UFC 129 Results: Lyoto Machida Plays Spoiler To Randy Couture's Retirement Party

It was not how we all wanted to see Hall of Fame fighter Randy Couture to go out.

It was however, a spoiling of epic proportions for Lyoto Machida.

It was quite evident right from the get-go that this was going to be a tough go for The Natural as Machida looked quicker, crisper, technically sharper, and frankly younger in the early going of the fight.

When Couture did close the distance without getting one of Machida's quick straight strikes, or his famous counter Muay Thai knees for his troubles, Machida threw him off like he was simply a mere nuisance.

I was settling in for this to be the theme of the night when Lyoto started to feint and twitch those slick karate legs of his.

You knew it was just a matter of time before something explosive was going to come out of those twitches.

Machida sized Randy up, distanced him and delivered a beautiful jumping front kick to the button, snapping Couture's head back and sending him sprawling to his back.

The kick was all that was needed to be the ultimate spoiler, and the jam packed crowd was awed, stunned and silenced for a moment.

The crowd sitting around me was saddened for Couture's fate, and delighted that we had seen such an epic knockout in person all at the same time. It was fantastic

It was commented that it was similar to the Anderson Silva kick on Vitor Belfort and was also oddly intriguing in the fact that Machida came out to the ring with Steven Seagal as Silva did, and credited Seagal for his kick knockout in his post fight interview with Joe Rogan.

Is Steven Seagal responsible for spoiling Randy Couture's retirement party? If that's the case I say he doesn't retire and we book Couture vs Seagal right now. I'm joking of course.

Machida needed a win like this. He needed a statement performance to stay relevant in a promotion overloaded with talented fighters.

It's too bad it came at the expense of the American Mixed Martial Arts legend, and somewhat spoiled the most deserved and probably the most attended retirement party of all time.