Pound for Pound: UFC 102

Regardless of who wins this weekend’s UFC 102 main event between Randy Couture and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, not much will change for either of the two living legends. 

That’s not a great way to sell a fight, is it? 

Take your pick between the featured bout’s decided lack of sizzle, the event’s out-of-the-way location or just a prolonged UFC 100 hangover, but some sort of dark forces are conspiring to keep UFC 102 underneath the radar. Aside from the normal fan sites and blogs, there has been precious little media attention paid to this weekend’s melee, despite a respectable card featuring two of the all-time greats. 

Recent reports suggest the UFC is having trouble selling out Portland, Oregon’s Rose Garden area, even though the funky northwest city best known for hippies and hipsters has as strong a local MMA fan base as you’ll find anywhere. So, what’s the deal? 

Well, start with the fact Oregon can boast some of the highest unemployment in the nation and add the fact that the UFC is still trying to hock floor seats for $600 a pop and you get some idea why there might be a lot of empty seats come Saturday. It begs the question: If the world’s largest MMA promoter holds a pay-per-view and nobody shows up to see it, does it make a sound? 

Clearly, if UFC 102 doesn’t break any gate receipt records, you can’t blame Couture or Nogueira. It’s not their fault this fight didn’t happen eight years ago. Couture is a local favorite and both guys are icons who – while clearly the downside of storied careers – are still capable of turning in three-round performances worth the hefty price of admission. 

Sure, neither guy can really gain a lot from winning this fight. So what? The loser is still going to have to take a long look in the mirror and consider his future as a professional athlete. 

The stakes are probably highest for Nogueira, who looked absolutely terrible last December en route to a second-round TKO loss to Frank Mir. Big Nog’s camp has since claimed he was suffering the ill effects of a staph infection when he entered the cage against Mir, but Nogueira will have to rebound in a big way against Couture to prove he still has any business climbing into the cage at all. 

Fresh off losing his heavyweight title to Brock Lesnar at UFC 91, Couture is also out to prove he’s got enough gas left in the tank to make one more run at the gold. But whether that gold should be in the heavyweight or light heavyweight division is very much up for debate.

Recent training footage showed Couture weighing in just a hair over 220 pounds a couple of weeks out from fight night. Memories of the Washington-native getting out-sized and outmuscled by Lesnar are still fresh in everyone’s mind and there would be more popular interest in seeing Couture fight 205-pound champ Lyoto Machida than a rematch with “The Next Big Thing.” 

Couture initially bailed on light heavyweight after a pair of disastrous knockouts by Chuck Liddell and flatly admitted it was because the competition looked easier in the heavier weight class. With Liddell’s recent quasi-retirement and Lesnar’s emergence at heavyweight, neither of those facts is true today.

So why stick it out at heavyweight? For now, Couture’s not saying, preferring to think only about Saturday night’s clash with Nogeuira. 

“It would be stupid to overlook this fight,” Couture said recently. “That’s a surefire way to get your ass handed to you, frankly.” 

At one time this fight would’ve been a dream match-up between two of the world’s most dominant heavyweights. Too bad that time was 2001. Now this fight will simply be an entertaining match-up of styles pitting Couture’s wrestling and scrappy stand-up against Nogueira’s submission skills and once-feared boxing. 

It’ll also be a nice trip down memory lane for fans who remember MMA before the sport got its big break.

Chad Dundas writes a weekly MMA column for Crave Online. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.