It may be suprising to some, but he has a better shot at 205. I still think he is too small for HW. I don't think he can do it to be honest. He squeeked by Brandon Vera, and just beat a pure boxer in James Toney. Machida would own him, Shogun would brutalize, and someone like Jon Jones would be too much at this point on the mat.
If he were to win a title back, it would be at 205, and I don't think he will. If he were to get Shogun on an off night, or if Shogun came in out of shape, the stylistic match up lines up pretty well for Couture; however, he simply can't execute his style at the level he was once able, an aging chin and slowed reactions can end the fight in a hurry.
As I said I think Shogun would have been a bad style matchup for Randy at any point in his career. Coutures always been the master gameplaner targetting an opponants weaknesses, thats whats allowed him to pull off so many upsets down the years. What weaknesses is he going to target with Shogun? Randy would be the better wrestler but the difference in BJJ is pretty large and if Shogun gets the sweep the danger from GnP is significant. Even agenst a beat up Nog that problem of having nowhere to take the fight to his advanatge seemed pretty clear.
yeah but would couture have a chance against evans if he gets passed shogun? Or would evans be too quick.
I think at this point Evans would be too much for Couture. Beebs said it right Couture cant execute quite as well as a few years ago we saw this vs a decent wrestler in Vera. Evans is pretty much at his peak Couture will find it difficult to close the distance on such a fast footed fighter, will find it very difficult to take him down and wear out remember Rashad is as well conditioned as any fighter at 205. I think Randy in some ways is a better striker as he tends to open up alittle more but its only going to take 1-2 shots and Rashad is soooo much faster at some point hes going to land and probably KO Couture. Few years ago I think Randy was so effective with his style he would probably be the favorite. Still though not a bad fighter for a guy pushing 50.