Randy Couture interview with thoughts on upcoming Brandon Vera fight and UFC Heavyweight stars
Published by Zach Arnold on October 22nd, 2009 in Current Events

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It’s been a tumultuous few months for Randy Couture. He’s coming off of a loss to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira last August in Portland on a PPV that didn’t draw so hot in terms of buyrate numbers. Then, to compound onto Couture’s usual dilemmas (starting with his age and how many fights he has left), he’s now dealing with losing his top trainer, Shawn Tompkins, who is now bringing his services to the new Tapout gym in Las Vegas. Couture needs to stay active and generate whatever money he can, as he noted in this recent Inside MMA (HD Net) interview with host Ron Kruck.

START

RON KRUCK: “Randy, you return to the Octagon at UFC 105 November 14th and will drop down to the Light Heavyweight division for the first time since 2006. Why did you decide to do that?”

RANDY COUTURE: “Uh, it was just an opportunity. They asked if I’d be interested in going, going down and fighting first Rashad (Evans) and ultimately ended being Brandon Vera and you know there’s a lot of interesting fights in the Light Heavyweight division right now and certainly the guys aren’t getting any smaller in the Heavyweight division, so uh it made sense and you know I’m kind of stuck between weight classes to be honest, I walk around at about 220, 223, uh 205 is not a difficult cut for me.”

RON KRUCK: “Well you weighed in 220 pounds for your August fight against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, so I’m assuming this won’t be an issue to make weight at 205?”

RANDY COUTURE: “I don’t think it’ll be an issue at all, I’m walking around right now at 215-216, 10 or 11 pounds even the day of weigh-ins is not going to be a lot of water to cut and to make the 205 limit.”

RON KRUCK: “Let’s talk now about the Nogueira fight. What did you take away from that contest?”

RANDY COUTURE: “Uh, well again I think just like the Lesnar fight, it was about the performance you know obviously I go out to win and prepared to win but I didn’t get the W and I think I did everything that I trained to do in that fight, I made some mistakes, I got caught, caught a couple of times with you know two right hands that put me on the floor but I was able to survive those situations which is you know that gives you a little confidence. I got into some pretty nasty submissions situations with one of the best guys and was able to work my way out of them, which tells me that my preparation with Neil Melanson was spot on we anticipated the areas we might find ourselves and everything worked out. It was a great fight and that’s what it’s all about.”

RON KRUCK: “If that had been a five round fight, do you believe the outcome could have been different?”

RANDY COUTURE: “Well it’s always hard to say, uh, I certainly would have liked to have two more rounds. I felt like you know I was doing some good things and you know could have made some adjustments, I think I could have put him against the fence more and used a little more wrestling and not tried to trade with him as much. Uh, but you know, I think that was Nogueira’s A-game for sure but for everybody that was questioning him I think all those questions have been answered.”

RON KRUCK: “Your opponent, Brandon Vera, has moved back and forth between Heavyweight and Light Heavy as well. Do you believe this is the division he belongs in?”

RANDY COUTURE: “I actually, watching Brandon I felt like that too, that 205 was the right weight class for him especially you know with more of a striking style that he has, you know, trading blows with those bigger guys isn’t a really good idea, guys like Shane Carwin and Brock and I mean the guys are just getting enormous and he did it with Tim, he did a good job with Tim and he had a smart game plan, he tied Tim up and didn’t try to stand around in front of Tim too much, uh, but I think we’ve seen the better performances from him now at Light Heavyweight. I think he’s more effective and a more dangerous fighter at Light Heavyweight.”

RON KRUCK: “Vera has had recent success at Light Heavyweight winning 3 out of 4 since the move down. Describe his fighting style.”

RANDY COUTURE: “He’s what I would call a strategic striker. He changes leads a lot, he kind of tries to draw you in, uh, not unlike how Chuck used to fight a lot, he kind of play the possum game back up back up get you kind of draw you in and then land that one shot or that one kick or that once punch that’s going to hurt you and stun you. Uh, he’s probably going to try and run and gun and do that same type of thing fighting me, trying to keep range and find you know good shots that he can land. He’s going to not be afraid to try and find a way to kick me and he’s pretty effective at it.”

RON KRUCK: “All right, Randy, I hate to bring it up, but he is 15 years younger than you, does that mean anything to you?”

RANDY COUTURE: “I don’t think it means a thing. I think I’m you know the best fighter that I’ve ever been, I’m continuing to progress and add new skills and new things to my fight repertoire and the age is really not a factor.”

RON KRUCK: “So, what do you need to do technically to get a W?”

RANDY COUTURE: “Uh, I need to hunt Brandon down. I need to cut him off, uh, you know hunt him down and get my hands on him, effectively counter the pot-shots and the strikes that he’s going to bring and close the distance and gets my hand on him, I need to force Brandon to wrestle me for each and every round and every minute of this fight.”

RON KRUCK: “Do you believe that if you are victorious you will get a shot at Machida next?”

RANDY COUTURE: “I hope that that’s where it ends up, I’m very interested and intrigued by his fighting style but you know we’ll see what the UFC wants to do, there’s no predicting you know there’s a lot of tough guys and a lot of great fights in the Light Heavyweight division, there’s still some really interesting fights in the Heavyweight division too so you know this isn’t a huge change for me physically for me to drop to 205, I could fight you know in two or three months back at Heavyweight so we’ll see what’s interesting and what they throw at me after this fight. One at a time.”

RON KRUCK: “You recently signed a six-fight extension with the UFC which probably could allow you to end your career with the promotion. Can you give us some details on that?”

RANDY COUTURE: “Oh c’mon, I can fight 10 more years, Ron!”

RON KRUCK: “Fair enough. If anyone can still kick ass at 56 it’s you.”

RANDY COUTURE: “Well, we’ll continue to take it one fight at a time, Brandon’s a great opponent, I’m looking forward to fighting in Manchester, it’s my first time fighting in the UK, uh, I think that’s going to be fun, it’s going to be a great crowd, you know I haven’t competed in any sport in Europe for quite some time so it’s going to be nice to be back over there and I’m looking forward to this fight.”

RON KRUCK: “Ultimately, though, why did you want to re-sign with the UFC?”

RANDY COUTURE: “Well, I think it’s along the same lines as coming back to the UFC when I was trying so hard for so long to fight Fedor in the first place. I want to fight, I need to fight right now and I could probably try to fight one more time in the UFC and then try to go somewhere else to fight Fedor but you know my experience in the previous year was that wasn’t going to work out so well, it was going to be roadblocks thrown up all over the place. Uh… I’ve been very happy since I’ve come back to the UFC, they’ve taken care of me very well and it made sense to sign the extension.”

RON KRUCK: “The last time I interviewed Fedor I asked him if he had given up hope about ever having the opportunity to fight you. He said, ‘absolutely not.’ Do you think this fight could ever happen?”

RANDY COUTURE: “You know what? I’ve no idea, kind of put it to the backburner and quit thinking about it, there was no sense in spending time or energy worrying about it or thinking about it, so I mean, if that’s the way things are supposed to work out and it’s going to happen, it’ll happen.”

END