Tonight at the Mandalay Bay, the UFC with hold its 74th event aptly named “Respect.” The fight card features an ageless Heavyweight Champion, an up and coming #1 contender. The road to UFC 74: Respect has been an unexpected one to say the least.
One year, six months, and twenty-one days ago one of the most respected Mixed Martial Artists ever hung up his gloves after falling short of regaining the Light Heavyweight title against Chuck Liddell at UFC 57. After doing color commentary for many of the following UFC Pay-Per-View events, nobody expected “The Natural” to ever return to the octagon, except for maybe Randy himself. As a professional athlete, even if you say you’re retired you’re never really retired. What I mean is, you’re always in training and keeping in shape because that’s all you know. Fast forward to August 25th, 2007 and now you’re defending the UFC Heavyweight belt against a man who knocked out the most dangerous striker in the world with his own weapon.
Gabriel Gonzaga was a very talented fighter heading into UFC 56: Full Force, which featured both the Middleweight and Welterweight champions on the same card, as well as the #1 contender to the Welterweight championship in Georges St. Pierre. In between all of those big time matches was a fight between little known Gabriel Gonzaga against a guy who looks like he just woke up before his fight in Kevin Jordan. Gonzaga was headed to the easy decision in a less than stellar performance until 4:39 of the 3rd and final round in the midst of boos heard in the arena and at home on TV, he landed a “Superman Punch” which stunned Jordan and allowed Gonzaga to finish the fight in exciting fashion. After a few more victories, the UFC was pretty much planning to feed “Napao” to the lions when he was scheduled to face Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic at UFC 70. A right high kick later and here we are at the main event at UFC 74 tonight.
It’s safe to say that if Randy Couture loses his title tonight to Gabriel Gonzaga, he’s going to retire to the second and final time of his amazing career. It’s also very possible that if he wins, he may also retire. Of course that would leave all of us drooling for the dream match-up pitting Couture vs. Emelianenko. Obviously we may never see that fight come to fruition but where does Gonzaga fit into the equation if he beats Randy Couture? The Heavyweight division in the UFC is loaded with talent now that Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Brandon Vera are in the mix. Also the possibility of the UFC signing Fedor Emelianenko is looming over our heads as well, and don’t count out Mirko “Cro Cop” who’s fighting in only two weeks as he begins his road back to the top of the Heavyweight division again.
Regardless of the winner, tonight will begin a domino effect on the Heavyweight division in the UFC. Let’s just hope that the fight is everything that it’s billed up to be.
