Comparing and Overviewing Couture/Lesnar and De la Hoya/Pacquiao (in celebration of UFC 2009 Undisputed)

The following is in celebration of the soon-to-be-released game that could finally end the sucky MMA gaming stereotype, UFC 2009 Undisputed, and the fact that Manny Pacquiao won. Cheers, chief!

My good friend, MJ, told me last night about how the fight between Oscar and Manny would end up being Couture/Lesnar once again, in which case it was easy to side on that prediction based on premise and reputation.

And that got me thinking: how do you put these two fights in perspective?

(Oh, and if anyone thinks I've lost my touch, you may want to reconsider)

Randy Couture/Brock Lesnar

- At first glance, and honestly speaking, I was going to root for Couture based on the fact that Lesnar was getting it too easy. When I saw Lesnar's first MMA fight overseas many, many months ago, he was dominant on the basis of size over a Korean MMA opponent, and the fact that he's basically filler. So for Lesnar to get this much hype based on the fact that he's an NCAA champ in 2000 (RESPECT) and a former WWE Superstar could doubt many MMA fanatics. Then again, it's also hard to argue how much he is improving. Case in point was Heath Herring's decimation andhim being able to merely hang with Frank Mir in his first true big MMA fight.

Couture, more than a year ago, was on a phenomenal roll (frankly, to note all of his accomplishments is like telling a story). He beat (and basically did us all a favor by getting rid of) Tim Sylvia for his nth UFC Heavyweight Title and beat Gabriel Gonzaga in his first defense. However, due to certain financial and contractual conflicts, Couture and Zuffa (company handling the UFC) cannot reach an agreement to settle for virtually a whole year. So yeah, consider the ring rust and his age, which is certainly not ripe in any MMA environment, he had quite a disadvantage already. But it is still difficult to doubt Randy Couture in any case.

Fight night came, and we all know what happened. Still, Brock won, give or take (or even, by luck).

But let's give these men credit. After all, in Couture's 4th MMA fight / UFC fight, he won his first UFC Heavyweight Title. In Lesnar's 4th MMA fight, he won his first UFC Heavyweight Title. So for what it's worth, don't judge Lesnar because he was kind of "spoon-fed", since at the very least, he did prove himself. But winning the title is one thing, and defending it is another. Lord, please let Nogueira win his fight against Mir.


Oscar De la Hoya/Manny Pacquiao


- I won't get too much into detail here, since virtually speaking, tomorrow's other reason why it is declared a holiday is because of Pacman's victory. Those who did watch it (and spoiled it for us) would have told you that Pacman pretty much dominated the whole thing like he did before in his other fights, despite the odds against him in both size and betting lingo. Let Yahoo! be your guide, yes?


So in a way, two different situations were dealt with Brock Lesnar and Manny Pacquiao in two different professions. Brock is deemed as the perfect heavyweight in MMA considering that it's hard to basically bring down a guy who's also quick as a cat. Pacman is, on paper, the smaller one, but he still pretty much raped De la Hoya. But they DO have one thing in common: AGE. They're young and can carry their respective professions in the long run, which deserves more credit than anything. However, what if they thought Randy Couture or Oscar De la Hoya in their prime? Could you imagine that? But I guess we'll never know. At least there's still guys like Mir, Nogueira, and Hatton around.

Still, kudos to Manny Pacquiao! Now, he has one more opponent to deal with: The English language. Again, what is Manny Pacquiao's favorite number 1 shampoo?





(and the promised entry on what men can't do, coming real soon!)