Nogueira handles Couture

PORTLAND, Ore. — A rare appearance before hometown fans ended in disappointment for Randy Couture, who lost a unanimous decision to Brazil’s Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in the main event of UFC 102 at the Rose Garden on Saturday night.

At age 46, Couture would seem an unlikely superstar in a sport dominated by younger grapplers. On Saturday, the 33-year-old Nogueira proved too much for Couture to overcome.

After an evenly matched opening two minutes, Nogueira landed a hard right hand that knocked Couture to the mat.

The resilient Couture managed to fight his way back to his feet and was able to dish out several hard shots before the end of the round.

One of those shots even opened a cut on the side of the Brazilian’s left eye, but the judges still gave Nogueira the overall edge for the round.

Another hard hit sent Couture to the mat early in the second round, and he stayed there for quite a while before managing to fight his way back to this feet. But Nogueira showed his strength by following up with a string of hard right hands to Couture’s head.

Couture went down again early in the third and took a considerable amount of punishment while on his back.

Just as he had two times before, Couture was able to reverse his way out of trouble. He retaliated with elbows to Nogueira’s jaw. But it wasn’t enough for the former assistant wrestling coach at Oregon State, and Nogueira managed to hold on for the victory.

“He’s one of my idols,” Nogueira (32-5-1) said of Couture (16-10) afterward.

In the co-main event, light heavyweight Thiago Silva beat Keith Jardine, using a bruising left hook to drop Jardine to the mat and then attacking him with a series of ground shots before the fight was stopped.

Silva improved to 13-1 with the win, while Jardine fell to 14-7-1.

In a middleweight bout, Nate Marquardt (32-8-2) handed Demian Maia his first loss, stopping the young fighter 21 seconds into the first round.

It was Maia’s first loss in 12 fights.