2. Randy Couture, In General
Couture stuck it to the UFC so many times -- we will not detail them all here -- that no one particular moment sticks out. His days as an organizational spoiler go all the way back to Semaphore Entertainment Group. Couture, the boring wrestler, was supposed to get pounded on by a young wrecking machine named Vitor Belfort at UFC 15 on Oct. 17, 1997. The opposite happened. Kevin Randleman was supposed to outwrestle “The Natural” and send him home. Instead, Couture stopped “The Monster” on third-round punches at UFC 28 on Nov. 17, 2000. After Zuffa purchased the UFC, the support was thrown behind Pedro Rizzo. Couture beat him twice, first by decision and later by technical knockout.
Couture was far from done. After Couture lost his heavyweight championship, UFC President Dana White let him have some fun at 205 pounds. He was pitted against Chuck Liddell at UFC 43 on June 6, 2003. Liddell was waiting for a mega fight with Tito Ortiz, and popular opinion had “The Iceman” icing Couture inside the distance. Instead, Couture stopped Liddell in the third round to claim the interim light heavyweight championship and went on to unify the title some four months later by beating Ortiz. Finally, Couture returned to old haunts in 2007, upsetting Tim Sylvia in a dominant five-round performance to reclaim the UFC heavyweight championship. “The Natural” retired in 2011 and proceeded to link arms with Bellator MMA.
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