UFC 109’s Randy Couture v Mark Coleman: Two guys to Old to Fight

UFC 109 lacks the star power of many recent events, but any card with a pair of active Hall of Fame heavyweights and a rebound match for a tough customer like Mike ‘Quick’ Swick is still terrific.

Former UFC Heavyweight champion Randy “The Natural” Couture will finally get in the Octagon against another former Heavyweight champion Mark “The Hammer” Coleman.

Had this fight taken place when originally scheduled, it would have been one of the most storied bouts in MMA history. Now, it’s 12 years later, both are Hall of Fame members and while there is still a certain level of interest and intrigue, a pairing of fighters with a combined age of 91 doesn’t pique the interest of many of the young whippersnappers who make up the core demographic of the UFC.

UFC 17 could have been an epic clash; Couture was fresh off defeating Maurice Smith for the heavyweight title, a belt the kickboxing legend had won five months earlier from the first champion in the company’s history, Coleman. UFC 109, on the other hand, sees Couture entering off a controversial decision over Brandon “The Truth” Vera, while Coleman comes in having upset Stephan Bonnar at UFC 100 back in July.

Regardless of the lost time, the significance of having two of the greatest UFC heavyweights colliding in the cage should not be overlooked. While having this fight happen years earlier would have made for a much different battle, these two men helped shape the sport and the company that we love, and they deserve our respect and admiration.

Couture is a heavy -400 favorite and should be able to wear down Coleman and punish him in the latter stages of the fight with his ‘dirty boxing’ style of ring control.

Despite being the elder of the two nearly 50-year-old men, Couture is the favorite, and with good reason. In just about every area of this fight, the former five-time (six if you count unifying the Light Heavyweight title against Tito Ortiz in 2003) champion has the advantage. Oddly enough, Coleman may hold an edge in the wrestling department, a place Couture can usually count on the checkmark.

One interesting angle that hasn’t been explored much heading into this bout is Couture’s recent increased activity. Two fights a year had been the norm for “The Natural” for the longest time; you have to go back to 2001 to find a year where Couture entered the ring / cage more than twice. While this is his first fight of 2010, UFC 109 will also mark the third fight in a six-month span.

I certainly don’t doubt the conditioning, skills or abilities of Randy Couture, considering he’s made a career of proving critics wrong, but it will be interesting to see if the heavier workload will have any impact on Couture inside the cage on Saturday night. Chances are it won’t, but when you normally take six months between bouts, and now you’re entering your third challenging fight in that same period of time, people are bound to be curious.

The rest of the card has a tasty betting mixture of one-sided matchups and a couple of fights that could go either way.

The one fight that has a real juicy line to bet on is Mike “Quick” Swick vs. Brazilian fighter Paulo Thiago in a Welterweight matchup. The line on Swick might be worth a second look; he’s coming into the fight as the -200 favorite to win.

Swick will be looking to strike his Brazilian opponent into unconsciousness, while at the same time trying to stay away from Thiago’s ground game and recently-proven heavy hands.

Thiago hasn’t received the respect that he should have after beating fan favorite Josh Koscheck, and then going the distance with No. 2 Welterweight Jon Fitch.

Swick is coming off a loss to Dan Hardy, the first real test he’s had in three years since his loss to Yushin Okami in 2007.

As just a +160 dog, Thiago won’t be a big payday if you pick him and he wins, but he does offer the best chance to bank an upset on the card. It’s still hard to imagine him winning as his stand-up style is wooden and awkward and he seems a knockout candidate every time out.

But that’s the beauty of UFC and why wagering on it can be so profitable as any man can win.

Popularity: 1%