Randy "The Natural" Couture came off the Greco-Roman wrestling circuit and into the UFC tearing up everyone in his path. He showed NHB fans that wrestlers can do a lot more than just ground and pound. He came in with a technical game that included a lot more than just double leg take downs. Couture opened the minds of a lot of fighters and introduced them to what Greco-Roman wrestling had to offer the NHB community. He used those skills to climb to the top of the UFC. He destroyed the Phenom, when people thought Belfort was invincible and revenged Mark Coleman's loss to the grappler killer, Maurice Smith. Right at the pinnacle of his career, negotiations broke down at SEG and the undefeated UFC heavyweight champ was stripped of his title. Almost a year later, Couture returned to fight Enson Inoue in the '98 Japan Vale Tudo, but was surprised by an arm lock. The Natural had one more fight after that, but for most NHB fans, he dropped off the face of the planet. Out of nowhere, Couture had three big matches, first in the RINGS King of Kings tournament with Jeremy Horn and Ryushi Yanagisawa [October 9th] and then he dethroned "The Monster" Kevin Randleman for the UFC title on November 17th. He has returned to what he is best at, winning. I called Randy for the first part of this interview before UFC XXVIII and the last portion of this interview took place after his victory over Randleman.

FCF: You have only fought twice in almost three years, both of them being losses in Japan [10/25/98 against Enson Inoue and 3/22/99 against Mikhail Illoukhine] until your recent fights in RINGS and the UFC. Other than the Olympic trials this year, what else have you been up to?
Randy Couture: Mostly, just wrestling. National championships, European tours, I wrestled in Iran. Mostly all wrestling competitions.

FCF: Let's talk about your two losses. They came when you were at the pinnacle of your NHB career, dominating your opponents fairly comfortable, then you lost two in a row. Can you tell us a little about how you felt during that period?
RC: I don't think there was anything easy about the Maurice Smith, 21-minute title fight. It was a fairly controlled fight, but definitely not an easy fight, at least not from my perspective. Things kind of broke down that year with the UFC and SEG and I was not under contract with them anymore. I had an opportunity to go to Japan Vale Tudo and fight. Enson is a game fighter and is skilled. He has a lot of experience and I made a mistake and got caught in an arm lock. I should have and prepared to stay out of or counter the arm lock and just didn't get it done. It only takes one mistake at this level of fighting to end the fight. So I could look at that and rationalize that and deal with that. Sooner or later you are probably going to lose if you step in there long enough. That wasn't that big a deal with me. As far as Mikhail, I still don't feel that I lost that fight. I dominated that fight and basically because of the nature of the rules and the way they had it set up, I allowed myself to be put in a situation that would allow the referee to take the fight away from me. I'm not too happy about that, I wasn't too happy about that at the time, but hey, what are you going to do, write your Congressman? You just deal with it. It goes down on the lost column and you move on. You try to learn from those experiences and be better prepared after that.

FCF: You and Dan Henderson no longer represent the rAw team. Can you tell us why the both of you broke away?
RC: We broke away for different reasons. I just chose not to re-sign my contract with the rAw team because they weren't getting the job done. I still have a good relationship with Rico [Chiapparelli] and the rAw team, all the guys, [Frank] Trigg, Vlady [Matyushenko], Tom Erikson. All those guys are still my friends, so we just kind of went our separate ways. Nothing in particular really.

FCF: When you say "not getting the job done." What do you mean? Not getting fights for you?
RC: Weren't getting any fights, weren't getting any endorsements. We just didn't have much going on.

FCF: How long ago did this happen?
RC: Oh, I don't know. Well, my contract expired about the same time that I fought in RINGS against Illoukhine in March of '99, I guess.

FCF: Do you represent anyone now?
RC: Just myself.

FCF: Dan [Henderson] said that you guys bought into a gym. How is that going?
RC: That's going pretty well. It's been slow right now. We've been open for about eight months now. It's a full on fitness center, so it's a little more than just a fighting gym. It relies on memberships and those sorts of things. It has wrestling, Jiu-Jitsu and kickboxing too, so that's the area where we're obviously interested in focusing. And the general fitness stuff is obviously a bonus. It's going pretty well. We've got a pretty good group of core guys working out and I think it's going to work out really well.

