The upcoming bout between Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar has the MMA world buzzing. Dana White has promoted the November 15th at UFC 91 bout as “the biggest fight in UFC history.”
The matchup between an aging, or better yet aged MMA legend and a younger, better known, larger force in Brock Lesnar has the potential to be an ultimate vindication for Couture or the sign of the changing of the guard with a Lesnar victory.
Brock Lesnar is as Frank Mir said, a new and improved version of Randy Couture. He shares a strong wrestling prowess and is bigger, stronger and faster than “The Natural.”
The question of what is more important, MMA experience or straight natural talent is to be answered in this fight.
While Couture is a legend of MMA and has 24 fights under his belt, Lesnar has only three fights to his credit, winning two of them.
So what will be the outcome of this superfight? I cannot say for sure and I don’t believe anyone should honestly say for sure that they can either.
While Randy Couture is undoubtedly the more experienced and wise fighter and will come in with the more accurate game plan, Lesnar will come in with at least a 40 pound weight advantage if not more, 11 years youth and a significant speed advantage.
This fight is difficult for anyone to try and forecast, but I will make a feeble attempt.
If I were a betting man, Lesnar would be an easy pick. As the underdog Lesnar is the smart pick, with his absolute athletic and age advantage. Couture just couldn’t be a wise bet in this fight.
However, I am not a betting man and something deep inside me believes that Randy Couture has enough in him to pull out a victory in this fight.
Randy has proven himself to be a competitor and been doubted before. Tim Sylvia’s size advantage had many doubting Randy before and he proved them wrong then.
I guess I have just bought into what Randy Couture sells, an image of him as the ultimate competitor whose iron will to defeat the best led him to leave the UFC to attempt to fight the world’s best in Fedor Emelianenko.
Many will debate this point and call me a fool, but I believe that Randy Couture’s experience and personal fortitude will enable him to beat Brock Lesnar and set himself up to face the winner of UFC 92’s Interim Heavyweight Championship bout between Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera and Frank Mir.
Call me crazy but something inside of me believes in Randy Couture and I expect him to be facing Minotauro (see my UFC 92 predictions for elaboration) sometime in 2009.
While I have confidence in Randy, I would not be surprised to see Lesnar’s athletic ability prevailing in this fight and encourage all comments and criticisms.
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