COLUMBUS, Ohio - Ultimate Fighting Championship legend Randy Couture made a dramatic return to the octagon Saturday night, winning a unanimous decision over heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia during UFC 68: The Uprising in Nationwide Arena.

Couture, coming off a 12-month retirement, was knocked out in three of his last five fights before calling it quits in February 2006.

The 43-year-old Couture, at 6-foot-2 and 222 pounds, agreed to return when he was offered a shot at Sylvia. Couture took immediate control of the fight by sending the 6-foot-8, 263-pound champion to the mat with a right hook seconds into the first round. Couture dominated each of the five five-minute rounds, and sent the crowd into a frenzy when he reclaimed the belt that he lost to Ricco Rodriguez in September 2002. After that fight, Couture dropped to the light heavyweight division and claimed that UFC belt before losing it to Liddell in April 2005.

A sold-out crowd of 19,049 - the largest crowd in UFC history - witnessed the first UFC event in Ohio. The nine-fight card was televised live on pay-per-view. Middleweight champion Anderson Silva and Cincinnati Reds stars Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Dunn were among the celebrities with front-row seats. According to Nationwide Arena officials, the gate was the largest in the eight-year history of the facility, topping even the Rolling Stones.

In a featured preliminary fight, former UFC welterweight champ Matt Hughes made a successful return to the UFC with a unanimous decision win over Chris Lytle.

Hughes was fighting for the first time since losing his welterweight title to Georges St. Pierre in November. The popular Hughes improved to 43-5 by winning a three-round decision over Lytle, who dropped to 32-14-4.

In another featured preliminary bout, Rich Franklin, in his first fight since losing the middleweight belt to Silva in October, ignited the crowd into a frenzy when he battered Jason MacDonald until the Canadian was unable to continue after the end of the second round. Franklin is now 23-2, MacDonald 19-8.

Also on the main card, Jason Lambert (23-6) won by knockout over fellow lightweight Renato Sorbral (27-7) with a ferocious left hook at 3:36 of the second round. Middleweight Martin Kampmann (12-1) beat Drew McFedries (5-2) by submission in a swing fight before the main event.

In the preliminary bouts, lightweight Gleison Tibau (24-3) won a unanimous decision over Jason Dent (12-8); lightweight Jamie Varner (10-1) won by technical knockout over Jason Gilliam (11-1) at 1:34 of the first round; welterweight Jon Fitch (18-2) won by submission over Luigi Fioravanti (11-2) at 3:05 of the first round; and light heavyweight Matt Hamill (5-0) won by technical knockout over Rex Holman (4-2) at 4:00 of the first round.