“Buy This Show”
This month marks my five-year writing anniversary. I began with wrestlingobserver.com and have since added f4wonline.com to my resume as my main hubs. I’ve also started an online radio program, Five Star Radio (found at f4wonline.com) and have generally been pretty pleased with how my little “career” has turned out. I’ve been to shows all over the world, from L.A. to Vegas from Chicago to Hong Kong. Along the way I’ve met various industry professionals, and some of those guys – people I truly respect – have paid me some pretty nice compliments. Like I said, I like how things have gone so far and I hope all of you have enjoyed what I’ve had to say. There’ve been times when I was completely wrong (“There’s no way Fedor’s going to beat Nogueira”) and a few times when I was completely right (“There’s no way CroCop’s going to beat Nogueira”). All in all, I hope I’ve built up some good will with folks over the years. And, like everyone with a chit in hand, I want to cash in.
Buy the UFC PPV this Saturday.
If you’ve never seen MMA in your life but have had anything approximating curiosity, buy this show.
If you ever played a sport, buy this show.
If you regularly watch sports, buy this show.
If you have any sense of history, buy this show.
If you ever dreamed of doing something great in life, buy this show.
Just buy this damn show.
You’ve heard it a hundred times by now, “At 44 years old, Randy Couture is the Ultimate Fighting Championship Heavyweight Champion.” Maybe you’ve had Spike TV on in the background and heard Joe Rogan scream, “That man is my hero.” That wasn’t a canned line, it was a spontaneous outburst of emotion that damn near everyone agreed with. People may find faults with Rogan but he encapsulated that moment perfectly. (For the record, Rogan actually said that the first time Couture proved to be a freak – following his LHW victory of Chuck Liddell at UFC 43, 06/06/03.)(Yeah, he’s been wowing people for a while.) As an aside, I also believe that line is probably the definitive call in MMA history, which is saying a lot as the young sport has had some fantastic announcers.
Yada yada, Couture is a multi-time champion, he was a world class Greco-Roman wrestler, he can strike, he can wrestle, and he hasn’t been tapped in years. Yada. Yada. That’s all true, but I’m not asking ya’ll to buy a PPV just to see a great heavyweight fighter. You are, but that’s not why I’m asking you to buy.
I won’t promise that this PPV will be a good one. On paper, it’s an excellent show, and I suspect many of the fights will be entertaining: if it airs, many are anticipating Guida-Aurelio will be action packed; Joe Stevenson and Kurt Pelligrino could have an entertaining back and forth battle; Roger Huerta is an up and coming Hispanic sensation that’s riding a 9-fight win streak; Georges St. Pierre hasn’t had a dull fight during his entire UFC tenure (his opponent, Josh Koscheck, on the other hand…). Still, there are no guarantees, and everything could go wrong and the show could suck. Such is life.
I don’t promise that Randy is going to win. His opponent, Gabriel Gonzaga, is bigger, stronger, younger, hungrier, probably better on his feet and definitely better on the ground. The reason Randy left the HW division was because he couldn’t compete with enormous ground masters and that’s the exact definition of Gonzaga.
I don’t promise you’re going to get a good feeling watching Couture compete. He might get hurt – badly. This is a combat sport and people in their 40s are simply going to be at a higher risk of harm than those in their 20s. There’s a serious chance that Gonzaga might knock out Randy, or get on top and ground and pound a suddenly old looking Couture into submission. There’s a real possibility that you’ll see Couture look enfeebled and the night concludes with everyone feeling kind of sad. Yes, time and time again The Natural has defied the odds and given the MMA world moments that will forever be etched in time. Randy will enter the Octagon with every single person in attendance, except Gonzaga and his corner (and even some of them may secretly be rooting for Couture), cheering him to victory. But, a guy who made a career out of writing fairy-tale endings could find he’s out of paper.
I don’t promise you’re going to see the absolute best fighter on the planet. Fedor Emelianenko immediately comes to everyone’s mind when the term, “Best Heavyweight” is mentioned. Randy Couture isn’t The Man.
So, why, despite the chances that the show could be boring and one of the sport’s most legendary figures may be beaten to a bloody pulp, do I tell people to buy this show?
Because Randy Couture is A Man.
