I am a huge huge huge fan of Randy but after reading this thread and how he could tool Fedor etc. I had to laugh.
I would cheer for Randy vs almost any body but seriously, this is a sport where the best fighter usually wins.
In the past 5 years Randy's biggest win is against CHuck Lidell who came back to spank his ass twice.
His next biggest win is vs Tim Sylvia. Sylvia is good but his only huge win was over ARlovski. All the other wins weren't against any top 5 heavy weights.
Not hating just stating the obvious. The admiration for Randy is awesome but the nut hugging is on par with the Coleman nuthuggers after he won the GP.
Well, im both a big Randy and Fedor fan and though Randy may be too old now, the Randy type of fighter could possible give Fedor a good fight. Great wrestler with good striking setups and not easily suscetible to subs (like Coleman, KR) and great GNP. Randy would get the td on Fedor imo (not too sure about now) but Fedor's striking would probably get Randy sooner or later and if he got Randy on his back, Randy would be in trouble too.
He fought a lot lesser competition than Randy to rack up most of those wins. When he came to the UFC is when he started fighting real competition. Randy's first MMA fight was in the UFC.
"He fought a lot lesser competition than Randy to rack up most of those wins. When he came to the UFC is when he started fighting real competition. Randy's first MMA fight was in the UFC."
Even if we only compare Hughes record against top competition its still going to look a lot better than Randys.
Vitor Belfort when people thought he was invincible the up and coming god of MMA
Maurice Smith, when Mo was considered the no.1 or 2 HW in the World after beating Coleman
Randleman (in his prime), when he was the established UFC HW champ, and amongst the top 3 heavies in the world
Rizzo (twice) when people though he was nearly unstoppable, and a top 4 HW (this was just after Rizzo KOd Barnett, TKOd Severn and was something like 12-1 against top competition.
Chuck Liddel when Chuck was the no.1 contender in the UFC, and a top 3 LHW
Tito Ortiz, when Tito was still ranked the no.1 LHW in the world (spanked him)
Vitor Belfort, who was a top 10 LHW when he beat him in the rematch
Tim Sylvia, UFC champion, top 5 HW, with a 50+ lbs weight and 6+ inch reach advantage (13 years younger).
Other wins include those against game and solid fighters (especially at the time) in the form of Jeremy Horn, TK, and Mike van Arsdale
Accolades:
3 Time UFC HW Champion
2 Time UFC LHW Champion
UFC LHW Interim Champion
UFC Heavyweight Tournament Champion
Finals, Rings KoK tournament 2000
On His Losses:
2 losses were in Rings, under rules that were very much against a wrestler like Randy
1 was a fluke to Belfort by glove cut in the first 18 seconds
1 was to a much larger man who was cheating with Steriods (Barnett)
The rest were legit (though I question the Ricco loss -- I'll explain if you want), but with the exception of Enson, where all against either top 10 or top 5 fighters (V. Overeem was considered very good back then, before his plummet)
On "15-8" -- this number don't mean shit. If you go by padded records, then you should be giving ol' Timmah much more credit.
Oh, and no other fighter has managed to evolve as consistently through the various phases of MMA as Randy has over time, and he didn't even get into it until his early to mid thirties!!
In the Randy fight versus Ricco, it came out after the fight that Randy had won the first 3 rounds on all 3 of the Judges score cards. Some may have even given him a 10-8 in the second round.
Ricco won, and was winning rounds 4 and 5 -- but as 10-9s and definitely not 10-8s. If the fight had gone on for 3 more minutes, Couture would have almost certainly lost the 5th round, but by UFC scoring, still have won the fight.
Ricco won by forcing a verbal submission, after an elbow strike directly to the eye, causing Randy's orbital bone to shatter. THIS WAS AN ILLEGAL STRIKE (at least at the time), but BJM didn't call Ricco on it, and Rodriguez was awarded the win. If he hadn't used that illegal tactic, Randy would have won; and if BJM had called him on it, with Randy unable to continue after the damage was done, you would have likely had a Frank Shamrock/Renzo Gracie scenario. It wasn't called, though, and Ricco got the win.
I don't knock Ricco on this, because he fought his heart out, and it was one of his best wins ever that really showed he was a champion. Its also not the easiest call for the ref, because elbow strikes to the face are allowed. However you are not allowed to directly attack the eye ball itself with something that can fit in it (i.e fingers, Chack thumb, elbow), which is pretty much what that finishing strike was.
Anyways, its not that big of a deal, considering Randy didn't complain, and Ricco still proved a lot in that fight.
The point is just that Randy has just had a lot of poor luck when it comes to his losses