Main Event: UFC Light Heavyweight Championship

COUTURE: Greco-Roman wrestler Randy Couture (Pictures) is a three-time Olympic team alternate ('88,'92 and '96); a semifinalist at the 2000 Olympic Trials; a three-time National Collegiate Athletic Association D-I All-American; a two-time NCAA finalist; a three-time national Greco-Roman champion; and the holder of numerous other military and national wrestling titles.

Couture usually trains with Dan Henderson (Pictures), Matt Lindland (Pictures), Nathan Quarry (Pictures), Chael Sonnen (Pictures) and members of Team Quest but recently he has been working in Las Vegas with Forrest Griffin (Pictures), Quinton Jackson (Pictures), Mike Pyle (Pictures) and his old rAw team member Frank Trigg (Pictures). In fact, in preparation for this fight he’s worked with UFC heavyweight champ Andrei Arlovski (Pictures), who will be in his corner. Couture also spent time with Ron Frazier, the assistant boxing coach at UNLV.

“The Natural” is also a former two-time UFC heavyweight champion and former two-time UFC Light Heavyweight Champion with a 14-7-0 record in MMA.

He was wrestling in Puerto Rico when he got a call that there was a slot open in the UFC 13 heavyweight tournament. Couture took a chance on a new sport and won the four-man tourney. He returned to UFC 15 to face the “Phenom” Vitor Belfort (Pictures) and punished the heavily favored Brazilian.

Couture traveled to Japan and captured the heavyweight title from Maurice Smith but was stripped by SEG for not taking a pay cut to defend his belt. He continued to fight in Japan, but lost two consecutive bouts to fighters with more submission-oriented backgrounds: Enson Inoue and Mikhail Illoukhine (Pictures).

His next stop was the 2000 RINGS King of Kings tournament. There Couture beat veterans Jeremy Horn (Pictures) and Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (Pictures) and Pancrase fighter Ryushi Yanagisawa, but lost to another submission expert, Valentijn Overeem, in the semi-finals. The American came back at UFC 28 to beat Kevin Randleman (Pictures) and has fought consistently for the organization since that time.

Couture defended his title twice against Pedro Rizzo (Pictures) but lost to Josh Barnett (Pictures) at UFC 36. Barnett was later stripped after testing positive for steroids, yet Couture could not reclaim the vacant belt from Ricco Rodriguez (Pictures).

He moved down to light heavyweight in June 2003 and punished Chuck Liddell (Pictures), stopping him in the third round at UFC 43. Couture then beat Tito Ortiz (Pictures) to unify the UFC 205-pound belts at UFC 44 but lost it to Vitor Belfort (Pictures) on a unfortunate cut stoppage at UFC 46.

Couture got his rematch Belfort at UFC 49 and pounded the Brazilian for three rounds before finally stopping him. Then at UFC 52 he lost the rematch with Chuck Liddell (Pictures) when he was knocked out for the first time in his career.

Four months later Couture pit skills against a wrestler with a comparable résumé. Mike Van Arsdale (Pictures), a former “teammate” of Couture’s when they competed for the Sunkist Kids charity, proved to be an excellent competitor and took the fight into the third round before he fell victim to a choke.

LIDDELL: Kickboxer Chuck Liddell (Pictures) was a collegiate wrestler at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He won the IFC light heavyweight belt and held a North American national kickboxing title (20-2 record in kickboxing) before winning his first UFC belt in April 2005.

The Brazilian jiu-jitsu purple belt carries a 17-3-0 record in MMA and trains with John Hackelman, Scott Adams and the rest of The Pit Fight Team.

Liddell made his Octagon debut at UFC 17 against Noe Hernandez and took a unanimous decision over the boxer. His first major test came in Brazil at IVC 6 where he battled Jose Landi-Jons.

“Pele” was already a hero in Brazil and had won numerous tournaments. To go half an hour with a legend in his own back yard showed Chuck was for real. He returned to UFC 19 and lost to Jeremy Horn (Pictures) by an head-and-arm choke at the end of the first round.

Liddell fought on some smaller shows but remained committed to the UFC and returned to beat Paul Jones and Jeff Monson (Pictures) before facing “The Monster” Kevin Randleman (Pictures) at UFC 31. A highly anticipated bout was finished in just over a minute as Randleman hit the canvas early in the first round. Chuck traveled to Japan to fight in PRIDE 14 and scored a knockout over Guy Mezger in 2001.

Back Stateside, Liddell took a questionable decision victory at UFC 33 over eventual UFC middleweight champion Murilo Bustamante (Pictures) and battled a tough but undersized Amar Suloev (Pictures) to win by decision at UFC 35.

A victory over Vitor Belfort (Pictures) in a contender’s bout opened the door to fight Tito Ortiz (Pictures) but Liddell took a risky bout with Renato Sobral (Pictures) in the interim and won by knockout.

The Ortiz issue remained unresolved and Liddell would face Couture. Incredibly Randy was able to out-strike the kickboxer and he pounded “The Iceman” for three rounds before the stoppage.

Another trip to PRIDE in 2003 saw Liddell knockout Alistair Overeem (Pictures) in the PRIDE Total Elimination Middleweight (205-lb.) Tournament. But Quinton Jackson (Pictures) stopped him in the in the semifinals of that event. Liddell finally met Ortiz in April 2004 and put all the questions to rest. He knocked out Tito and it set up a rematch with Couture for the title.

Not content to sit and wait for his shot, Liddell ended another rivalry and knocked out Lion’s Den fighter Vernon White (Pictures) at UFC 49. White was more of a challenge than some fans expected, but not too much for Liddell to handle.

In the rematch for the UFC light heavyweight title at UFC 52 Liddell knocked out Couture in just two minutes of action. One could speculate about a thumb in the eye setting up Couture’s downfall but what is done is done. Last August Liddell settled another old score, laying a beating on Jeremy Horn (Pictures). It took nearly five rounds to put him away, but Horn had problems seeing Chuck’s punches and the fight was stopped.

MY PICK: Couture. Chuck has been dominant but we’re not seeing the same Chuck we’ve known right now. He appears distracted, yet highly confident. He seemed enthused about working on the “Blade” TV show, which is fine. It is his mental attitude and overall demeanor that appears to have changed. The speculation about how he has won lately (those thumbs) bothers him and the rumors of a potentially major injury in recent training don’t add up to victory.

Randy is Randy: focused, looking to improve, looking to change his game, looking to earn yet another title. There were times when I had Chuck winning this bout. I was confident. Now I’m not so sure. Randy also seems to be really enjoying submissions now. That’s all he needs, more weapons. Couture by submission in the third round.