly what happend. A fluke.[/quote]

Yes, it was real flukey the way Gonzaga kept Mirko circling the wrong day, took him, elbowed the shit out of his face, and then knocked him out. The fact that he did it with a kick was surprising, but a kick that looks that good is one that has been well trained and learned.

Mirko himself said in Croatian newspapers that the elbows on the ground rocked him and his vision was blurry after they were stood up. He couldn’t see where the kick was coming from.

[quote]meat1wad wrote:
Mick28 wrote:

A fluke is a lucky punch, kick or submission.

That is exactly what happend. A fluke.[/quote]

It reminds me of the C&W song - “Bubba shot the jukebox”:

Cop:I’m hauling you in for reckless discharge
Bubba: Wreckless - Hell! I shot just where I was aiming…

[quote]bigblue244 wrote:
Damici wrote:
Putting a moderately big guy in a well-tailored suit will make him look HUGE. Trust me; you can’t judge his true size when he’s wearing a suit

UFC’s website has Randy listed as 6’2’ and 220, and Gonzaga listed as 6’1" and 242.

powerhouse reno wrote:
How could you say Randy is smaller? They are the same height and when Randy was in the ring with him after the fight Randy is the one who looked much bigger; in fact everyone in my house said how big Randy looked. Couture is the master, too much experence and I think he’s more focused then ever.

George

I don’t want to be a nit-picker here, but it was not just the suit. He is weighing at least, and i stress least, 240 right now. I am an avid fan of MMA, not quite an expert, but close, and I have seen Randy Couture in many different situations, articles of clothing, in-season training, off-season, etc… and that is the biggest he has ever looked, ever.

The suit aside, look at his damn head/face. It is ridiculously full and almost looked like a basketball or something. It was crazy. The second I saw him on the TV I was like “Holy Shit Randy is Huge!!!”

I started a thread on one of the MMA websites I am a member of to see if he is going to stay this weight for his fight or what and no one had any real answers. Hopefully we will find out. It would be interesting.[/quote]

Yeah, I noticed that too. I’ve been a fan of Randy’s for a long time and that was definitely the biggest I’ve ever seen him. Not sure what he’s doing to get that big? I’d imagine, though, by fight time that he’ll weigh in around 230-235; although if he can carry this current size and have his same speed and explosion on his shots then it doesn’t matter.


Cro Cop vs. either Sylvia or Arlovski would be a good fight and UFC could easily bill it as another No. 1 contender’s match.

What would your predictions be for each of those matches?

[quote]Djwlfpack wrote:


Cro Cop vs. either Sylvia or Arlovski would be a good fight and UFC could easily bill it as another No. 1 contender’s match.[/quote]

[quote]Damici wrote:
What would your predictions be for each of those matches?

Djwlfpack wrote:


Cro Cop vs. either Sylvia or Arlovski would be a good fight and UFC could easily bill it as another No. 1 contender’s match.

[/quote]

Even though Cro Cop sucked moose balls and was totally exposed against Gonzaga I don’t think Arlovski or Sylvia have the skill set to exploit Cro Cop’s shortcomings.

Winner: Cro Cop and it would likely be pretty entertaining.

That’s pretty much my feeling as well. Especially if CroCop takes it seriously and comes to fight, which he obviously didn’t against Gonzaga.

I STILL can’t believe that CroCop refused to train in an octagon, feeling that it would make no difference. Even Randy Couture said he thought that was a BIG mistake on CroCop’s part.

As a professional, wouldn’t you want to take every single aspect of the fight into account? Especially since it’s something he wasn’t used to, why not train in the octagon to at least find out what’s different about it? Unbelievable.

[quote]Zap Branigan wrote:
Damici wrote:
What would your predictions be for each of those matches?

Djwlfpack wrote:


Cro Cop vs. either Sylvia or Arlovski would be a good fight and UFC could easily bill it as another No. 1 contender’s match.