FCF: Besides you and Dan, who else do you have teaching there?
RC: We've got a kid that had some amateur fights, Greg. He is from Straight Blast gym and is helping us out. He's teaching Jiu-Jitsu and kickboxing, mostly beginners in the fundamentals. Matt Lindland, who was an Olympic silver medallist this summer is involved with helping us out with the wrestling part of it. We have various people working at the front desk and so on.

FCF: Do you have any fighters coming out of your gym?
RC: On the professional level, pretty much only me and Dan [Henderson].

FCF: Do you have some guys in the pipeline?
RC: We've got a kid who is an All-American in both Greco and collegiate style wrestling, who wrestled his last year at the University of Oregon. Chael Sonnen [85kg/187.25lbs], who is interested in moving up into the professional ranks. Matt Lindland, who has had several professional fights with the IFC and so forth is getting back into fighting now. We're helping him out now. Jeff Monson has been working out at our gym and we are going to help him out any way we can. We don't represent those guys, but we all kind of work out together and train together.

FCF: Besides the gym, what else are you working on?
RC: That's it. Training full time. I was concentrating on wrestling and making this Olympic team. I ended up losing in the semi-finals and after those trials, I officially retired from Olympic wrestling and I am going to concentrate on fighting and running the training center. I decided that this was going to be my last shot at making the Olympic team, so I wanted to focus on that. It's too difficult to do both. When you're doing one, the other one suffers. Both are highly competitive and when you are trying to compete at a high level, you can't afford to be competing in something that you're not devoted to, so I decided that I have been wrestling for a while and most of my goals and aspirations were in this sport so, I devote this last year and a half to making the Olympic team.

FCF: Besides the huge cash prize, did you see the RINGS matches as tune up fights, to shake off the rust before Randleman?
RC: I wasn't even sure if the Randleman thing was even going to happen. I was interested in competing after cornering Dan and in the last RINGS King of Kings event. I thought that it was a very good competition, a little skewed towards the stand up fighter, but I liked the rules and I thought that it was well run. Obviously, the prize money is nice, but I thought that there were some great competitors and it looked like a pretty good competition, so I was interested in entering the tournament this year, after the Olympics. Then the UFC thing kind of came along, so they both kind of worked out okay. I would have preferred to have a little more time between those fights, but four or five weeks is long enough and I'm prepared and ready to go.

FCF: A lot of people, myself included, are excited about your fight with Randleman. It will be Greco versus freestyle, UFC champ versus UFC champ. How do you think your Greco skills will match up with his skills in freestyle?
RC: Well, I think we're both wrestlers, first and foremost. We both have similar backgrounds in college and we've obviously diverged. He hasn't had much Greco experience to my knowledge, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't know how to pummel and know some of those positions. I think that I would probably have an advantage in the clinch position. I'm confident that I can keep him off balance and either take him down or land good shots from the attached position. But you still have to get attached [laughs] and get into that close, clinched range and that will be interesting and the test. For myself not really fighting another wrestler, it will be interesting to test myself against another wrestler, to try and maintain a good dominant position on top or in the standing position. He's a good athlete, explosive, and he is a very good wrestler. That makes it very interesting.

FCF: Randleman is not a very large man, but has pretty much dominated his opponents. How do you plan to counteract his power and aggressiveness?
RC: Well, he may not be very tall, but he is certainly large.

FCF: He says that he dips down to about 210lbs because he trains so hard.
RC: Well, that's smaller than what I have seen him compete before at, unless they fudged his weight. Last time I saw him he weighed around 230lbs. I don't know. He's a good athlete, very aggressive and explosive and I have to be prepared for that, to be prepared to be in good position and not get overly aggressive and extend myself. I need to make him work as hard as possible because the later rounds, I think, will be in my favor. My conditioning has always been a good tool.

FCF: You mentioned that the conditioning may be a factor, but can you share any other weaknesses that you see in Randleman?
RC: I think that he's explosive and athletic, but he's not a real technical fighter. I think that he relies heavily on his athletic ability and has not spent a lot of time on his submissions, so I'm not real worried about him submitting me from any position. And as I watch him box, he doesn't throw a lot of kicks. He's quick and powerful, but he's not real accurate or real dynamic with his striking. I don't know if those are outright weaknesses, but I think that those are some areas that I might have an advantage.

FCF: What weight are you planning on coming in at?
RC: About 100 kilos, which is about 220lbs.

FCF: How do you see the fight going?
RC: It's hard to say, it's a fight. I don't generally make any predictions, it could go the distance or it could end early. There's no way of knowing. That's the nature of fighting. I'm prepared to go as long as I need to go and to fight as hard as I can.

