By Jim Dower: In last Saturday night’s UFC 102 event at the Rose Garden Arena, in Portland, Oregon, there were a number of fights, both on the undercard and at the top of the card, that turned out to be huge mismatches. Thankfully, the main event between heavyweights Randy Couture and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira went the full three rounds and didn’t fail to impress.
Nogueira, 33, defeated the 46-year-old Couture by a three round decision. However, light heavyweight Keith Jardine was stopped in the 1st round Thiago Silva in a shocking blowout.
Randy Couture vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
In the 1st round, Couture, 46, had some limited success standing up and using his better boxing skills to land some uppercuts and slow hooks. Neither Couture or Nogueira had much ability at stand up fighting and they looked kind of like a couple of guys fighting in a bar or an old John Waybe flick.
Couture was able to land some decent shots, particularly his uppercuts, but his hand speed was so slow that the punches didn’t have much power in them. A short period into the round, Nogueira knocked Couture down with a right hand. Nogueira then jumped on Couture and began to try and chock him out. However, Couture broke his hold at got back after being chocked on for close to a minute.
Back in the stand up, Couture mainly jabbed and looked red faced from being chocked for so long. Although in good shape, his body looked like a fighter in his 50s. He looked kind of old. Nogueira landed a few decent combinations, but he looked really slow and not all that good of a puncher for a fighter his size. Both of them looked tight, like a couple of wrestlers trying a sport that they weren’t designed for. Nogueira was cut above his left eye and Couture developed some swelling under his right eye.
In the 2nd round, Nogueira landed a good right hand to the head of Couture early on. Couture fell down and Nogueira got on top of him and tried toi take him out with another choke hold. Just when Couture looked like he was a goner, he did relaxed for a second and then did a reversal to get on top of Nogueira and escape.
Back in the center of the round, Nogueira got the better of Couture by landing some single shots to the head. Couture did well at one point by grabbing Nogueira’s head with his right hand and nailing him three times with his left. It was dirty, but it’s normal for MMA.
Couture was knocked down at the start of the 3rd round by a left-right combination from Nogueira. While Couture was down, he was hit by a six straight right hands from Nogueira. It looked as if the referee was going to step in and stop fight. However, he let it continue and Couture continued to stay on the bottom for the minute eating punches. Nogueira worked his way up fight on Couture’s chest and was able to control him better in that position. Somehow, though, Couture worked his way on top and had a brief period of success before Nogueira escaped to his feet as the fight ended.
Nogueira ended up winning by a decision on all three of the judges’ score cards.
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Keith Jardine vs. Thiago Silva
light heavyweight Keith Jardine landed a nice right hand in the 1st round. Jardine then fell down after landing a kick to the body of Silva. Jardine got to his feet and fired off a three punch combination. Silva fired back a big left hand that dropped Jardine on the mat. Silva then stood over Jardine and nailed him with a big left hand and two rights that knocked Jardine out cold. The bout was then stopped by referee Herb Dean at 1:35.
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