Roger Clemens, still throwing heat at age 44, would be a sure thing. So would George Foreman, who won his second heavyweight title at 45. And, of course, there is that 59-year-old guy in Texas who is playing Division III college football this season.
A senior citizens sports hall of fame — if such a thing ever exists, it is sure to be located in a mall in Florida — also would have another first-ballot lock: Randy Couture, who, at 44, may surpass all other elders by ruling over the heavyweight division of the world’s top mixed martial arts promotion.
“[Age] really hasn’t been an issue,” said Couture, who tonight defends the UFC heavyweight championship in a pay-per-view show in Las Vegas against a challenger 16 years younger. “It’s a matter of desire and just kind of having a passion for this and doing what I love to do.”
Few others who walk the earth, at 44, have the desire, passion, love or talent to dominate a 6-foot-8, 255-pound fighter 13 years his junior in such a demanding and brutal sport.
But that’s just what Couture did in March against title holder Tim Sylvia, coming out of retirement to recapture the heavyweight championship.
“You don’t see many guys that are able to compete at 44 years old, let alone at the level he’s competing at. He’s a freak of nature,” UFC president Dana White said. “Not only is he an incredible athlete and an incredible fighter, he’s an incredible person and human being. I have nothing but respect for Randy Couture.”
So do I, because of what I saw in Columbus, Ohio, in one of the most remarkable and exciting athletic events I’ve witnessed.
Sylvia was a heavy favorite to send the 6-foot-2, 225-pound Couture back into retirement. Sylvia is a striker — the MMA term for punching — and his reach and power seemed too much for Couture.
But Couture put Sylvia on the canvas with a right hand in the first 20 seconds of the fight, and Nationwide Arena seemed to lift off the ground with the roar of the 19,000 fans in attendance. I witnessed the same reaction nearly 13 years earlier, when Foreman knocked out Michael Moorer to win boxing’s heavyweight championship.
There was a big difference, though. Foreman’s beautiful, short right hand in the 10th round came after he took a beating from Moorer for nine rounds. Couture’s shot came in the opening minutes but did not knock Sylvia out.
Couture controlled the larger, younger man the rest of the fight, using his wrestling and Jiu-Jitsu skills and, surprisingly, beating Sylvia to the punch the few times he was able to get to his feet.
If you ever wrestled, you know how hard it is to keep someone down and under control for even a few minutes. Couture controlled a very powerful man for 25 minutes — five dominating rounds of five minutes each.
It was as if Clemens, at 44, had pitched a no-hitter in Game 7 of the World Series.
Gabriel Gonzaga, a 6-foot-2, 245-pound Brazilian who faces Couture tonight at Mandalay Bay, said that is what most impresses him about Couture — the passion that drives him to be so tough when he is so close to his AARP card.
“The heart is the best part of Randy,” Gonzaga said.
There’s not much heart to celebrate in sports these days, and some would be repulsed at the suggestion that it can be found in what is considered by many to be a brutal display.
Pathetic, rationalizing defenses of Michael Vick suggest this is hypocrisy: Dogfighting prompts outrage, but two humans engaging in combat does not — as if you shouldn’t make moral judgements about anything unless you are an absolutist.
That is an argument suitable for the scarecrow in “The Wizard of Oz”: You don’t have the brain to distinguish between what is acceptable and what is unacceptable and deserving of our contempt.
Mixed martial arts, best known under the UFC brand name, certainly tests those judgments, as boxing always has and as football should more.
But UFC no longer is the old toughman, anything-goes show that years ago gained the reputation of “human cock fighting.” The sport has come a long way, with strict regulation and some of the best athletes in the world.
One thing not in dispute is that UFC has become wildly successful. The event in Columbus was the largest grossing night in the history of the arena, and venues around the country are begging for UFC pay-per-view dates.
Mixed martial arts was approved with some restrictions — no use of the UFC octagon cage — earlier this year by the District Boxing and Wrestling Commission, and one promotion already has held an event at the D.C. Armory.
UFC vice president Marc Ratner, the former executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission who also was one of the most respected figures in boxing, has said he hopes to bring a UFC show to Washington soon.
“I don’t even think we’ve scratched the surface of how big this sport’s going to be here in the United States alone,” White said. “And our goal over the next five years is obviously to go global.”
One of the foundations for that success is Couture, whose career has coincided with the growth of UFC.
“It’s just been an amazing ride,” he said. “I kind of entered [mixed martial arts] on a whim, because it was something I was interested in trying, because [I saw] other wrestlers compete in it. Now, over 10 years later, I’m still competing. It’s been an absolute blast and gone way further than I ever expected it to go.”
And who knows? It someday may be deemed a worthy-enough career to honor at the Del Boca Vista Mall.
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