UFC 68: What happened when Randy Couture came out of retirement to fight for the Heavyweight Championship?
UFC 68 took place on March 3, 2007 and was built around UFC Hall of Famer, Randy Couture's much-anticipated return to the Octagon after he had retired following his loss to Chuck Liddell at UFC 57, some 13 months earlier.
In his first Heavyweight bout in five years, Couture was not expected to overcome Heavyweight Champion, Tim Sylvia but beat him he did, in yet another thrilling entry in Couture's UFC career.
Couture floored Sylvia early and never gave up control of the fight. He dominated in the clinch and on the ground and utilised the type of combinations you would expect Sylvia to employ. "Captain America" won every round and earned the Unanimous Decision victory. Your new and first three-time Heavyweight Champion in UFC history, Randy Couture.
Underneath, Martin Kampmann made light work of Drew McFedries after he withstood an early storm of strikes to employ an arm triangle submission for the win. Hugely impressive victory for the Middleweight.
Rich Franklin was looking to bounce back from a resounding loss to Anderson Silva at UFC 64 several months earlier when he took on Jason MacDonald. Franklin kept control of the contest throughout with some stinging strikes and takedowns.
He brutalized MacDonald so much in the second round that MacDonald's corner threw in the towel to hand Franklin the victory via stoppage. A morale-boosting win for Franklin as he sought to fight his way back into Middleweight title contention.
Matt Hughes returned to action following his loss of the Welterweight Championship to Georges St. Pierre at UFC 65. Hughes won via Decision in a largely forgettable bout versus Chris Lytle.
Jason Lambert rounded out the card with a victory over former Light-Heavyweight contender, Renato Sobral. "Babalu" looked strong early as he tried to work a submission but dropped his hands and walked into a big right hand from Lambert which put him down as the first round ended.
Sobral had not sufficiently recovered when the second round began and was promptly put down to the canvas again with a left hand this time which was the beginning of the end as Lambert finished him with punches for the TKO win. Huge win for Lambert. Sobral would fight just once more for the UFC in one of the more controversial fights the promotion has ever produced.
UFC 68 was a colossal success, pulling in 568,000 buys on pay per view. Couture didn't still just have it in the Octagon; he still had the midas touch at the box office too.