LAS VEGAS — Younger, bigger, stronger, faster. Brock Lesnar ran the table at UFC 91.
The 6-foot-3, 275-pounder left 45-year-old Randy (The Natural) Couture crumpled in his wake late Saturday night in front of a near sellout of 14,272 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. The UFC heavyweight champion gave it his all before giving up his title via second-round TKO to Lesnar (3-1).
Lesnar, 31, won the heavyweight crown in his fourth mixed martial arts fight. Couture did the same thing 11 years ago when he beat Maurice Smith but mixed martial arts was in its infancy then.
Most fighters are nowhere near the UFC after four fights, but Lesnar is different, an imposing physical specimen with a background that includes an NCAA wrestling title and time in the WWE.
“Brock is an amazing athlete and such a big guy,” UFC president Dana White said. “So far he’s gotten by on athleticism and size. As he continues to grow as a fighter and gets more technical, God knows what this guy’s going to do.”
The fight ended when Lesnar caught Couture (16-9) with a right hand behind the ear. A stunned Couture went down — “Next thing I know I was on the ground, eating leather” — and Lesnar pounced, delivering more than two dozen hammer-fists and punches until referee Mario Yamasaki stepped in three minutes seven seconds into the round.
Yamasaki would have done Couture a favour by stopping it earlier, though Couture seemed fine after the fight other than some facial lumps and abrasions.
‘WHY WOULD HE STOP?’
“The rules of engagement are that you punch a guy in the head,” Couture said. “Until the referee steps in and stops the fight, why would he stop punching me in the head?”
Couture, at 6-2 and 220 pounds, was giving up 14 years, at least 50 pounds and six inches in reach. He also hadn’t fought for 15 months.
The fight may have signalled the latest changing of the MMA guard.
Former light-heavyweight champion Chuck (The Iceman) Liddell, Couture’s onetime nemesis, is 38 and has lost three of his last four fights. Couture was beaten coming out of his second retirement.
Today’s champions are younger and essentially learned mixed martial arts as a whole rather than coming out of one discipline.
Montreal’s Georges St. Pierre (welterweight champion) is 27, B.J. Penn (lightweight) 29 and Anderson Silva (middleweight) 33.
“Brock is a great indication of where the heavyweight division is going,” Couture said. “We’re getting these guys that aren’t just big guys. They’re very good athletes.”
The big man was cut by the right eye in the second as Couture caught him as they separated from a clinch.
“Right away, it made me a little nervous,” he said of the cut. “But then it pissed me off. I wanted to get first blood on Randy. Any time you fight, you want to get first blood. Something in my head just went ‘All right, we’ve got to pick this up.’ And that’s what I did.”
There was almost an element of good versus evil in the buildup to the fight with fans wildly cheering any glimpse of Couture while booing Lesnar.
“Over the next however long Brock commands the heavyweight division, I’m sure people will start to take to him,” White said. “If you don’t like him, eventually you’ll have to respect him.”
Lesnar will meet the winner of a December fight between Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Frank Mir. His preferred opponent is Mir, a former heavyweight champion who submitted him in his UFC debut in February.
Lesnar got emotional at the post-fight news conference when asked what winning meant to him.
“My first NCAA title meant a lot to me, but this, I never expected this in my wildest dream. I don’t know even what to say.”
In the co-main event, lightweight Kenny Florian choked out Joe (Daddy) Stevenson in the first round.
Canadian lightweight Mark Bocek (6-2) scored a third-round submission win over Alvin (Kid) Robinson. http://www.winnipegsun.com/Sports/OtherSports/2008/11/17/7435566-sun.html
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