Couture discusses offer he received to fight Fedor
Randy Couture: “I was approached when Fedor threw his hat back into the ring after a four, five year layoff. I was the first one they came to.”
Bellator has broken records using older fighters like Tito Ortiz, Kimbo Slice, and Stephan Bonnar. Randy ‘The Natural’ Couture would seem to be a natural fit for that model.
Couture has not fought since a TKO loss to Lyoto Machida at UFC 129 in 2011. He has since appeared in a series of roles in Hollywood movies, most notable The Expendables franchise, and is currently shopping a Rocky-like script called “Rust Belt” about a high school wrestling coach who gets a shot to fight in MMA. In a recent interview with Kenny Rice for Inside MMA, Couture, 52, discussed being offered a fight by an unnamed company, that may have been Bellator.
“I was approached when Fedor threw his hat back into the ring after a four, five year layoff,” said Couture, as transcribed by Luke Thomas for MMA Fighting. “I was the first one they came to. It’s certainly something you have to consider and take seriously, but it’s not really about money. I think one of the more rational decisions I’ve probably made in my life was the decision to step down and hang them up.”
“I just don’t see that happening. At 52 years old, it doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
“You want to be remembered as somebody that had integrity and that represented the sport in a positive way. I think I accomplished that.”
One of the most notorious old guy fights was when Kimbo Slice fought Dada 5000, and the latter nearly died from renal failure. That occasioned Couture to reflect thoughtfully, via InstaGram.
Many are talking about the daddakimbo fight ! It does raise a question I’ve heard since MMA started posed by traditional martial arts. Are we just street fighters full of aggression and animosity or are we trained and skilled martial artists in real competition? Example; you can train a child to play chess by offering them a piece of candy—an external good—every time they wins. But not until they discover for them self the pleasures of developing strategies, reading their opponent’s mind, and thinking three moves ahead will they become a real chess player.
Some jobs are just jobs—we work ’em for money in the way that a kid plays chess for candy, But other jobs, over time, become part of us in a deeper way. We begin to study the job—we want to learn how to get better at it. We begin to enjoy the job and time seems to fly by at work. We begin to build friendships at the job—we find people we like and sometimes admire. And we begin to take pride in the job. We come to associate the work we do with who we are, and we’re proud of both. I hope if kimbo and dadda decide to continue competing in the sport they take some pride in it and prepare properly!