FCF: How do you feel about first facing Randleman, then Rizzo, and now Randleman again?
RC: It didn't really matter to me because I was just anxious to compete. I'm pretty excited about getting back in there. It wasn't that big a deal who it [my opponent] was. I imagine that I will wind up fighting Rizzo at some future date, so one or the other, it didn't really matter me which it was, as long as someone stepped in there. [laughs]

FCF: Did the change in opponents affect your training at all?
RC: Not a whole lot. My strategy would pretty much be the same for both fighters. Stay in your areas of strength and operate in those areas. And that really doesn't change that much from fighter to fighter. Obviously there are other things that you have to watch out for. If you're dealing with Rizzo, he likes to throw some pretty heavy kicks and has a pretty good right hand. He's a little more skilled in the submission area, so you have to watch when you are rolling around with him. They are both real good fighters and have a lot of experience and are pretty composed.

FCF: The last time you left the UFC because of negotiations broke off right? Why did you choose to come back to the UFC?
RC: They actually called me and asked if I would be interested. I was a little leery about getting involved again. But decided that as long as they would allow me to compete in Abu Dhabi and the King of Kings RINGS tournament, I would be willing to fight. The UFC is still probably, the most prestigious event in the United States to fight for. And therefore it's good for me as a fighter to get back in there and compete.

FCF: You mentioned Abu Dhabi, are you planning on competing?
RC: Yeah, I plan to. I made some contacts that seem pretty positive that I will be able to do that. Nothing is for sure yet, but I hope to be competing in late February or early March.

FCF: Is Dan [Henderson] interested in competing at Abu Dhabi too?
RC: Dan has expressed interest in competing at Abu Dhabi also.

FCF: Do you plan on staying with the UFC for a while or do you plan on fighting for a number of different organizations?
RC: Well, that kind of depends on the UFC at this point. I've agreed to two fights and the contract term is for about 12 months, so there are some clauses in there that can shorten that. So I am going to kind of play it by ear and see how it goes. As long as they head in a positive direction and I feel comfortable with them, then I will continue to fight for them and see where it goes.

FCF: Is there anyone besides Randleman in the UFC that you look forward to facing?
RC: It doesn't really matter to me. I don't really have a particular opponent that I would like to face. I'm open to anyone that wants to get in there. Nobody in particular comes to mind.

FCF: A lot of US fight fans have not seen you fight since your last appearance in the UFC, what can we expect from Randy Couture's re-entrance into the UFC?
RC: I think that I'm a lot better fighter than I was back then, even than in the Maurice Smith fight. I'm more well rounded now. I've added more submission ability to my fighting style. I have learned a lot of new striking capabilities and learned how to take advantage of my wrestling background better than I did before. Hopefully that will show, I trained and prepared for this fight and I'm just going to go out and let it go.

FCF: Do you have anything else scheduled after the UFC?
RC: Nope, not until February 24th. That's the finals of the King of Kings tournament, this fight and February, other than that, I don't have anything else scheduled.

FCF: How active do you plan on staying? That's pretty active.
RC: I'm not going to stay Jeremy Horn active. [laughs] That guy is amazing, of course I fought him in the first round of the King of Kings tournament. I couldn't believe that he had 21 fights this year. That's just unbelievable, but it's working for him. He's a very seasoned and very good fighter. I think that is a bit much for me, especially at 37 [years old], it takes me a little more time to recover than that. But my level of conditioning is real high and tends to stay real high. I don't have much down time. I think conceivably, I could probably fight every month, if there was an opportunity to, but a fight once every one and a half or every two months would be more to my liking.

FCF: Since you mentioned your age, how long do you plan on competing?
RC: That depends on my body. Right now, I'm mentally and physically healthy and I feel good and I'm learning a ton as a fighter and having fun. I'm meeting a lot of neat people everywhere I go, teaching seminars and doing a lot of stuff. And I am learning and gathering a ton of information that is going to make me a better fighter all the time. I think as long as that trend continues and my body holds up, that I'm going to continue to compete. Age isn't the issue, it's how you feel physically and mentally.

FCF: How do people get in touch with you if they want to schedule a seminar or go check out your gym?
RC: They can email me at nimrodrc@aol.com or call Performance Quest Training Center in Gresham, Oregon, the phone number is (503) 618-1312.

