Couture v machida ufc 129..my thoughts

A few months ago Randy the natural Couture was questioning retirement.Who could blame him though, this ageless warrior is perhaps the greatest MMA star ever. The oldest person to win a UFC fight and the oldest person to win the heavyweight belt in 2007 at 43 years old. Currently on a 3 fight win streak, if couture wins his next fight that would give him a 4 fight win streak for the first time in 10 years. His next fight is against former light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida. Both Couture and Machida have 15 years of mma experience despite the age gap of the same length.Once regarded as unhittable and unbeatable when he took the light heavyweight strap off Rashad Evans with a brutal KO. Lyotos title reign was disappointing as he was handed a controversial decision over Mauricio shogun Rua at UFC 104 and seven months later was flattend in the first round of their rematch. Then at UFC 123 Quinton Jackson sneaked past him on the Judges scorecards, for me Machida went back to when he first entered the UFC and spent to much time out of range.I think Couture will look to use his clinch and wrestling to give Machida a third loss in a row, but this is easier said then done when Couture is pushing 50 and is against a very fast,accurate and hurtful striker.In his UFC career, lyoto has avoided 62% of strikes, only 3% more than Randy Couture. But if anyone can its the natural.

Anything's possible but I have to pick Machida. Don't think Couture is going to be his old self at this age.

I'm a huge fan of Randy but Machida is going to put him out. Machida is actually very difficult to handle in the clinch and his strikes are very powerful though infrequent. If Randy eats one big shot from Machida it could spell the end of the night for Randy. Even Randy at the top of his game would struggle with Machida... of course Randy has made fools of us all at least one point in time during his career. 

Machida's sumo background helps him a lot in the clinch. I don't think Randy will be able to get a hold of him and even if he does it'll be like when Tito did, and Machida will probably trip him or just shrug him off. I think Machida will get the KO this fight.