The Natural Who Cried Wolf

When a soon-to-be-48-year-old fighter, who has been trading leather with opponents in the cage for 14 years, announces that he’s going to retire, we should probably take his word for it.  However, when the fighter in question is Randy “The Natural” Couture, it gives one a cause to pause.  You know the old expression, “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me”?  Well, when it comes to retirement, Couture has shamed us a few times.

Randy Couture has actually quit mixed martial arts three times already.  Captain America first left the sport in 1999 to prepare for a run at the 2000 U.S. Olympic wrestling team.  We won’t count that as a “retirement”, per se, since he didn’t call it that at the time.  Fine, we’ll let that one pass.  However, after being knocked out by Chuck Liddell at UFC 57 in 2006, Couture very clearly stated that he was retiring.  And who could really question that decision – he was almost 43-years-old, had accomplished more in the sport than he could have ever imagined and was on his way to being inducted into the UFC’s Hall of Fame.  But, lo and behold, a little more than a year later there he was in the Octagon, snatching the UFC Heavyweight Championship away from Tim Sylvia.  Later that year, of course, he left the sport again, this time due to a dispute with the UFC, only to return to the fold a little over a year later.  You starting to see the trend here?!

Now Couture is leading us all to believe that his match this Saturday versus Lyoto Machida at UFC 129 will be the last one of his career.  He’ll be hanging up his four-ounce gloves once and for all.  This despite the fact that he hasn’t lost in almost two years, reeling off three straight wins.  This despite the fact that a win over Machida could conceivably put him back into the title picture.  This despite the fact that he is always in terrific fighting shape and seems to never age.  This despite the fact that his dream matchup versus Fedor Emelianenko is closer now than ever consideringthe UFC has gobbled up Strikeforce.  So, do you believe that Randy Couture is gone for good this time?  If so, shame on you.