[PilotMan]

So I have a long running WMMA 3 game going, where I've taken control of a no-name company and taken it to the #3 in the US with some reasonable house rules. The UFC and Strikeforce (still independent) are the #1 and #2.

I wanted to share about the career of Randy Couture so far. Here is a guy that when the game started 5 years ago, was looked to be on the backside of Hall of Fame career. He was the 3-time Heavyweight champ and 2-time Light Heavyweight champion and coming off of a win over Mark Coleman.

His next fight in 2011 was a title shot against Shogun Rua. Couture won the Light Heavyweight title for the 3rd time with an armbar submission over the champion, and then went on to defend his title with a TKO over Rashad Evans.

Couture dropped the title to Phil Davis when he was TKOed in the third round. Couture showed up to fight fellow former champ Rampage Jackson after a year and a half layoff, where many had speculated that he would retire and his career would end. At this point, Couture was 51 and well, well, well, beyond his years as a 6-time champion.

His fight with Jackson ended in the second round with another TKO loss, and again, retirement loomed for the superstar. But he did not go away, even though he had dropped out of the top 25 Randy Couture came back to fight a few months later.

His return fight was against a Japanese fighter by the name of Ryuta Noji. The Natural knocked him out in less than a minute. His second fight came in October of 2015 where he scored another win, a TKO, over Brazilian Alexandre Ferriera.

Phil Davis held the title for 2 years, having made 2 defenses over that time, and then ran into the buzzsaw that is Jon Jones in July of 2014. Jones had lost a decision to Rashad Evans back in 2011 that had delayed his run a title, but since had not lost. Jones TKOed Davis in the first round to win the title.

Since then he had beaten Tito Ortiz, Alexander Gustafsson, Rashad Evans, Stanislov Nedkov, and Kyle Kingsbury. Only Nedkov took him the distance, the rest were armbar or triangle submissions.

Jones has made 4 defenses of the title when Couture was given another shot at the title. At the age of 53 the UFC legend was set to take on the 29-year old Phenom who came in with a 19-2 record.

Jones took the first round and nearly finished the legend by putting Couture on his back and then taking his back. Jones answered in round 2 with more of the same. Couture looked overmatched and it looked like it was going to be a blowout.

Round 3 saw Couture catch his second wind and in true to life fashion pushed the bigger man around the cage and scored a takedown of his own. He controlled most of the action.

Round 4 was close, both men were getting tired and the fight turned into a dirty boxing/grappling fight. Couture even locked up Jones in a Muay Thai clinch, which if you can imagine the height disparity (Randy is some 5 inches shorter) would be hard to do.

It went to round 5. Both men were exhausted, and the fight was a war. Neither man could force his will on the other and the fight was largely played out against the cage with each man taking turns at holding the advantage.

In the end, the judges saw the fight a very close 48-47 fight for Jon Jones, as he retained his title. But the fact that 53-year old, Randy Couture, who had nearly quit the sport at age 50, came back again, took the top fighter in the sport 5 full rounds, and nearly pulled off an upset of monumental proportions was amazing.

So as of yet, Couture isn't planning on retiring. He is taking 6-weeks off and then will be ready to fight again. I wonder what direction his career will go from here?

I love this stuff.