February 13, 2006 Observer Newsletter: Randy Couture retires

A few decades from now, when most of what takes place now is long forgotten, some things will be remembered. A few will be remembered as actually being more significant than they were at the time they actually took place.

When Roger Maris hit his 61st home run, breaking Babe Ruth's record, and a record that was among baseball's holy grails until the steroid-induced changes in that game knocked it off, there was actually a small crowd at the park that day. Years later it became one of the great moments in baseball history. In wrestling vernacular, the Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat match at the Louisiana Superdome, which many consider as the greatest match of the greatest series of matches of that era, was actually performed before an embarrassing crowd.

It's impossible to know how things will look with the benefit, and often, the detriment of hindsight. But after this weekend, this much is clear. Dana White's catchphrase about boxing being your father's sport, which sounded like some clever thing, and totally full of crap, that Vince McMahon would say when knocking the NFL in 2001, is on the verge of happening. And if that's the case, the Gotch and Hackenschmidt of this story may very well be Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie. But the Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper will be Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell. Well, except that neither of them is either a carny or insane.

Subscribers can click here to read this issue.