No one escapes Father Time.
Eventually every athlete in every sport wakes up to the reality that their body is no l longer able to keep up. In baseball, it might be a few miles an hour off your fastball. In basketball, it might be not being able to score as consistently. In combat sports, it can mean getting knocked cold from a punch you saw coming and couldn't get out of the way of.
You see as I sit on my couch watching Brett Farve throw touchdown passes I'm forced to think of how different declining speed and reflexes can affect pro athletes. I remember watching when Roy Jones lost his first fight and it was eerily reminiscent of what happened last night with Liddell. He got hit with a punch he may have saw coming and couldn't get out of the way of. He was just a half a second late on his own punch.
Last night, early in the first round, the writing was on the wall. While their was no doubt that Greg Jackson prescribed a great gameplan to beat Chuck, it was Father Time who did most of the work. As Rashad danced and feinted and danced and feinted, I knew it would be a long night for Chuck. Even as the boos rang out from the crowd, Chuck was barely missing punch after punch. Rashad's confidence was growing as he found out Chuck couldn't catch up to him.
Coming out to start the second, Rashad danced and looked to make Chuck chase him, while flurrying with quicker hands during the exchanges. This same kinda gameplan would have got him a nice nap on the canvas of the octagon a few years back. Chuck couldn't deal with the speed and that overhand right ended his latest, and most likely last title bid. He was beat by a similar fighter stylistically, who had youth on his side.
Randy Couture faces a similar dilemma at UFC 91. Similar to Chuck he is the betting favorite, and the pick to win by most experts. Similar to Chuck he fighting a guy with the same base for MMA as he does. He is also facing a guy that will have a sizable advantage in speed, power, and reflexes.
The difference is that the natural decline of reflexes due to age doesn't have to same affect on wrestlers as it does on strikers. I doubt being 45 will have much affect on Randy's Greco/clinchfighting style. The effects that will show however will be in the standup, and in his reaction time to Brock's shots for takedowns.
The best gameplan Randy could utilize would be to try to keep this fight on the ground, and work for a submission. This would nuetrilize some of the physical advantages Brock will have due to his age, size, strength, and speed. Also the longer this fight goes the better chance Randy will have to catch Brock if Brock is unable to go full speed for five full rounds.
For Brock to pull of a upset special ala Rashad Evans, he should look to stand with Randy, and use his extremely quick and powerful hands and not be tempted to go to the ground early with Randy. He should keep the fight standing as long as possible, and only follow Randy to the ground if he has him hurt and looks to finish via ground n pound. He should avoid the clinch as much as possible, and avoid the temptation to simply try to shoot in for a takedown and control Randy for five rounds.
Father Time has called Liddell to let him know his time has passed, but Randy has been given an even longer hourglass. On Nov 15, will the sand finally run out on Couture as well?
8 comments Last one added 10 months ago — Leave a Comment
Jake Dixon 10 months ago
I don't think Chuck saw that punch coming. He was trying to land a right uppercut that barely missed itself and I have to think that he wasn't trying to get out the way or trying to defned on that exchange. It's not so much reflexes that are hurting Chuck, it's bad habits of dropping his hands and being very one dimensonal. That one dimension isn't producing the results it once did and it's showing in his fights.
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Bryan Trafford 10 months ago
Ive heard this one dimensional thing a lot. Its mostly coming from people who haven't fought before. I assure you Chuck's age is costing him much more than his lack of gameplanning. Chuck is getting hit more and more and more and its not because nobody ever knew that he dropped his hands before. He is losing more because he can't pull the trigger on punches quite as fast, and he can't get out of the way of punches as much.
Might help him a bit to keep his hands up, esp at this juncture of his career though.
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Dorothy Willis 10 months ago
Good point about the hands. Was he gassed when he dropped them, or trying to draw Rashad in closer to get a quick strike off? He does look like he has lost his edge no matter what else was going on. At one point it looked like he was standing flat footed just staring at Rashad in surprise, as Rashad let off a flurry of hits. It didn't seem like he covered for the flurry either. Very careless of him.
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Bryan Trafford 10 months ago
Dorothy, he has always dropped his hands, and he got away with it most of the time. As he is getting up in age(38) and he's not as quick anymore that mistake is getting him knocked out. There are plenty of historical examples of guys that had really bad technique and got away with it, hell Muhammed Ali made a living out of keeping his hands down and moving before you could hit him. Just like it caught up with Ali as he aged, Chuck is no different.
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Robert DesRoche 10 months ago
Wait, Brock is an underdog in that fight? How CRAZY. I need to get my dad to bet on this. Or something. That's like free money!
O, and good article. Nice to see a different perspective and I think I agree with you.
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Bryan Trafford 10 months ago
he opened as an underdog, but I'm betting as the fight gets closer that line is gonna change. Also after sat night I bet some of the oddsmakers are gonna have second thoughts. I wouldn't be surprised to see Brock even money or a slight favorite by fight time.
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Fortun Kimura 10 months ago
Ah so this is your article. I purposely ignored it because I knew someone was gonna make some lame excuse of how Lesnar has a huge upper hand in his fight with Couture.
Sure Lesnar is faster, but thats not going to be his greatest strength in this fight. It will be his size.
Even though Couture is getting old he still outboxed Tim Syliva, who's greatest strength was breaking down fighters with his reach.
I think Randy will purposely keep it a boxing match, and if it goes to the ground he will use his wrestling to get in a position to submit the novice Lesnar.
You see that. Thats an opinion Bryan. I didn't say you as a writer were an ignorant nut case did I? I just disagreed with your opinion. Thats how adults talk. Grow up.
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Bryan Trafford 10 months ago
You said I was a WWE fanboy, so your fair game. lol. You could say whatever you want about me because as I said my work speaks for itself. The first thing I ever read that you wrote said Brock Lesnar was just another big wrestler. As if all big wrestlers sucked in MMA before him or something.
Don't assume I'm a Brock Lesnar fan because I think he's better than just another wrestler.
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