Sherdog’s Top 10: Finishes in UFC Heavyweight Title Fights

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9. Ricco Rodriguez vs. Randy Couture
UFC 39 “The Warriors Return”
Sept. 27, 2002 | Uncasville, Connecticut
Rodriguez made history by authoring the first fifth-round finish in Ultimate Fighting Championship history, as he struck Couture into submission to capture the vacant heavyweight crown at the Mohegan Sun Arena. His orbital bone shattered by a Rodriguez elbow, “The Natural” verbally submitted 3:04 into Round 5. Couture dominated the first half of the fight. He executed multiple takedowns in each of the first two rounds and applied damaging ground-and-pound early in the third. However, Rodriguez turned a corner in the middle stanza, where his near 20-pound weight advantage began to wear on his counterpart. Couture faded further in the fourth round, as the 1998 Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling World Championships gold medalist assumed top position and piled on the punishment with punches, elbows and forearm strikes before briefly climbing to full mount. In the fifth, Rodriguez delivered another takedown, shoveled right hands into Couture’s face and cut loose with elbows until the Everett, Washington, native could endure no more.

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