Age is a funny thing in sports.

It is funny because it’s one of the few industries, except grape juice commercials, in which one is never too young to participate. That said, its definition of old is wildly inconsistent with that of the western world on the whole.

In the majority of major professional sports, an athlete is often deemed ready to be put out to pasture long before he or she is even qualified for an AARP membership.

But when an athlete defies this norm, the discussion gets a little more interesting. His or her involvement becomes a story — often one hell of a story. Such is the caseof the co-headliner of Saturday’s UFC 102, Randy Couture.

Couture (16-9-0) is 46 years old. Let that sink in for a second. Tom Watson — who played chicken with our heart strings during this summer’s British Open — is 59. Much was made of Watson’s performance. It was one for the books. Just think about this: Watson was just 13-years-old when Couture was born.

One more perspective builder for you: Couture, whose profession leaves him bleeding (or at least, quite bruised) after more competitions than not, was a six-year-old 39 years before now-Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre would go public with his off-season indecisiveness.

But we really don’t need to look outside Couture’s sport to really appreciate that not only is he still fights at a high level, but also is doing well enough to be headlining his fifth consecutive UFC pay-per-view event. The man is four years away from 50. I’m sorry I just can’t get past that.

If you watched his last fight, a second-round knockout loss to Brock Lesnar held last November, you might have noticed a few extra signs of age worn by Couture, but you’d never guess that the man who wrestled quite competently against a 280-pound behemoth was pushing 50.

With that in mind that Saturday’s storyline becomes even more interesting. See, Couture is fighting a 33-year-old and yet he’s not the oldest man in the Octagon. Follow me?

Couture’s opponent will be Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera (31-5-1) who — alongside Couture — is among the foremost heavyweights in mixed martial arts history. He’s a submission machine, winning 20 of his 31 victories in that fashion. And he came to the UFC after a largely successful campaign with Japan’s now-defunct Pride Fighting Championship, going 13-3-1 while pitted against the top heavyweights in the world.

Alas, the trait that kept Noguiera afloat (his ability to take a punch or 15) against competition such as Fedor Emelianenko, Mirko Cro Cop and Ricco Rodriguez may ultimately have written an early conclusion to the story of his career.

Noguiera was knocked out for the first time in his career at the hands of Frank Mir in his last fight eight months ago. Mir appeared light years ahead of Noguiera in terms of boxing ability and overall reflexes. Noguiera’s taxing battles in Japan sent him over the hill prematurely. And while mixed martial arts rarely lends itself to aged competitors statistically, a physically-aged fighter competing at a high level is far more rare. Couture-Noguiera is a fight long overdue. But is it too late? I’m calling for a knockout by Couture that will give the UFC it’s third consecutive pay-per-view to leave us with plenty to talk about.

One would assume following the triple main event of UFC 100 and the sheer domination by Anderson Silva and resurgence of B.J. Penn at UFC 101 would have been a near-impossible act to follow. Truth is, UFC 102 could give us not just one of the best MMA stories but also one of the better sports stories of the year.

— — Edited by Jacob Muselmann