UFC 129 Fight Card: Randy Couture's Career in 15 Defining Moments

Not to get all black-and-white-movie on you, but watching a guy like Randy Couture ride off into the sunset sure does conjure up the feelings.

After all, Couture, who is reportedly hanging up his MMA gloves after fighting Lyoto Machida at UFC 129, is nicknamed "The Natural" and "Captain America." You don't get those names because you were an unpopular ne'er-do-well.

He's the Brett Favre of MMA (before Favre lost his mind, anyway). He is beloved among peers, MMA brass and hardcore and casual fans alike, and that's all there is to it.  He's the kind of athlete and personality that requires the existence of things like halls of fame.

In any case, here are Couture's top 15 career-defining moments. As with most any career retrospective, this one depicts wins and losses, good and bad and moments in and out of the cage. The full arc.

That said, this list is not subjective. It is definitively right, and there's nothing you can say about it. 

Just kidding...feel free to have at it in the comments if you like. And please enjoy.

Don't forget to stay with Bleacher Report for the latest news, analysis and updates from UFC 129: St-Pierre vs. Shields.

15. James Toney

What: Randy Couture vs. James Toney
Where: UFC 118: Edgar vs. Penn 2, Boston
When: Aug. 28, 2010
Why: MMA wins this round

Toney tried his darnedest. And by "tried his darnedest," I mean "dressed a Couture action figure in a dress because he was too out of breath to actually talk trash."

But it was to no avail. Couture toyed with Toney for almost a full round before mercifully choking him out. And thus ended the latest round of the MMA vs. boxing debate. Though in the end this fight was a bit of a laugher, it might have been the biggest departure yet from the sideshow circuit where many of these inter-sport fights have tended to reside.

14. 1996 Olympic Wrestling Team Alternate

That's Couture on the right, wrestling Greg Gibson during a 2000 Olympics qualifying match. Photo credit: Oregon Live

What:  1996 Summer Olympics
Where: Atlanta, Ga.
When:  1996
Why:  Maybe he had a career in this combat-sports thing.

Couture parlayed his alternate spot on the Olympic wrestling team into a coaching position at Oregon State, which he in turn used as a training springboard to something called the UFC.

13. First Title

What: Randy Couture vs. Maurice Smith
Where: UFC Japan, Yokohama, Japan
When: Dec. 21, 1997
Why: He puts the gold around his waist.

In one 21-minute round, Couture out-grappled champion Maurice Smith to get his first taste of ultimate victory in mixed martial arts.  

12. The Ultimate Fighter Season 1

What: The Ultimate Fighter, Season One
Where:  Las Vegas, Nev.
When: Jan. 17-April 9, 2005
Why:  The start of the TUF franchise and a new era for the UFC

Given that it's now in its 13th incarnation, it's easy to forget that The Ultimate Fighter started off as a fourth-down Hail Mary for the then-moribund UFC. 

But the show on Spike TV gave MMA and the UFC a larger platform than it ever had before, and as such helped bring the sport and its fighters into an unprecedented number of living rooms. On the show's first season, Couture coached opposite Chuck Liddell. One of Captain America's charges, some guy named Stephan Bonnar, would go on to lose by a whisker to Forrest Griffin in a three-round war that, six years later, is still regarded as the best and most important fight in UFC history.

It also set the stage for Couture-Liddell II, which kind of drew some attention of its own.

11. Winning Back the Belt

Photo credit: Susumu's Gallery

What: Randy Couture vs. Kevin Randleman
Where: UFC 28: High Stakes, Atlantic City, N.J.
When: Nov. 17, 2000
Why: Couture returns to the UFC, and the champion's lounge. 

In 1998, Couture was stripped of the UFC heavyweight title after leaving for what were then the greener pastures of Japan. He returned at UFC 28, where he won back his belt by stopping Kevin Randleman in the third stanza.

10. Coming Up Short in the King's Court

Photo credit: Bling Cheese

What: Randy Couture vs. Valentijn Overeem
Where:  King of Kings 2000 Tournament Semifinal, Tokyo, Japan
When: Feb. 24, 2001
Why: Maybe the grass isn't so green over there after all.

Sandwiched around the Randleman fight, Couture participated in several matches as part of the RINGS promotion's King of Kings tournament. After fighting and winning twice on Oct. 9, Couture won his quarterfinal bout Feb. 24 before losing by first-round submission that same night to Valentijn "Alistair's Brother" Overeem.

Afterward, Couture lamented the tournament format for his inability to gameplan in advance for every opponent. As you know, gameplanning and strategy is something that is just a little bit important for Couture. 

In hindsight, this loss might have driven him back to the UFC for good, as he never fought for another promotion after losing to Overeem.

