Couture vs. Coleman: Geezers Get Ready to Slug it Out in UFC 109

Share on Facebook posted 02-05-10 by John George

The main event in tomorrow night’s Ultimate Fighting Championship 109 features two of the sport’s oldest active fighters facing each other in the cage. Randy “The Natural” Couture (17-10-0), a spry young 46, will face Mark “The Hammer” Coleman (16-9-0), who is only 45. The event will be broadcast live on pay per view from Las Vegas.

Both fighters are members of the UFC Hall of Fame. Couture is still one of the most popular fighters in the sport, and he’s the only man to have held championship titles in both the division’s heavyweight and light heavyweight divisions. Coleman is truly one of the UFC’s pioneers, having shown the ability of wrestlers to dominate in the MMA cage. He also helped pioneer the “ground-and-pound” technique.

Couture edges Vera
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Couture is a very smart fighter who usually develops and follows excellent game plans for each of his fights. He usually finds a way to win. He’s also somewhat of a boring fighter. He uses his superlative Greco-Roman wrestling skills to clinch with his opponents, push them against the cage and beat them up with “dirty boxing.” It’s kind of a standing version of ground-and-pound, and I’ve never really found it very fun to watch. His last fight, in which he won a debatable decision victory against Brandon Vera, was an absolute snoozefest.

Coleman started his career off ripping through the UFC like a tornado, but he never developed into the caliber of fighter that Couture is. He was actually one of my favorite fighters early in his career. I remember watching him bulldoze his opponents in the mid 1996 and early 1997, including dominant guys like Dan Severn and Don Frye, and thinking how amazing and invincible he looked.

Coleman’s first loss came at the hands of kickboxer Maurice Smith, who was able to survive The Hammer’s early onslaught and commence to kicking the crap out of Coleman’s leg. The wrestler seemed to have no answer at all to the kicks, and he ultimately lost a decision after a grueling 21-minute fight.

Coleman lost his next fight as well, falling prey to a head kick from Pete Williams that resulted in a spectacular knockout. This was also a fairly long fight for Coleman, going 12:38, and it was the first fight that showed him getting very tired. From that fight on, Coleman’s stamina has always been a bit suspect.

After losing his third consecutive fight in the UFC, this time to Pedro Rizzo, Coleman moved on to the Pride fighting championships in Japan, where he was a staple for much of the late 1990s and into 2006, when that organization was bought by the UFC and became defunct.

Coleman came back into the UFC in January 2009, where he made his light heavyweight debut, facing fellow Pride veteran Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. Somehow, this fight garnered “Fight of the Night” honors. Maybe it was because of how unbelievably ridiculous it was. My buddy and I literally laughed until tears were streaming down our faces.

Facing Rua, Coleman looked like he had the flu. Even before the bout started, Coleman stumbled into the ring, eyes wide open like saucers, seeming like he had no idea where he was. Once the fight started, looked like he was fighting in slow motion with stiff, jerky movements. We started calling him “Frankencoleman” for his resemblance to the monster. Rua looked ridiculous as well, for needing three full rounds to put Frankencoleman away. Rua won by technical knockout at 4:38 of the third round.

Coleman acquitted himself much better in his next UFC fight, which was against the always-game Stephen Bonnar. Coleman won a deserved decision, and he looked quite a bit more peppy. He must have taken his Geritol the morning of the fight.

Facing Couture, I think Coleman has more than he can handle. Randy’s base is wrestling, but he has really sharpened and polished all aspects of his game. He’s also an excellent boxer, and he’s developed decent submissions. Coleman never really got beyond his ground-and-pound. He’s not much of striker from the standing position and he’s proven vulnerable to jiu jitsu attacks. He often seems to miss opportunities to use submissions himself.

I think Randy will be able to prevent Coleman from taking him down, and I think The Natural will use his superior boxing to knock The Hammer out. I see it coming late in the first or in the second round. I don’t know if it will be a battle for the ages, but it’ll definitely be a battle of the aged. Watch some videos here of each fighter in his prime!