Even though Cro Cop sucked moose balls and was totally exposed against Gonzaga I don’t think Arlovski or Sylvia have the skill set to exploit Cro Cop’s shortcomings.

Winner: Cro Cop and it would likely be pretty entertaining. [/quote]

[quote]Damici wrote:
What would your predictions be for each of those matches?

Djwlfpack wrote:


Cro Cop vs. either Sylvia or Arlovski would be a good fight and UFC could easily bill it as another No. 1 contender’s match.[/quote]

Well, against Sylvia I’d take Cro Cop. I just don’t think Sylvia has the speed and endurance to keep up with Cro Cop.

Arlovski would be a real interesting fight. He’s a great counter puncher and has by far the fastest hands in the UFC’s heavyweight division when he decides to let them go; and he has a decent ground game. I’d slightly favor Arlovski in this one.

Interesting.

Do you think there’s anyone in the UFC who would have a legitimate chance against Fedor, hypothetically?

[quote]Djwlfpack wrote:
Damici wrote:
What would your predictions be for each of those matches?

Djwlfpack wrote:


Cro Cop vs. either Sylvia or Arlovski would be a good fight and UFC could easily bill it as another No. 1 contender’s match.

Well, against Sylvia I’d take Cro Cop. I just don’t think Sylvia has the speed and endurance to keep up with Cro Cop.

Arlovski would be a real interesting fight. He’s a great counter puncher and has by far the fastest hands in the UFC’s heavyweight division when he decides to let them go; and he has a decent ground game. I’d slightly favor Arlovski in this one.[/quote]

Fedor would destroy both of these guys, easily. sure, randy is a good wrestler, but he doesn’t have any good submissions, and hes ok on his feet, if hes fighting someone who doesn’t move and just stands there like sylvia. if randy ever tried to stand up with fedor, hed get killed. and fedor is the best ground and pound guy on the planet. bar none.

and if anyone saw him fight mat linlund, he made him tap in under 3 minutes. very very few guys have ever made it out of the first round with fedor. as far as gonzaga is concerned, bhahahahaah, fedor would destroy him in under 2 minutes.

[quote]Mick28 wrote:

Could Couture beat him? The odds are against it, but then the odds were against Serra beating GSP, Couture beating Sylvia and Gonzaga beating Cro Crop. If nothing else I hope that we have all learned that no one is unbeatable, and that includes Fedor.

[/quote]

Yeah, but all those guys you mentioned are humans. Fedor is Fedor.

[quote]Mick28 wrote:
bigben00 wrote:
hes (Couture) ok on his feet, if hes fighting someone who doesn’t move and just stands there like sylvia.

If you really believe that then you have a very short memory, or you are new to the sport.

In 1997 Couture beat a person who was then considered to be one of the best stand up strikers in the game Vitor Belfort. And how did he do it? He outboxed him!

He also beat another person in 1997 who was at the time a very good kickboxer, Maurice Smith.

Fast forward to 2003 and Couture defeated the most devastating puncher in the UFC, Chuck Liddell. TKO in the third round.

Randy Couture has faced many who could strike and he defeated them, one way or another.

if randy ever tried to stand up with fedor, hed get killed. and fedor is the best ground and pound guy on the planet. bar none.

and if anyone saw him fight mat linlund, he made him tap in under 3 minutes. very very few guys have ever made it out of the first round with fedor. as far as gonzaga is concerned, bhahahahaah, fedor would destroy him in under 2 minutes.

I agree Fedor Emelianenko is an excellent fighter, very well rounded with a great fighters mindset. But, no one is unbeatable. Even Fedor lost one back in 2000.

Could Couture beat him? The odds are against it, but then the odds were against Serra beating GSP, Couture beating Sylvia and Gonzaga beating Cro Crop. If nothing else I hope that we have all learned that no one is unbeatable, and that includes Fedor.

[/quote]

Randy did not outbox Vitor in their first match, he took him down and beat the shit out of him…I guess his groundboxing was better than Vitor’s