The Greatest MMA Column: 11.22.08: Couture Interview and The Natural’s Next Move

Posted by Dan Plunkett on 11.22.2008

Randy "The Natural" Couture took some time to talk to 411mania.com about fighting Fedor, his game plan, and more! Plus, everyone's thrown in their thoughts on Brock Lesnar, but what about the man he beat? Sure, Brock Lesnar defied the odds by becoming the UFC Heavyweight Champion* just over a year after he was signed, but Randy Couture has defied the odds many times, and he'll do it again. All that and more in what Jon Fitch's video game character has called "The Greatest MMA Column."

Even with his extremely busy schedule, Randy Couture, one of the best and most popular fighters ever, answered some questions for 411mania.com. Here it is:


Dan Plunkett: Firstly I'd like to thank you for taking time to do this interview with 411mania.com, at UFC 91, you took part in a fight that may have been the biggest fight in the history of MMA, what does that mean to you?

Randy Couture: I'm honored that people are talking about it that way. I've been fortunate to have been involved in a number of high profile bouts in my career but this one definitely had a different feel to it. The buzz and the energy leading up to the fight was incredible.

DP: In that fight against Brock Lesnar, you looked to have a good game plan of wearing him down for the later rounds, was that your game plan and how do you see that fight playing out if you hadn't been caught?

Randy Couture: The game plan was definitely to go out there, get in Brock's face, make him work, and try to frustrate him. Obviously, we knew that with his physical tools there was a good chance that I was going to have to work my way out from underneath him. I just wanted to keep my hands in his face, keep him from doing damage if he did take me down, and eventually put him on bottom to see how he'd handle the pressure there. Up until that big shot landed, I felt like everything that I trained to do was working. I got out from underneath him, controlled the clinch game, and was getting off good punches of my own. Unfortunately, when you're in there with a guy like Brock who is so big and hits so hard, there's always that possibility that you're going to get rocked.

"Up until that big shot landed, I felt like everything that I trained to do was working."


DP: People have thrown out a lot of names in regards to you're next opponent, including Chuck Liddell, Anderson Silva, the loser of Nogueira/Mir, and I personally would like to see you fight Lyoto Machida, who out of those names would you most like to fight and who do you think is the most likely opponent for you next?

Randy Couture: I haven't really thought too far ahead about that. Right now, I'm just taking some time to regroup and weigh out my options. I definitely think that those are all interesting matchups that would pose unique challenges, but it's too soon to say who I'll likely fight next.

DP: This whole spectacle with yourself and the UFC was started by your interest in fighting Fedor Emelianenko, after your loss are you still looking to fight Fedor?

Randy Couture: That's absolutely still the most appealing fight out there in my mind. Unfortunately, with the issues between Fedor's management and the UFC, it doesn't look like there is much chance of that fight happening any time soon.

Even after the loss, Couture still wants Fedor.


DP: Once again thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedule for this interview with 411mania.com, are there any sponsors, training partners, random people you would like to thank?

Randy Couture: I'd like to thank the whole team at Xtreme Couture for helping me prepare for this fight, and all of my family, friends, and fans for their support. I wouldn't be where I am today without them.


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The Natural's Next Move

7 days. In just 7 days, a week if you will, roughly 2 billion people have given their opinion on Brock Lesnar winning the UFC Heavyweight Title. Unless an event happens on a Wednesday, I am pretty much the last person to give my opinion about what went down at a recent MMA event. So instead of making you read my thoughts on the win over an entire column, I've condensed them into some easy to read bullet points.

• Brock Lesnar is big and strong.
• He BEAT Randy Couture.
• He has great wrestling.
• He is a powerful puncher.
• He will be very hard to beat in 2 years.

So now that that is out of the way, I'll give my thoughts on a guy kind of lost in all of this, Randy Couture. Brock Lesnar is the type of fighter that Randy has a hard time beating. Not only is he bigger than him, but he cancels out Couture's biggest strength, his wrestling. Couture executed his game plan to near perfection, he wanted to tire out Brock for the later rounds. His only mistake was when he was hit with that big punch behind the ear, which will throw anybody's balance off.

Randy has overcome the odds many times, and he will again. With 2 fights remaining of his UFC contract, Couture has a couple of options. He could either keep fighting in the heavyweight division, where the fighters are bigger than him, and the champion already beat him decisively, or he could move down to light-heavyweight, a weight class he is no stranger to. In 2003, Couture moved to the light-heavyweight division to fight Chuck Liddell for the Interim UFC Light-Heavyweight Championship after losing 2 heavyweight fights in a row. An underdog coming into the fight, Couture TKO'd Liddell in the 3rd round after dominating the fight. After that, he beat Tito Ortiz to become the undisputed UFC Light-Heavyweight Champion, in a fight where he was once again the underdog. Last Saturday, Couture was once again the underdog, but the betting odds were correct this time, as Brock Lesnar stopped him in the second round. But Couture will be back, not just to fighting again, but back to being one of the top fighter s in the sport, no matter which weight division he chooses to fight at next.

