Don’t Blame the Refs, Randy Couture Game Planned his UFC 105 Victory

When Michael Jordan played basketball, there was something called the Jordan Rules. This implied that there was a different set of rules for MJ than everyone else (Not the Pistons D, I am referring to late in his career). I promise you, tons of people are going to complain about the Randy Couture decision win at UFC 105. They are going to say that Vera was robbed and that the UFC is rigged. I say they are completely wrong! Randy fought the fight his way, and the only was he was going to win. Simply put, he game planned his UFC 105 victory.

I also posted this on The Curtis and Kyle Show.  More after the jump!

If I was to tell you that Brandon Vera had rocked Randy several times, took him down, and mounted him you would automatically assume he won.  That happened and he did not.  This very well could have been the crispest, best Brandon Vera that we have ever seen, but his game plan and execution was not enough to dethrone the legend.

I am not going to be one of those that questions this decision.  It is very different than the Bisping vs. Hammil and Rua vs. Machida decisions, this one actually makes sense.

Going into the fight, we all knew that Randy Couture was not going to out strike Brandon Vera.  It was no secret that Randy was going to return to his wrestling roots and turn this is into a grappling match.

The grappling match never really showed up, but the dirty boxing Greco Roman wrestling did, a lot.  No, he didn’t do a lot of damage, but he did enough to win.  Like it or not, Randy controlled the fight for all but about thirty seconds.

Those combined thirty seconds or so were not pretty for Couture fans.  He was dropped, wobbly, mounted, and even taken down.  The reason Vera did not win this fight in part is because he could not do anything with his positions.  Sure he took Randy down and mounted him, but he never applied any damage.  Sure, he had Randy on the brink, but he could never push him over the edge.

Randy has shown throughout his career that he will not break.  This fight was simply the case of put it into the judges hands.  Brandon Vera had a very good fight.  I actually had it two round to one in favor of Vera.  You never want to leave it in the judges hands and that is exactly what Vera did.

This was Randy’s game plan the entire time.  He knew that the odds weren’t in his favor to finish Vera, instead he knew that he had to control the fight, use his strengths, and not get beat up.  He did that and he earned this win.