Feb-4-2010

The Thrill’s not gone for Randy Couture

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By Thomas Gerbasi

Randy Couture is 46 years old. There’s no getting around it and it is certainly the 800-pound gorilla in the room whenever the UFC Hall of Famer gets around the media. But I’ll let you in on a little secret – he doesn’t really care about what the date on his birth certificate says.

Sure, he knows that he’s nearer to the end of his career than most guys at the elite level of the fight game, but the bottom line remains that circa 2010, Couture is still relevant, still dangerous, still loving the sport, and still seeking out the best possible fights he can.

“It’s what’s intriguing, what’s fun, and what’s interesting to me that’s most important at this stage of things,” he said. “I’m having a blast fighting and competing, I feel blessed and fortunate each and every time I get to go out there again and I realize, rationally, that at some point this is all gonna come to an end, and probably sooner rather than later. But I still feel like I’m getting better, I’m holding up well, I’m not slowing down and so I’ll go where the opportunities present themselves. And so far, the interesting fights and the opportunities have been at 205.”

After a year-long retirement following a 2006 knockout loss to Chuck Liddell at 205 pounds, Couture returned to the Octagon as a heavyweight in 2007 and proceeded to win the crown for the third time by beating Tim Sylvia, and then went on to defend it against Gabriel Gonzaga before losing the title to Brock Lesnar in 2008. Seemingly written off, he then engaged in a three round war with “Minotauro” Nogueira last August before dropping a unanimous decision and then deciding to return to the light heavyweight division. And though the beginning of his second stint at UFC 105 last November was far from spectacular, he did defeat Brandon Vera by decision, putting him right back in the contenders mix.

“It felt good,” said Couture of life back among the light heavies. “The weight cut wasn’t hard at all and I didn’t expect that it would be. I’ve never had an issue getting my weight down to 205-206 and it’s not a big cut, so it’s not real difficult. I tighten up the eating habits a little bit and watch things a little closer the week of the fight. Competition-wise it was good to be in there with a guy my own size. Tactically, it makes a difference. You don’t have to be as strategic with some of the positions and things that you try to do or that you’re concerned about getting into with a guy that’s much bigger than you.”

Tactically, Couture was as sharp as ever, executing a methodical gameplan that stifled the explosive striking attack of Vera and kept the five-time UFC champion in control for the majority of the bout. It was proof positive that despite being in his mid-40’s, there are some things in this game that only come with time.

“Experience kicks in and I’ve figured out and am pretty good at sticking to what I need to do,” said Couture. “I rarely get into a situation where I stray from that and that seems to work.”

It’s this type of discipline that has been a hallmark of Couture’s nearly 13 year pro MMA career. Even when talking to his opponent this Saturday night in the main event of UFC 109 – Mark Coleman – it’s clear that one of the things people most respect about ‘The Natural’ is his ability to stay calm under pressure, quickly analyze a situation, and adjust accordingly. It’s a gift Couture said that he picked up under fire as a young man.

“I learned it at an early age, when I had two kids by the time I was 20 years old, and trying to juggle all the balls of being in the service, competing in the service, and then going into college, and having a wife and two kids there while competing at a high level in the NCAAs,” he said. “You become a juggler; you’re keeping a whole bunch of things in the air, and you learn to compartmentalize things so that one area doesn’t get in the way of the other area, and you kinda get the most out of yourself. And that training and those experiences early on gave me the dynamics to be able to do that, and that’s paid dividends down the road when things came up. I’m doing a lot of different things – I’ve got businesses and all kinds of other stuff that I’m running, and fortunately I’ve attracted some great staff and people that help me juggle it all, and it would be much, much harder and maybe impossible without those people, but I’ve managed to put things in boxes, set them aside and focus on what I need to focus on right now, and figuring out those priorities and getting them straight is something I’ve managed to do.”

Along the way he’s also managed to build one of the game’s greatest resumes, one that began with a 56 second win over Tony Halme at UFC 13 in May of 1997. Another victory that same night over Steven Graham followed, and two fights later, he was the UFC heavyweight champion. His first defense? Mark Coleman at UFC 17 in May of 1998.

“I was excited about the opportunity and I saw it as a big challenge,” said Couture of the originally scheduled meeting with Coleman. “In a lot of ways that was really the peak of Mark’s career.”