There have been a few names of possible opponents for Couture thrown around by the fans, including a fourth battle with Chuck Liddell. Since there are some names being thrown around, I'll take a look at each possible bout, and come to a conclusion of who would be the most logical choice for Randy Couture to fight next.

1. Chuck Liddell- Right after Randy lost to Brock, Chuck Liddell was one of, if not the first name people came up with to fight Randy Couture next. It would be the fourth fight between the two, which I'm not too keen on. I think fighters should only fight the same opponent 3 times at the most, unless there is a good reason to exceed that number. In this case, there isn't really a reason to exceed that number, other than making money. At this point in their careers, a fourth fight between Liddell and Couture would essentially be a loser retires fight, since Liddell is coming off a devastating knockout loss to Rashad Evans, and on top of that has lost 3 of his last 4. Couture obviously is coming off of a loss to Brock Lesnar, on top of that he is 45 years old, about 12-15 years after a fighter is supposed to be at their peak. While it would be a competitive and interesting fight, this one just doesn't make sense now.

Couture/Liddell IV? Rhyming helps its chances.


2. Loser of Nogueira vs. Mir-If Randy Couture chooses to stay at heavyweight, this would obviously be the most logical opponent for him, especially if Nogueira, who is widely regarded as the 2nd best heavyweight ever, loses. After Randy Couture came back, the guy many people wanted him to fight was Minotauro Nogueira, since he was, and still is holding the interim UFC Heavyweight Championship, while Couture remained the UFC Heavyweight Champion so the UFC could provide a stronger court case against him. Frank Mir is a guy that has gone through many ups and downs. He started his career on a roll, winning his first 4 fights, before losing to Ian Freeman, where he was overwhelmed from the start. While Couture vs. Mir/Nogueira wouldn't be anything to brag about in terms of PPV buys, unless it was supported by a title fight main event, it would be a treat for the fans, especially in the case of the latter.

3. Lyoto Machida- As I said in this week's Fact or Fiction (where I wiped the floor with Dustin James), I think Couture vs. Machida would be a win-win for the UFC. It's obvious the UFC doesn't want to give a title shot to Machida because he isn't a draw on PPV, and to a lesser his fighting style. This fight would solve all of this, if Machida wins, he would gain more legitimacy in the eyes of fans and he would become a bigger PPV draw. If Couture won that would put him into immediate contention for the UFC Light-Heavyweight Title, where he could have potentially the biggest fight in history with Forrest Griffin. Even though that isn't very likely, since Forrest trains at Randy's gym, Xtreme Couture, it's still fun to think about a fight like that.

4. Anderson Silva- I know what you're thinking, but no, Anderson Silva would not completely murder Randy Couture. Anderson Silva is an unbelievably talented striker, especially in terms of his precision, but I said it once, I'll say it again, Randy Couture posses the perfect style to defeat Anderson Silva. Everybody who saw UFC 82 knows that Anderson Silva lost the first round to Dan Henderson, which showed the best way to beat Silva. The weakest part of Silva's game is his wrestling, which coincidentally, is Couture's biggest strength. Anderson has been able to overpower his opponents in the clinch in previous fights, but not this time, Couture is stronger than Silva, and the clinch is one of his best qualities as a fighter, even though he may not want to risk being in that situation with Anderson Silva. Silva's manager has repeatedly said that Anderson wants to be involved in big fights, and this is a huge fight. Even though Silva isn't a PPV draw, only drawing more than 325,000 buys once (largely in part to Tito Ortiz), judging by the ratings for his UFC light-heavyweight debut against James Irvin, fans are curious about "The Spider." Couture is one of the biggest PPV draws the UFC has, and this fight would be so hard to predict an outcome in it would draw a lot of attention.

Conclusion- I think the most logical choice would be Anderson Silva. Maybe it's just because I would love to see this fight more than all of the others, but I think this is the time to make this fight happen.

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Fight Of The Week

Keeping with the Randy Couture theme, here is Randy Couture vs. Jeremy Horn:



That's it for this Randy Couture filled week. Thanks for reading and come back next week, oh and by the way, you're not going to want to miss what I have in store for the loyal fan(yes, not plural) of "The Greatest MMA Column" in January. Once again, I'll leave you with the latest edition of MMA Live: