Brooklyn, New York
Earlier this month for the first time in a while the PFL returned to Gotham. And during that trip some personalities came to the borough of Kings for a very important reason. To give back. Anthony Pettis, Renan Ferreira, Lilian Garcia, and Randy Couture came to speak to some very troubled youth about perseverance they had to deal with in their lives, and how they too can succeed. They then presented the DYNAMIC YOUTH CENTER (DYNAMIC YOUTH COMMUNITY -DYC FOUNDATION) a wonderful gift. And after there was some good times with Couture.
Couture got into how life takes turns you never expect. Specifically that had he made the Olympic Wrestling Team, that might have been the ending of his career. But one thing leading to another brought him into the UFC. And the rest as they say is history.
He pointed to two-wins in his career as defining him. The first, is his win over at the time a young gun, Vitor Belfort, in 1997. Which no one thought he’d win due to Belfort just blitzing through people at the time. It turned into a battle that drew to a trilogy where they split the next two.
The other he was again looked at by some as a long-shot. When his 43-year old body had just a dominating performance over Tim Sylvia at UFC 68. He set a record there becoming the only three-time UFC heavyweight champion. Something that Stipe Miocic hopes to duplicate in the near future.
Those were great fights yes. However, with his list of names and rivals, it’s interesting he has those above others.
Good Times With Couture, As Randy Talks The Flip Side
For all the good times, there was one glaring sticking point. And it put him at direct odds with Dana White. While he was in control of UFC gold, he wanted to be known truly as number one in the world. And in Japan at the time in PRIDE was Fedor Emelianenko. That’s the one that still stings him today. He feels with his high level wrestling, speed and power he could have taken him out well before scorecards would have to been read.
There’s always been speculation why “The Last Emperor” was honestly never brought over. And only the key players truly know why. When pushed if at the age of 59, would for a boat-load of money would he be willing to fight him now, his quote was:
“I am too old and too tired to fight. My back, neck, and @ss hurt. Hell no, besides I’m an actor now and I love it”.
And when it was brought up that Emelianenko himself is 45-years old and a shell of what he was back then, he simply laughed. And laughed out loud for a couple of seconds. Couture also talked about how another present champion; Francis Ngannou is having some of the same issues he had with White (financial). And sees some of him in the African-Frenchman. For example his tenacity and focus. Couture did say, although Ngannou trains at his gym, the duo have never worked together. With the what-if’s in the air; on the topic of Ngannou versus Brock Lesnar, he just smirked.
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