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UFC 8/29 Rose Garden in Portland
By Zach Arnold | August 29, 2009
Dark matches
- Middleweights: Nick Catone vs. Mark Munoz
- Heavyweights: Tim Hague vs. Todd Duffee
- Heavyweights: Justin McCully vs. Mike Russow
- Heavyweights: Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Chris Tuchscherer
- Middleweights: Ed Herman vs. Aaron Simpson
Main card
- Light Heavyweights: Brandon Vera vs. Krzysztof Soszynski
- Middleweights: Nathan Marquardt vs. Demian Maia
- Middleweights: Chris Leben vs. Jake Rosholt
- Light Heavyweights: Keith Jardine vs. Thiago Silva
- Heavyweights: Randy Couture vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
Event reports: USA Today | AOL Fanhouse | Jake Rossen | Sherdog | MMA Weekly | MMA Junkie | Steve Cofield | Bryan Alvarez
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 83 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
It looked pretty nasty. What is he in the UFC now, like 4-5?
An hour left on the PPV, and they’re walking in for the three round main event.
I’m betting we have more heavyweights left to go after this.
I just hope that whoever loses doesn’t get hurt or look too bad.
Jeremy, I’m hoping we get to see Gonzaga!
5am in UK. When this ends im off to bed.
8am in Dubai!
Noguiera looks so old
Great first round, but both fighters are shot to shit.
What a round!
I was worried Randy would be KOd for a moment…
Noguiera just cannot move to avoid punches.
Noguiera makes the current version of Sakuraba look fast on his feet.
Both guys still have world class skills (BJJ & wrestling), but physically they are done IMO.
I’m hoping for Gonzaga too, I’m a big fan (not sure why, I feel like he’s one of “my” local guys), and it’s obvious I’m not the only one given the noise at the weigh ins.
Nog vs Couture has delivered in ways that I did not expect it to.
Talk about cheerleading for Randy
lol @ the announcers calling this the real noguiera. I guess Rogan and Goldberg have forgot he was fighting a 46 year old.
Nog is going to win, and they are going to boo him like friggin’ crazy.
With 2 more rounds, we would have seen a finish.
Great fight, but its also sad to watch. Two legends at the end of their careers. I do not want to see Nog against Brock, the man has enough head trauma.
The UFC are becoming the gold standard for putting on fights that are long past their due date.
Nogueira vs. Lesnar/Carwin makes sense now. Nog definitely has some shot reflexes, but that is less of a factor at Heavyweight compared to the lower weight classes.
Very entertaining fight.
Stay classy, Portland.
Nog has no chance against Brock, he was making Couture look like a lightweight on their feet, lucky for him that Couture probably has a more shot chin then he has.
I think Nog losses to Carwin, Mir, Carwin, Velasquez, Cro Cop, Kongo (yes even Kongo). Dos Santos would murder him.
He should retire but he won’t.
I wonder how badly does Couture need the $ to continue to fight, all those divorces add up.
I’m glad Couture and Nogueira both looked good tonight. Neither of them was injured or humiliated.
Having said, I’m a little worried about Couture. Recently he often seems like he’s on the verge of getting knocked out.
Jesus christ, one of the most entertaining fights I could imagine and all the talk we are getting is about business and who should retire?
that was all the talk before the fight so why not expect it afterwards?
didn’t watch the fight, but portland was booing the decision?
It is just annoying is all. Some people truly cannot be satisfied. Nog answered questions about his chin, Randy answered if he is “shot” or not. Nog’s chin is still there and Randy is not done yet.
Dana White is against 5 round non-title fights. Thinks it makes title fights more special.
He did admit that he has seen some fights that he would say in his head that it would be nice to go 5 rounds. But is still against it.
“It is just annoying is all. Some people truly cannot be satisfied. Nog answered questions about his chin, Randy answered if he is “shot” or not. Nog’s chin is still there and Randy is not done yet.”
I can’t speak for anybody else, but personally I really enjoyed the event. That doesn’t stop me from talking about the business side of things.
I did see a good number of people bashing the event about half way through. I do agree that some people are just never happy. Nothing that can be done by those people.
Randy Couture signed a new contract with the UFC TODAY.
28 Months, 6 Fights
By the way, this information coming from the UFC Press Conference going on now.
I can’t imagine Couture actually finishing all those fights up, but it basically means he is locked into the UFC….
The Nogueira-Couture fight was a wildly exciting, hard-fought, gutsy fight. At the same time, it was sad to see just how far both fighters have fallen.
When Couture got knocked down in previous fights, it was against fighters with a lot of power (Liddell, Lesnar). In this fight, he was repeatedly knocked down and almost out, against a man who has never been known to have strong punching power (Nogueira certainly has strong punching technique, but not strong punching power).
As for Nogueira, the lengendary chin that was missing in the Mir fight was back in the Couture fight, but that was about it. In his previous couple of fights and also in the Couture fight, Nogueira’s reflexes were gone, his defense was gone, his head movement was gone, and he was moving like he was underwater. In the Couture fight, even his legendary submission-finishing ability was missing against an opponent who was semi-conscious at the time of the Round 1 submission attempt (and someone like Nogueira losing their submission-finishing ability would be the equivalent of a knockout artist losing their power). The drastically diminished reflexes and movement are far more troubling, though.
So, for me, while it was a very exciting fight to watch, it was also sad to watch.
Quietly slipping under the radar today the UFC has a new distribution method for airing PPVs. UFC launched their iPhone app today. Among its features it lets you view the live PPV stream for their events on the iPhone via wifi or 3G. Costs the same as a PPV on cable/satellite.
Why would anyone pay the same as a PPV Cable/satellite cost to watch a UFC PPV on an Iphone screen? That makes no sense at all.
Lesnar will KO noguiera in 1 round. His done.
Ivan,
I do not think his “chin” was back. Randy doesn’t have KO power at LHW, let alone HW. I think Nog’s camp was right when they said “Couture has no punch”. If Nog fights a true HW and that fighter lands shots on Nog like Randy, it’ll be a short night. For that reason, I think Mir might still beat him.
People who buy iphones have way more money than they’re entitled to already, so maybe Dana’s on the right track.
^^
Nobody ever went broke selling overpriced services to people with more money than sense.