Unfortunately, a rib injury took Couture out of the fight, and Coleman was subsequently knocked out by Pete Williams, putting the dream matchup on the backburner, seemingly forever.

“I was looking forward to the fight and was disappointed that I didn’t get a chance to compete because of the injury, and then seeing Mark turn around and get knocked out by Pete Williams, I was like ‘damn. I probably could have won the fight,’” said Couture. “I’ve never been the knockout guy, so it wouldn’t have been like Pete beat him, but I think I had a chance of beating him.”

After another loss in the UFC, Coleman would go off to resurrect his career in Japan’s PRIDE organization. Couture would have a nearly three year stint himself in Japan, fighting for the Rings organization and Vale Tudo Japan before returning to the UFC, first for a bout against Kevin Randleman in 2000, and then for good in 2001. All along, he never gave the bout with Coleman a second thought, even though he kept an eye on his fellow wrestler.

“I’m one of those guys that just kinda let’s things go,” said Couture. “Things happen the way they happen and they work out the way they’re supposed to work out. I never really dragged a lot of those feelings around. Of course I watched Mark compete because he was another wrestler and I was intrigued by the way he applied wrestling to fighting and I thought that there were things that I could learn from the way he was doing things. So I absolutely paid attention to him and a lot of the other guys that were fighting, but as far as fighting him, I kinda let it go.”

Yet when Coleman returned to the UFC in 2009, some fans speculated about the two Hall of Famers finally meeting in the Octagon. Couture wasn’t exactly on the same page, considering that he began the year at heavyweight and Coleman was competing at 205 pounds, and he even approached ‘The Hammer’ about coming to his Xtreme Couture gym in Las Vegas after he ran out of gas in his game, but losing, effort against Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua.

“I always thought that Mark had a tremendous amount of talent and he’s a very tough guy,” said Couture. “I think Mark’s downfall has always been that he puts himself in these training environments and situations where he doesn’t get the most out of himself. I saw that in the Shogun fight. Here’s this guy who’s hanging in there, and it was apparent that he hadn’t trained. I saw him at one of the shows after the Shogun fight, and said ‘why don’t you get out here and train with us, and we’ll at least get you in shape. (Future Coleman opponent Stephan) Bonnar’s no joke. He’s a good, solid fighter, and he’s gonna knock your head off, especially if you’re not in shape.’ It was a little conflict because Bonnar trains here too, but again, I come from that wrestling mentality where there are no secrets. It’s not like you’re gonna be training together or in the gym at the same time. So it wasn’t that big of a deal for either one of them, and Coleman took me up on it. He showed up out here, put in some good training, and I think it paid dividends for him because when it gets down to it, he’s a pretty talented guy. He’s a physical fighter, has got a lot of horsepower and he does a lot of things pretty well, and he’s a pretty solid wrestler. But you’ve still gotta train, and that’s been his downfall.”

Coleman defeated Bonnar at UFC 100 last July, and when the fight between Couture and Coleman was signed, the former Ohio State University standout again returned to Vegas, this time training with Shawn Tompkins at the TapouT training center. But there’s no daggers being thrown, no trash talk in the press, just a couple of vets getting ready for a fight nearly 12 years in the making.

That’s the appeal of this for the fans, along with the chance to see two legends of the game go at it for 15 minutes or less. So yeah, Mark Coleman is 45 years old, and Randy Couture is 46, but as far as Couture is concerned, the best still may be yet to come, just because he’s not done mastering this game yet.

“When I transitioned from wrestling to fighting, I had been wrestling for so long that the little teeny things that I was learning and tweaking to improve my wrestling style and refine my technique seemed so minuscule in the grand scheme of things that it was almost frustrating,” he said. “Then I started fighting and there was this whole new world where every time I worked out I learned some new technique or some new thing that seemed immense; it was exciting and fun and here, 12 years later, just about every week I’m refining or learning something new that doesn’t seem miniscule. That’s one of the things I really enjoy and that makes it fun because there’s so many facets to the sport of MMA and each and every one of them has their merit and applicability to the fight game.”

So the end’s not near, right?

“I think the fans are gonna see some more good competition coming from me, and hopefully I’ll get a chance to fight more of the best guys in the weight class at 205 pounds.”