FCF: I wish you good luck and am glad to see you fighting again. I really like your style of fighting.
RC: We are looking forward to getting into it more now that our wrestling careers are over and we are satisfied with the way that they went, even though it didn't end the way we wanted it to end. We are both looking forward to devoting more time to fighting.

FCF: Thanks Randy.
RC: No problem. Take it easy on the rAw team, they're friends of mine, but it just wasn't working out between us. Dan Henderson may give another reason why he left and I may not share his sentiment. I don't want Rico or anyone getting the wrong idea that I'm bad mouthing the rAw team because that's not the truth.

Post-UFC XXVIII Interview
Randy Couture defeated Kevin Randleman by way of Referee stoppage at 4:13 in the 3rd round while punching from the mounted position.

FCF: Randy, what an incredible fight, please describe how the fight went. It seemed to go exactly how you expected, with you taking Randleman out in the later rounds.
RC: I expected Kevin to be real aggressive. I said all along that he is a great athlete. He's quick and pretty explosive. I ended up on the bottom, which I suspected was a possibility. I would probably have to say that the first two rounds went to Kevin. I made a little headway in the second round, but I think the round still went to Kevin. In the third round, I finally got position and got a little under hook, landed some knees and was finally able to get an inside trip and take Kevin down, putting him on the bottom which, I think, was a little different for him. That was basically the biggest difference, I was able to survive and protect myself fairly well. I even attempted an arm lock from the bottom. It seemed apparent to me that Kevin didn't spend a lot of time on the bottom and wasn't really sure what to do or how to respond to that. That was the difference. He allowed me to pass his guard and achieve full mount. And having him against the fence, he really didn't have any place to go. I got in a lot of shots, cut his nose, until John [McCarthy, referee] stopped the fight.

FCF: Did Randleman surprise you with anything during the fight? Was he stronger or more aggressive than you expected?
RC: He was very quick. He wasn't any stronger than I expected. All the guys in the heavyweight division are strong guys, so that wasn't unusual. But he was real quick. I expected him to be pretty aggressive and pretty athletic. He smacked me a couple times before I really had a chance to react. He was pretty explosive.

FCF: You mentioned that Randleman not being versed on his back was one key to you winning the fight. What do you think was the primary key in your beating Randleman over all?
RC: Well, I think that was the biggest difference. I was able to maintain position and neutralize him from the bottom and force him to work a little bit, then create space to try and land shots. He had trouble while doing that when I was on the bottom. When he was on the bottom, he wasn't as successful at protecting himself or maintaining a fairly decent guard or neutral position.

FCF: How does it feel to once again be the UFC Heavyweight Champ?
RC: It feels good. To actually have time to think about it and set out and try to achieve the championship, versus the first time kind of finding myself in that situation [laughs]. It feels real good.

FCF: The fight has just past, but has anything changed as far as who is your next opponent will be or what you will be doing next?
RC: I actually talked to Mr. Meyrowitz today and he was asking me about my schedule. I think they are having UFC Japan next month, which I will attend [in order] to corner Jeff Monson and Matt Lindland, who is making his debut in the UFC. I will be competing in the [RINGS] King of Kings finals in February, so that kind of eliminates me from the February show that the UFC is planning. I plan to defend the title in the April show. We have not talked about opponents and I'm not sure where that show is going to be or the date of it yet, but tentatively that's the way it looks right now. I hope to attend the Abu Dhabi Combat Submission tournament in the first week of March after the King of Kings.

FCF: Did they name an opponent for Matt Lindland?
RC: I think Yoji Anjo will be his opponent.

FCF: How heavy is Matt?
RC: He is about 190-195lbs.

FCF: So Anjo is dropping down to the middleweight division to fight him. I thought he was a lot heavier than that.
RC: Yeah, I thought he was a lot bigger than that also, but maybe he has come down. That's the name that was brought up. If not, then I don't know.

FCF: After attaining the UFC championship, any comments about who you would like to face next? When we last spoke you talked a little about Pedro Rizzo.
RC: It's hard to say. You never know what John is going to do, who he is going to pull out and match me up with. I will fight anybody. It doesn't really matter to me. It wouldn't hurt my feelings to see Enson Inoue back in there. I wouldn't mind a rematch with him after Japan Vale Tudo. But if that doesn't happen, then it's no big deal either.

FCF: Congratulations on your win and happy Thanksgiving.
RC: Thanks, same to you.