In life there are few things more true than... ‘you never get what you expect’ and ‘never assume that you know what the next guy is gonna do’.  Life is full of surprises and I realized that more than ever when I watched the Chael Sonnen vs. Nate Marquardt fight.  Marquardt was a guarantee win over Sonnen, everyone assumed that it would be a good fight but in the end Nate would win. 

After all, he has a one punch knockout over Demian Maia, a guy that beat Sonnen pretty easily. Nate would win and go on to face Anderson Silva as probably the only guy worthy of the title shot at 185.  It was not to be, instead; Sonnen came into the fight taking Nate down at will and working an entertaining ground and pound.  He was relentless in attacking Nate, keeping him against the fence and not getting suckered into a stand up fight with a very dangerous striker. 

This is what makes MMA so interesting; a superior grappler/wrestler can always change the fight.  What made his grappling so significant in this fight was that Nate had no answer for it, no hip escapes, butterfly guards, switch reverses, nothing he could do to get Sonnen off of him.  Even the few times he was able to get back up, Sonnen took him down, at this level of fight one figures that Nate would have had some sort of answer to this type of fight.  For three rounds, Chael Sonnen made Nate Marquadt his bitch.  It wasn’t because Sonnen is so much better; it’s that Nate was seriously unprepared for that kind of fight. 

After watching the Randy Couture vs. Mark Coleman fight I’d say they both need to cash in their chips. There is no joy in watching two guys who probably should have quit the game a long time ago.  However, I will start with the easy target: Coleman had no head movement, went straight back to cage instead of circling, and didn’t take even one of his signature shots. 

He looked every bit of his 45 years in age, much more so then he did against Mauricio Rua and Stephan Bonnar.  He might have just had a bad night, but I just don’t think that there are too many good nights left in him.  Couture looked old too but he was still better than Coleman that night.  He got a gimme against Brandon Vera, got owned by Nogueira, and looked good in a loss against an unseasoned fighter in Brock Lesnar.  I’m not saying Randy Couture isn’t awesome, I’m just saying that he has no business being in the title picture at 205. 

The UFC can’t hide this for too much longer, they feed him to a fighter like Thiago Silva or Rua and you will witness the end of an era in the same way that Larry Holmes destroyed Ali.  Look for Randy to get lucky with a shot at the winner of Tito Ortiz vs. Chuck Liddell winner.  Fights like that will keep the checks coming and his honor intact long enough to retire as one of the best that did it his way.