issue 219

July 2025

August 25, 2007

Mandalay Bay Events Centre, Las Vegas, Nevada

UFC 74

By Brad Wharton

Despite his achievements, his championships, and the impact on the UFC, it often felt like Randy Couture was locked in an endless battle to earn his respect. UFC 74 was no exception. He would enter the main event as an underdog champion, against an opponent with thirty pounds and sixteen years of youth on him. He would listen to weeks of build-up, noting his perpetual battle with Father Time, as if to soften the blow for an inevitable passing of the torch. Once again, he would have to convince them. It was fitting, then, that the event was titled ‘Respect.’

PROGRESS IS IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT CHANGE

They called him Napao. Translated literally as ‘Big Nose’, it also serves as a Brazilian colloquialism for someone with the ability to sense what is about to happen. In August 2007, Gabriel Gonzaga was sure he could see the future. One where he stood tall atop the UFC’s heavyweight division with a belt around his waist and the scalps of legends strewn around his feet. And who could argue with him? With only one early misstep in nine professional bouts, undefeated in four UFC contests, and with a ledger full of brutal finishes, Gonzaga was the epitome of progress. The winds of change were whistling. Just ask Mirko Cro Cop. The 2006 PRIDE Open Weight Grand Prix champion was considered among the most lethal men in all of combat sports. After transitioning to the UFC, most felt that his April 2007 bout with Gonzaga was merely a formality to cement the Croatian as the #1 contender to Couture’s title. Gonzaga had other ideas, taking him down, beating him up, and eventually decapitating him with a head kick that remains one of the sport’s most iconic finishes. 

CHANGE HAS ITS ENEMIES

Randy Couture was an enemy of change. In early 2003, the two-time heavyweight champion sat comfortably retired. By September of that year, he’d reestablished himself as one of the world’s best active fighters, entering a new weight division at 40 years of age to decimate its most dangerous contender and dominate its long-standing champion. In 2007, he returned from a second retirement to capture a third heavyweight title at 44. In a fight where fans and pundits alike had spent the build-up positing genuine fears for his safety, ‘The Natural’ pitched a defiant shutout. As far as Couture was concerned, Change and Progress could join the line behind Father Time and anyone else wanting to test his mettle. Something about Gonzaga felt different, though. Napao was the kind of skilled, athletic 265-pound monster who had forced the 220-pound Couture to concede that times were changing five years earlier. The competitor in him was sick of being counted out. Tired of all the caveats about his age. If they weren’t going to give him his respect, then he’d damn well take it.

ROUND ONE

First blood went to the hulking Brazilian, flicking out a pair of fast punches as the commentators fawned over the sheer size difference between him and Couture. Size and speed? How was the old man supposed to deal with such a two-punch combo? The answer came instantly, as Couture drilled his man with a stiff jab that made Gonzaga lurch, before swatting away with his trademark close-range punches. Napao was shaken and went barrelling straight into a takedown attempt. It wasn’t quite there, but after a quick left hand, Couture slipped around to his back and tripped the bigger man to the canvas. He mauled him on the mat and then up against the fence when Gonzaga returned to his feet, catching him with a big knee for good measure. 

CHANGING TACKS

When Napao landed the same big head kick that had poleaxed CroCop, it came against the run of play. He wasn’t sure on his feet, though, and there was little behind it, allowing Couture to plug away and continue to get the better of the stand-up exchanges. ‘The Natural’ executed a huge Greco-Roman slam, but Gonzaga popped right back up to engage in the clinch. He landed his best strikes of the fight in close, but the cameras soon picked up that his nose had been crushed by Couture’s skull as he’d been driven into the canvas. The remainder of the first passed uneventfully with Couture imposing his will in close quarters, a punch here, an elbow there, grating Gonzaga against the cage. The real story was the Brazilian’s profusely bleeding nose. His mouth hung slack as he gasped for air between spitting mouthfuls of blood down Randy’s back.

ROUND TWO

Perhaps knowing he was on borrowed time, Gonzaga came out throwing the high kick with venom in the second. It whizzed past the smaller man’s head, though, allowing him to once again get his steel cable grip around the Brazilian’s upper body. Whether grinding against the cage or using the clinch to set up strikes, Couture was turning in a textbook performance. Even when he did engage in a brief firefight, his superior wrestling meant it only lasted as long as he wanted it to.  In a bizarre turn of events, Gonzaga, while crushed up against the fence, told referee Herb Dean that he could no longer see due to the blood in his eyes. The official halted the action and separated the fighters to inform Gonzaga that he couldn’t stop the action to wipe the blood out of his eyes. He then allowed the doctor to do so anyway, before restarting the bout.

BACK AT IT 

Couture went straight back to his takedown attempts, forcing Gonzaga to grab the fence to prevent another big slam, a move that cost the Brazilian grappler a point. ‘The Natural’, nonplussed, re-commenced the close quarters beating, smashing hooks and uppercuts into his opponent’s already battered frame. Each time he’d re-clinch to avoid any comeback, resting on the big man while streaks of Gonzaga’s blood mixed with the sweat running down his own back. A shovel of a right hand landed for Captain America, but Gonzaga dug back in with a knee to the sternum and looked for a trip of his own as the round ended. He was still in the fight.

THE FINAL BELL

The first head kick attempt Gonzaga threw up to start round three was inches short, allowing Couture to pick away with punches from range. He wasn’t as lucky with the second. 265lbs of Brazilian shin wrapped around his face with an impact that sounded like a baseball bat, causing ‘The Natural’s legs to visibly stiffen.

Gonzaga lumbered forward to take advantage, but he was a spent force. Couture wrapped him up on autopilot and put him back on the fence before dragging his bloody and exhausted foe to the canvas. From there, it was academic. Punches, elbows, forearms; Couture dropped everything on him while the referee screamed at Gonzaga to fight back. The fight had been beaten out of him, though, and at 1:37 of the third round, Randy Couture earned his respect.