No.9: Ricco Rodriguez vs. Randy Couture – 3.04mins of Round 5
Ricco Rodriguez and Randy Couture fought for the vacant heavyweight title at UFC 39 in 2002 and it was a gruelling contest that stretched all the way into the fifth round.
In the early rounds it was Couture who had the upper-hand, but he began to fatigue in the championship rounds and Rodriguez, who had only been beaten once in his fourteen fight career up to that point, began to make his mark.
Still, heading into the final round Rodriguez knew he likely needed a finish to win the title, and in pursuit of the finish he took Couture down and started working ground and pound.
Half-way through the round Rodriguez began landing some punishing elbow strikes to the head of Couture.
One particularly thunderous blow left ‘The Natural’ wincing in pain due to what would later prove to have been a broken orbital bone, and that led the future hall-of-famer to quickly decide he simply couldn’t continue, verbally submitting just one minute and 56 seconds away from victory.