9. Lesnar's Lunchboxes

Photo Credit: Los Angeles Times

What: Randy Couture vs. Brock Lesnar
Where: UFC 91: Couture vs. Lesnar, Las Vegas, Nev.
When: Nov. 15, 2008
Why: Couture loses the title and a torch is passed.

As everyone now knows, this didn't exactly signify that Lesnar was The Man at heavyweight, but it did show that perhaps Couture and some of the other old lions were finally ready to give way to the new garde. Couture put up a valiant effort, but Lesnar controlled most of the fight and eventually pounded out the champion to earn the heavyweight title.

Even so, Couture was humorous and humble in defeat (just as he is in victory), assessing the pounding he had just taken underneath Lesnar's 4x gloves as thus: "those are some big-ass ham hocks coming at you."

That is an accurate statement.

8. Contract Dispute with the UFC

Photo credit: MMATKO

What: Randy Couture vs. Dana White
Where:  All over the globe
When: Oct. 11, 2007-Sept. 2, 2008
Why:  Who really knows?

Remember, this isn't a list of his best moments, necessarily, but a list of his career-defining ones.

The reason Couture repeatedly gave in public for the departure was his frustration over the UFC's inability to sign Fedor Emelianenko, who at the time was the unquestioned best heavyweight in mixed martial arts. The dispute sidelined Couture for nearly a year.

7. The Battles with Belfort

Photo credit: 411 Mania

What: Randy Couture vs. Vitor Belfort III
Where: UFC 49: Unfinished Business, Las Vegas, Nev.
When: Aug. 21, 2004
Why: His second most celebrated fight trilogy.

His trilogy with The Iceman is more celebrated, but The Natural had a pretty good three-fight war with The Phenom as well.  

Couture defeated Belfort in their first meeting back in 1997. Seven years later, he lost the light heavyweight belt to Belfort on a TKO. But only seven months passed before the rubber match, which Couture won by doctor stoppage to reclaim the strap.

6. Winning UFC 13 Heavyweight Tournament

Photo Credit: FC Fighter.com

What: Randy Couture vs. Steven Graham
Where: UFC 13: The Ultimate Force, Augusta, Ga.
When: May 30, 1997
Why: A star is born.

Wow...this guy is OLD.

That night in the Peach State, the spry 33-year-old finished Ludvig Borga and Graham, both in the first round, to capture the tournament title, and the infant world of MMA was put on notice.

5. Dropping Tim Sylvia

What: Randy Couture vs. Tim Sylvia
Where: UFC 68: The Uprising, Columbus, Ohio
When: Nov. 15, 2008
Why: The old man makes one more title run.

Call it Couture's Jack Nicklaus in 1986 moment. 

He was 43 when he came out of retirement and made one more improbably run at the strap. Just hanging with young buck Sylvia—a man who seriously outweighed and out-heighted him—would have sufficed. But noooooo. Captain America had to out-wrestle him for 25 minutes and win the heavyweight title—his fifth championship run in the UFC. 

The GIF above is the fight's defining moment. In MMA parlance, what you are watching is one man dumping another man on his bee-hind.

4. Spanking Tito Ortiz

What: Randy Couture vs. Tito Ortiz
Where: UFC 44: Undisputed, Las Vegas, Nev.
When: Sept. 26, 2003
Why: Tito was a bad Bad Boy.

This was not only a moment that defined Couture. It was a moment that defined the future of MMA.

Couture doesn't seem to have intended it this way, but when he spanked Ortiz, it was a sign that the good guy was still the sheriff in town. That respect for one's opponent still meant something, and that petulance would not go unpunished.

I know those are lofty words, and perhaps a little on the purple side, but I do feel strongly about this one.

One of the great things about the MMA community is how (for the most part) everyone respects everyone else at the end of the day. That ethos is embodied by Randy Couture, and Randy Couture embodied it when he slapped The Bad Boy's ass in front of millions of fans. Who's your daddy?

Oh, and he won the UFC light heavyweight title. Again.

3-1. the Liddell Trilogy

What: Randy Couture vs. Chuck Liddell
Where: UFC 43, UFC 52, UFC 57
When: June 6, 2003; April 16, 2005; Feb. 4, 2006
Why:  Only the greatest series of fights in UFC history. 

I didn't separate them because I think they are best considered as a whole. It's the same reason you don't read The Two Towers on its own.

I don't care what Spike TV voters said in that ridiculous rankings show last year. In my book, with the exception of Griffin/Bonnar I, these were the greatest fights of the UFC's "modern era." As we know, Liddell took two of the three battles, but MMA fans won the war.

Of course, it was after his 2006 defeat at the hands of Liddell that Couture retired for the first time, famously saying "this is the last time you'll see me in these gloves and these shorts in this Octagon, because I'm retiring." 

We all know how that panned out.