MANCHESTER, England — The befuddled look on Brandon Vera's face told the story.

Vera took everything UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture had to offer in the clinch, wounded him with several wicked body kicks and mounted him in the closing seconds, only to lose a unanimous decision in the "UFC 105: Couture vs. Vera" main event yesterday at the Manchester Evening News Arena.

The scores were 29-28 across the board for Couture, who narrowly avoided the first three-fight losing streak of his career. Labeled an underachiever by many, Vera fought well against a master strategist, according to ESPN.com, but went unrewarded by cage-side judges.

"I thought I won," Vera said. "I left it all out there."

Couture, who had not won a fight as a light heavyweight since his 2005 submission victory over Mike Van Arsdale, seemed to sense the brewing controversy.

"You just don't know what the judges are looking at, how they see the fight," he said.

Couture did his best work against the cage in the clinch, but he scored with only one takedown and failed to keep Vera on the ground for any appreciable amount of time.