Ultimate Fighting

Boxers, practitioners of what is probably the least effective of the martial arts, still get the most publicity-and money-of any fighters, and the heavyweight champion is accorded the title of "baddest man in the world" (think Sonny Liston or Mike Tyson). Followers of mixed martial arts know better. Either of the two men who contended for the light-heavyweight title at the Ultimate Fighting Championships on Feb. 4 could easily dismantle any of the current heavyweight champions-or any of the past champions, for that matter. Those two contenders happened to be two very storied fighters, Chuck Liddell and Randy (The Natural) Couture.

Liddell started out practicing karate as a youngster, and eventually got a black belt. He was also captain of both the wrestling and football teams at San Marcos High School in Santa Barbara, Calif. all of which undoubtedly made him a BMOC. Liddell then attended Cal Poly, in San Luis Obispo, where he wrestled for all four years and won the California State freestyle-wrestling championships. He has won the heavyweight title at the World Kickboxing Association and has won two national kickboxing championships as well-an ideal resume for his current sport. At age 36, he is now a BMOC in a larger arena, the UFC.

Liddell looks as if he could have been picked by central casting to play a bodyguard or a thug. Come to think of it, he was picked. Liddell is a fledgling actor, having appeared in three movies, including The Postman Always Rings Twice, with Jack Nicholson. I haven't seen the movie, but it's a fairly safe bet that, given Liddell's naturally pugnacious features, he wasn't cast as an overly sensitive, artistic type.

Randy Couture has as glorious a history as anyone ever to step into the Octagon: a former two-time heavyweight as well as two-time light-heavyweight champion, he has won eight championship fights, many of which he had entered as the underdog. Couture's pre-UFC resume isn't quite as well-rounded as Liddell's, but he did go further with his wrestling, being a four-time national champion in Greco-Roman wrestling. Couture has always been extremely good at keeping an opponent on the ground once he has him there. Traditionally, once he gets his knee on his opponent's chest and starts raining elbows and fists, the fight is pretty much over.

Father Time may wait for no man, but he seems to have shown an abnormal patience with Couture, who at age 42 seems to be as strong as ever. Perhaps this is a reward for good character. One of the most appealing things about Couture is that he has always been as gracious in defeat as in victory. (He has made a point of raising his vanquisher's arm in victory and personally placing the belt around the new champion's waist.) Even when interviewed right after one of these long, bloody battles of attrition, he speaks in the same lighthearted tone most of us might use to discuss a recent round of golf played with some close friends for, perhaps, a wager of five dollars.

The two men met Saturday night for their rubber match (each had a previous victory over the other). In the first round, both fighters were extremely cautious, with Couture stalking Liddell while holding his guard high. But at the beginning of the second, Couture slipped slightly while throwing a punch and Liddell quickly capitalized, knocking Couture down with the same short right with which he knocked Couture out in their previous fight.

The referee stopped the fight almost immediately thereafter, as Liddell pounced on Couture, and it became apparent Couture was unable to defend himself.

After the fight, true to form, Couture saluted Liddell as a great champion and said that it was an honor to fight him. He then announced his retirement. The camera followed him as he slowly made his way back to the locker room, obliging every single person who asked for a picture or an autograph. For those of us who've watched Couture over the years, the inevitability of this moment did not seem to lessen its sadness.

Anticipation of Couture-Liddell ran so high that some of the preliminary bouts may have been overlooked. That's a shame, because several were noteworthy. Frank Mir is the former heavyweight champion who lost his title to a car when it ran into his motorcycle in September of 2004. (Mir reportedly flew 60 to 70 feet off the bike, and broke his femur in two places.) Mir made his comeback fight against Marco "Pe de Pano" Cruz, a Brazilian jujitsu champion. Mir, who hadn't fought in 20 months, was a big question mark coming into Saturday night's fight. At 6' and 257 pounds, he looked much stronger than the remarkably unathletic-looking 6' 3" Cruz, but a lack of conditioning seemed to hurt him. Cruz opened up a cut over Mir's left eye early on, and then just did what he had to, using his jujitsu skills to hold Mir down and work the cut until the referee stopped the bout. Cruz seems to have a bright future, though it's unclear how much he was helped in this fight by that car.

Mike Van Arsdale, a former top wrestler who recently lost via submission to Randy Couture, fought Renato "Babalu" Sobral, one of a seemingly endless number of top jujitsu stylists from Brazil. Sobral, who sported a mouthpiece that spelled H-A-T-E, is 6'1" and 205 pounds, age unknown. (Marco Ruas, a former freestyle-fighting star who trains Sobral, once told an American interviewer, "Brazilian men are like American women-they don't like to give their ages.") Sobral, who, like many Brazilian fighters, seems less muscular but more flexible than his American counterparts, quickly scrambled around to Van Arsdale's back and sank in a rear naked choke, ending the bout in the first round. Look for a title shot for Sobral, currently on a ten-fight winning streak, in the near future.

Justin Eilers, a former college football player, fought Brandon "The Truth" Vera. Eilers, who once claimed that he would fight his own mother, regularly states that he loves to "just get in and trade blows." This is never the most intelligent game plan, as was demonstrated when the loose-limbed Vera obliged him with a side-kick to the head which knocked him out early in the first round. Vera then grabbed the mike and announced to the crowd that he was getting married the next day at the Mandalay Bay Chapel. (Vera doesn't realize it, but he has just entered a far more protracted, grueling and viciously fought battle than Eilers could ever have given him.) At 220 pounds, Vera could eventually challenge for either the light-heavyweight or heavyweight title.

Joe "Diesel" Riggs, who lost in UFC 56 to champion Matt Hughes, fought a fearless Nick Diaz in a welterweight (170 pound) bout. Riggs' nickname, he once explained, derives from the fact that "when I hit you, it feels like you've been run over by a truck." This fight was more like a two-car collision, with both fighters sustaining damage from heavy blows. In the end, Riggs won a narrow decision, keeping his title hopes alive. The two men were rumored to have gotten into another fight at the hospital later on that night. (The type of person whom fighting attracts can't always turn off his aggression immediately upon exiting the Octagon.)

UFC 58, on March 4th, will feature Rich Franklin vs. David Loiseau for the middleweight title, and George St. Pierre vs. B. J. Penn in a battle of the top welterweights that's a connoisseur's dream.