He isn’t a demi-god. He isn’t a supernatural force of nature. He doesn’t win fights with flashy high-kicks or amazing flying armbars. He’s a human being: flesh and blood, tears and sweat, joy and heartache. He makes mistakes. He loses fights he shouldn’t. He gets beaten and made to look irrelevant. And that is why his accomplishments are so remarkable. It’s hard to identify with the man who never loses and never looks anything but perfect. I don’t know about you, but I know I’ve made my fair share of errors in life. But most of us have been knocked down and most of us have struggled to our feet. Couture is the guy that struggles to his feet. He is an inspiration precisely because he does things that are within reason. He behaves to a standard that we can all shoot for because we can all reach the level he has set. No, you and I are most likely not going to be the UFC HW champion, but we can all find within ourselves the force of will necessary to be our best. Some fighters are better than their opponents, but not the best they can be (see: BJ Penn). Randy Couture is the best he can be. When you watch on Saturday, and I hope everyone does, you’re watching a man that has truly gotten everything out of what he was given. What talents he was born with, Couture has maximized them all. That’s why I’m in such awe of Randy.
But that main reason you should watch is because he just isn’t going to be around that much longer. I know the following is a bit extreme, but go with it. When a loved one dies, people frequently say, “I really wish I’d made better use of the time we had together.” Well, I pray Randy isn’t going to die anytime soon, and watching him fight isn’t like spending time with someone you’re close to, but he is going to retire. We don’t know when, but the calendar says it has to be sooner rather than later. When that day comes, that’s it. No more chances for magic. No more first round knockdowns of 6’8 champions. No more stunning upsets of, well, basically everyone. Randy will retire and he’ll never fight again. Don’t be the guy that, in a few years, looks back and says, “You know, I really wish I’d ordered that PPV.” When he won the title this past March, Randy gave the sport’s world a moment so special that it’s one of the primary reasons outlets like ESPN and Sports Illustrated have begun covering MMA. It wasn’t till after he’d won that people realized what had just happened and an awful lot of folks felt foolish for not watching live.
People should watch because 50 years from now they’ll regret it if they don’t. Randy fights aren’t like normal MMA contests. They’re less likely to withstand the test of time and a few years from now, only people who watched him fight live will understand how great the fights truly were. Those unlucky enough to only watch via recording will watch and say, “OK, he won, but this wasn’t an all action war, what’s the big deal?”
There are some athletes you should watch just to see something magical: Babe Ruth, Michael Jordon, Wayne Gretzky. There are athletes that will forever be remembered, that have transcended their sports and become part of the world’s consciousness. Randy Couture is going to be “that guy” for MMA. When it’s all said and done, I don’t think he’ll be remembered as the greatest fighter who ever lived (though that case can certainly be made), but Couture may be the most inspirational and memorable.
It’s really easy to blow off the idea that fighting means something in the grand scheme of things, but it actually does. On the surface, MMA is just mindless entertainment, there to distract us and take our minds off the “real world” for a few hours. But I think most of us know that’s not the whole story. If that’s all there was to sports, we wouldn’t get angry when we hear the news about Michael Vick, and we wouldn’t smile when we think about the “Miracle on Ice.” Sports ARE a part of life and they can be an important part at that.
At forty-four years of age, Randy “The Natural” Couture is going to defend the UFC Heavyweight Championship. The moment he steps into the Octagon, Couture will have done something no one has ever done and something no one may ever replicate. This Saturday, everyone has a chance to witness history.
That is why I ask that you watch.
I want to dedicate this column to Nilton Fernandes. Nilton passed away five years ago this month. He was a tremendous writer for wrestlingobserver.com. He loved pro wrestling and displayed a tremendous wit about and insight into the business. Hope all is well, Nilton. We miss ya. {plug}
Send us a news tip: newstips@wrestlingobserver.com
Note to webmasters/reporters: When recapping news from this site or from our newsletters, please include a link to www.wrestlingobserver.com
For the most in-depth and detailed news and analysis on pro-wrestling and MMA, always turn to Wrestlingobserver.com/Figure Four Weekly Online, the #1 website of its kind on the Internet. Members receive online access to both the Wrestling Observer and Figure Four Weekly newsletters and growing archives, Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer three times per week, the popular Bryan and Vinny Show twice per week, additional radio shows including Figure Four Daily with Alvarez, Mike Coughlin's Five Star Radio, the Dr. Keith Lipinski Show, The Adam and Mike Big Audio Nightmare, Tough Talk and the Karl Stern Wrestling History Show, the infamous BOARD, and more! Members also have full access to the thousands of hours of audio in our radio show archives which date back to 2005. For your convenience, we offer secure online payments using your VISA, Mastercard, American Express, Discover card or PayPal account. Don't miss out on the fun, sign up now! Don\'t miss out on the fun, sign up now!
Want full access? QUICK AND EASY $10.99 SIGNUP!
