Editor's Note: Jamie Penick, the editor of our sister site, MMATorch.com, is running a daily series of articles profiling and previewing Saturday night's big fight between Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar. The following is an extended excerpt of that article followed by a link to read the entire article Full Article Link...). Check MMATorch.com daily for more fight previews this week and then visit MMATorch.com on Saturday night for full team live coverage of the PPV as it happens...

This is part one of my Countdown to UFC 91 series. Come back every day for a new article covering some aspect of this historic main event bout between Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar for the UFC Heavyweight Championship. Today's part one looks at the fight history of the Champion, "The Natural," Randy Couture.

The man is a legend. He is the most decorated Champion in the history of Mixed Martial Arts, and he currently holds the Ultimate Fighting Championship's Heavyweight Title. He is, of course, "Captain America" Randy Couture, and he is the 45 year old warrior defending that belt this coming Saturday in Las Vegas, Nevada. He has not had an MMA fight since August of last year; and yet, this more than a year long layoff is nothing new to the man they call "The Natural."

Coming out of his 13 month "retirement" in March of 2007, Couture defeated then Champion Tim Sylvia for the Heavyweight Title. He then defended that Title against Gabriel Gonzaga in August. As we all know, he then left the UFC in October due to a multitude of reasons. Now, 15 months after he was last seen competing in the Octagon, Randy "The Natural" Couture finds himself poised to take on perhaps one of the best raw talents to ever come into the sport in one Brock Lesnar.

Brock Lesnar is, like Couture, a former collegiate wrestler. He was winning the NCAA Championship in the year 2000 while Couture was already on his way to becoming a legend in the Mixed Martial Arts game. He has seen most every situation a fighter can see, and he's been up against a vast variety of competition. Lesnar is a different beast altogether, though; and looking back through Couture's eleven year history as a fighter, it's impossible to find any one of Couture's opponents who even resembles the kind of man he's facing on Saturday.

Randy's up against one of the biggest, strongest and fastest heavyweights to enter the Octagon, and he's not letting that faze him in the least. What Lesnar has in raw talent he can't come close to with experience, and Couture's going to look to use that to his advantage in this fight on Saturday.

When looking at this Saturday's bout, and in order to gauge a good feel for what Randy will do in this fight, it's important to take a look back at some of the bigger fights in his career. As a Champion in both the heavyweight and light heavyweight divisions, Randy's had his fare share of big fights, and it is in those fights that we've seen what "Captain America" can accomplish.

We can go back to May 30, 1997. UFC 13. It's on this night that the legend begins. Randy Couture explodes onto the then over 200 lbs heavyweight scene by defeating two opponents in one night to win a heavyweight tournament. In his very first bout, he took down Tony Halme and worked him on the ground to an easy rear naked choke submission. He would go on that night to stop Steven Graham with strikes in the first round...

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