The Rear Naked Column 09.23.09: Fallen Heroes (Part 1)

Posted by Samer Kadi on 09.23.2009

Four of the sport’s biggest legends have continued their fall from grace in 2009, with Chuck Liddell, Wanderlei Silva, Randy Couture and Mirko Cro Cop all suffering yet another defeat. With younger, faster, hungrier fighters continuously bursting on to the scene, do they have a place in the Octagon still? Join 411’s Samer Kadi as he breaks down the future of these all time greats in the first of this two part series.

UFC 103 saw Mirko Cro Cop –once considered the most feared striker in MMA– turn in an absolutely pitiful performance as he was dominated by Brazilian rising star Junior Dos Santos for two and a half rounds.

Just last month, Randy Couture dropped a one sided unanimous decision loss to fellow legend Antonio Minotauro Nogueira. The Natural put on a valiant effort but was heavily outclassed from bell to bell, as Nogueira flirted with the stoppage on numerous occasions, dropping Couture twice and coming close to securing the submission multiple times.

At UFC 99, Wanderlei Silva took the first step towards dropping to the middleweight division by taking on former champion Rich Franklin at a catchweight of 195 pounds. The fight, while highly competitive, did little to restore Silva's image of a true Axe Murderer. Wanderlei hasn't been himself for a while now, and despite showing glimpses of his PRIDE form against Keith Jardine (and even in the Liddell and Franklin fights), Silva's days as a ruthless knockout machine look to be all but gone.

Another legendary light heavyweight, Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell, suffered a devastating loss earlier this year when he was knocked out by former PRIDE standout Mauricio "Shogun" Rua back at UFC 97 in Montreal. The fight marked Liddell's second knockout in a row, and his fourth defeat in five fights.

For any fan of the three knockout artists (Cro Cop, Liddell and Silva), it's been a rough ride for the past two and half years. Those men have more highlight reel finishes than most fighters combined, but those times seem to be nothing but distant memories. Randy Couture is a slightly different story, as Captain America has proven people wrong time and time again, and seemed to be getting better with age, but you must believe father time will catch up to him at some point.

So with that said, let's take a closer look at each fighter, their future, and their chances of recapturing a bit of their magic. This week, we'll concentrate on the two heavyweights, Couture and Cro Cop before shifting the focus to the two greatest light heavyweights of all time in next week's column.

Mirko Cro Cop:

Mirko Cro Cop's performance at UFC 103 was just sad. Watching it, I couldn't help but have flashbacks of a certain PRIDE kickboxer that was knocking people silly. There was a time where stepping into the ring with "The Croatian Sensation" was the equivalent of having your head kicked off. Early on, Cro Cop recognized the adjustments he needed to make in order to transition from K-1 to MMA. He successfully masked his weaknesses by developing some serious takedown defense, further popularizing the "Sprawl and Brawl" style.



After enjoying the biggest success of his career by winning the 2006 PRIDE Open Weight Grand Prix, Mirko joined the Ultimate Fighting Championship, a move that seemingly made him a lock to win the heavyweight belt. After a lackluster but victorious debut against Eddie Sanchez, Mirko took on a BJJ mundial world champion in Gabriel Gonzaga to determine the number one contender for Randy Couture's title. In a shocking upset, Gonzaga knocked Filipovic out with Cro Cop's own dreaded head kick.



While some blamed the Gonzaga defeat on Mirko's inexperience in the Octagon, the following loss to Cheick Kongo culd only raise more eyebrows. Cro Cop clearly wasn't the man who fought in PRIDE, and the beating he took at the hands of Alistair Overeem late last year made it all the more clear.

Against Junior Dos Santos, Cro Cop looked like a man who simply doesn't have it anymore. Since the opening round, Cro Cop looked clearly lost. He was hesitant, indecisive and clearly out of ideas. I don't know what his game plan was, but he had a hard time executing. He couldn't pull the trigger and didn't even bother to set anything up. Cro Cop is notorious for launching an onslaught to the legs and body before unleashing the killer blow to the head. The leg kicks he threw were few and far in between and quite frankly seemed to lack conviction and purpose. Cro Cop's attack used to be so cerebral, calculated and efficient. Now he looks like a man who just doesn't want to engage. He was more content with pushing rather than punching, and it looked as though he was clinching to kill time rather than construct any sort of offence. He had some success with the counter straight left but even that seemed to lack power and Dos Santos never looked rocked.

