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Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Taneo: The Iceman cometh once again
By Paul J. Taneo
Free-for-all
In all the excitement of Manny Pacquiao vs. Erik Morales and the rest of Mexico, we missed Randy Couture -- Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell 3 in UFC 57.
Ok, as belated as this is, we won’t hold it up much longer — Liddell regained his light-heavyweight title the same way he took it from Couture: by knockout. It took Liddell an extra round to do it this time. Official time of Liddell’s win is 1:28 of round two.
The match started with both fighters circling, unwilling to commit. Couture, with his arms held high to protect his head, lands a rather weak one-two punch combination. Liddell lets go of some jabs and hits Couture with a leg kick. Liddell comes back with a right punch to the face of Couture, wobbling the challenger somewhat. He comes in looking for a finish but Couture, nose bleeding, takes him down to the mat. Liddell quickly gets right back up.
The second round starts likes the first, with Couture going after Liddell, countering the latter’s stronger strikes. Couture then shoots but Liddell tags him with a short strong right. As Couture falls, Liddell, standing on Couture’s left side, rains down blows before referee John McCarthy orders a stop to the fight.
Liddell crowed in the post-fight conference: “We knew Randy was gonna try to make me over-commit,” said Liddell. “But you stand in front of me for that long, eventually one will get through.”
While the winner basked in his glory, the loser realized his mortality and declared: “I’m retiring tonight. This is it for me. I feel blessed to have been able to come in here and compete.”
Couture, 43, leaves the mixed-martial-arts world with a lot of good memories (titles in the heavyweight and light-heavyweight divisions) and good money. UFC president Dana White said that last year, Couture earned up to $2.7 million on prize money, film roles and product endorsements.
To MMA fans, Couture represents the overachieving outsider. Trained in Greco-Roman wrestling, Couture learned enough MMA techniques and kept in excellent shape to earn a career 14-8-0 win-loss-draw record.
Starting at age 34, he had fought many of the best fighters in two weight divisions and won over them: Vitor Belfort (twice), Maurice Smith, Jeremy Horn, Kevin Randleman, Tsuyoshi Kosaka, Pedro Rizzo (twice), Tito Ortiz and of course, Liddell.
As much as we want to watch a supreme athlete in action, we have few regrets (presumably, so does Couture) as it was obvious Couture was stretching his limits and luck for far too long. Safety first it must be, ironically, in the high-risk arena of blood sport.
So, a post-Valentines farewell to you, Mr. Randy Couture, sir. Find peace and fewer injuries in retirement.
OTHER RESULTS. The other fight results are: Keith Jardine over Mike Whitehead by unanimous decision, Jeff Monson over Branden Lee Hinkle (submission by arm choke in 4:35 of Round 1), Paul Buentello over Gilbert Aldana (strikes, 2:27 R2), Alessio Sakara over Elvis Sinosic (UD), Joe Riggs over Nick Diaz by (UD), Renato Sobral over Mike Van Arsdale (submission, rear-naked choke 2:21 RD 1), Marcio Cruz over Frank Mir (TKO strikes, 4:10 R1) and Brandon Vera over Justin Eilers (KO, 1:25 R1).
While on March 4 will be another UFC extravaganza: UFC 58 - USA vs. Canada.
The complete card: Rich Franklin vs. David Loiseau, Georges St-Pierre vs. BJ Penn, John Alessio vs. Diego Sanchez, Joe Doerksen vs. Nathan Marquardt, Steve Vigneault vs. Mike Swick, Mark Hominick vs. Yves Edwards, Sam Stout vs. Kenny Florian, Rob MacDonald vs. Jason Lambert and Christophe Midoux vs. Tom Murphy.
Six days later will be the Shamrock vs. Gracie MMA tournament. The highlight is the fight between former UFC middleweight champion Frank Shamrock and Brazilian jiujitsu stylist Cesar Gracie. To make his MMA debut is undefeated world 185-pound San Shou champion and four-time K-1 Superfight winner, Cung Le. Josh “The Punk” Thomson is also in the card with Eugene
“The Wolf” Jackson and Gracie student Gilbert Melendez.
(paulotaneo@yahoo.com)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (February 15, 2006 issue)
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