Who do you think Randy Couture fights next? Is it at Light Heavyweight?
Anonymous
Thanks for the question. It’s definitely going to be at Light Heavyweight — Randy Couture is much too small for the Heavyweight Division unless you’re a James Toney. He definitely wants to make one last run for the title, but he really has some harsh competition.
You have young budding superstars like Ryan Bader and Jon Jones, along with the cream of the crop in Shogun Rua, Rashad Evans, Rampage Jackson, Lyoto Machida, Forrest Griffin, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Thiago Silva. I have huge doubts that he’ll face any of the above any time soon.
My guess is that he’ll be facing Rich Franklin, or the winner between Matt Hamill and Tito Ortiz. He gets through one of these guys, bring on the top contenders. “The Natural” is getting old, but he still has a lot left in the tank.
Another great UFC card in the books with UFC 118. You got to see some great grappling, a stand up scrap, and just pure MMA. It was a good mix of everything except a good knockout, but in true MMA fashion we some great submissions. I’m still heartbroken about the BJ Penn loss, but I won’t make that ruin the whole card in general. Here are my results for the event and don’t forget to check out the “Community Prediction Results” at the bottom:
1. Frankie Edgar dominated BJ Penn everywhere — again!
Wow. I definitely didn’t expect that. I thought BJ Penn was going to go into that fight with a totally different game plan of going after Frankie Edgar and working his ground game. He definitely tried that in the later rounds, but he should have done more in the earlier rounds. Now, Frankie Edgar definitely did amazing, you can’t take that away. He played his game and showed some awesome wrestling takedowns and crisp boxing. I love BJ Penn and it was just hard to watch the fight. He lost decisively.
(-1) Prediction: BJ Penn over Frankie Edgar
2. Randy Couture shows James Toney the full MMA experience
Did anyone really think anything else was going to happen? Randy Couture goes for the low single leg takedown, then proceeds to mount James Toney. A few ground and pound punches here and there before he snaps on an arm triangle choke. The full MMA experience for Toney’s MMA debut. I’m just happy this is over and we can get to real MMA, and it’ll be interesting who Couture fights next. Rich Franklin?
There are three interesting story lines coming into UFC 118. First, will Frankie Edgar repeat and retain his title or will BJ Penn come back stronger than ever before? Second, who will be the #1 contender in the Lightweight Division? Lastly third, what will James Toney do against Randy Couture? If that doesn’t get you excited for this Saturday, I don’t know what will. I can’t wait and here are my predictions:
1. BJ Penn imposes a “Jens Pulver” game plan and dominates
BJ Penn will catch up with the speed of Frankie Edgar. Instead of seeing Edgar bounce around and pepper Penn with combos, Penn will close the distance / grab a hold of Edgar and impose the “Jens Pulver” game plan. Penn is the naturally bigger fighter and he needs to use it to smother Edgar. Whether it’s in the clinch, against the cage, or on the ground — Penn needs to dictate where the fight goes. When it gets to the ground, Edgar will be swarmed by Penn’s limbs and gets caught in a rear-naked choke. Add Edgar to the list of Kenny Florian, Joe Stevenson, Jens Pulver, Matt Hughes, and Takanori Gomi.
Prediction: BJ Penn over Frankie Edgar via rear-naked choke (submission)
2. Randy Couture will take James Toney to school - MMA 101
This one is easy. Bell rings — Randy Couture walks up to James Toney with hands held high and punches a bit until he clinches. From that point, he pushes Toney into the cage where he eventually is taken down. Once on the ground, Couture advances into mount and reigns down elbows and punches. Text book MMA.
Prediction: Randy Couture over James Toney via TKO
Anonymous