And while die hard fans can argue that Mirko didn't train hard enough, didn't have a proper camp or just had an off night, that sort of speculation can be thrown right out the window when you notice just how old and slow he looked. He was just a broken man, from the time the ref signaled the start of the contest till the moment Mirko said "no mas", Cro Cop never seemed interested in fighting. Not only was he unmotivated, but almost scared. The lack of drive was evident in his eyes, face and body. As he sat in his corner in between rounds, he knew he was a beaten man. His post fight comments did little to contradict those statements. It sounded like a farewell speech.

Let's assume the best: Cro Cop switches camps, moves to the states, dedicates himself to training, vows to make the most of the tail end of his career, and declares his intentions to rejuvenate himself. Does that mean Cro Cop can be a serious contender still? In my estimation, the answer is no.

Not only has Cro Cop been in too many wars, has gotten too old, and his body can no longer hold up, but his opponents have also figured him out. When pressured, Cro Cop will fold. Cro Cop is most comfortable when given the time to think. He wants to set things up at his own pace and take the time to methodically chomp his opponent down. Fedor laid the blueprint and others followed. Cro Cop doesn't react well when pressed and more often than not has no plan B to resort to.

I am not in a place to tell a legend to hang it up, but in my opinion, Mirko Cro Cop no longer has a place among the world's elite and would be best served to hang his gloves up and move on into another phase of his life.

Which brings us to another living legend who's had a couple of setbacks recently, Randy Couture.

Randy Couture:

In 2007, Randy Couture announced his intentions to return to competition by taking on then world heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia. Couture's last fight was a brutal knockout loss to Chuck Liddell, his second in three fights, which forced him to retire. The fact that Couture chose to return at heavyweight was a huge risk, as Randy had historically struggled to deal with larger opposition.

Couture shocked the world by winning the world heavyweight title in a five round beatdown of "The Main-eac" and followed it up by producing one of the most sparkling displays of his career, dispatching of number one contender Gabriel Gonzaga.

Couture then made a very questionable decision by "resigning" from the UFC, citing the UFC's inability to sign Fedor Emelianenko and some the company's mistreatment of Couture himself as the main reasons.

After a full year of lawsuits, Randy settled his differences with the UFC and returned to defend his title against Brock Lesnar. The layoff proved to be costly as Couture was stopped in the second round, thus losing his heavyweight belt. Despite the defeat, Randy looked rather okay as he provided Lesnar with the sternest test of his UFC career (save from that 20 second long Frank Mir kneebar).



At UFC 102, Randy was heavily favored to topple former PRIDE and UFC heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. The result was rather surprising, as big Nog dominated The Natural for a three round unanimous decision victory.



Unlike Cro Cop however, Couture went down like a warrior. His heart was on display as he weathered an early Nogueira storm after being dropped and locked in a tight D'Arce choke. Randy gave the fight his all, despite finding himself in vulnerable positions in different portions of the bout.

In my opinion, the loss had little to do with Couture's age, and more to do with the quality of his opponent. Minotauro was simply the better fighter that night. Randy didn't look particularly slow, tired or winded. His decision to carry on fighting in my is a sound one if you ask me. His decision to drop to the 205 decision however, is rather debatable. What he gains in size, he will give up in speed. If Brock Lesnar and Minotauro managed to tag him, I can only assume what the likes of Rashad Evans, Quinton Jackson or Lyoto Machida could do. His head movement, while very respectable, isn't enough to get him by against fighters that fast and accurate. Although his wrestling will unquestionably give any fighter fits as he is arguably the best wrestler in the division.

The superfights are mostly in the light heavyweight division, but Randy will come into every one of them as a heavy underdog. I can't imagine Couture withstanding Anderson Silva's striking wizardry, or Machida's pin point counter punching ability.

With that said, the fight against Brandon Vera will be a very telling one. A loss to Vera would put him in a tough spot as Randy just signed a six fight deal with the company and a defeat here would make it his third in as many fights, effectively scratching any potential showdown with the division's elite. But it remains a fight that Couture should win, and in my opinion, he will.

I believe Randy still has some things to offer, and it remains to be seen whether father time has finally caught up with him.

That is all for this week, please leave your comments below. Feedback is always appreciated, and don't forget to tune in next week for the conclusion as we look at The Iceman and The Axe Murderer.