When it came time for Gina Carano to assemble a fight camp that would prepare her for her toughest career challenge, Randy Couture was a no-brainer.

There’s not a lot of people that can put it straight and organize you like Randy, she said during a Thursday teleconference promoting her headlining fight with Cris Cyborg Santos on Aug. 15 at Strikeforce.

It only took two sentences to draw her to Couture in the first place. It was February 2007, as she readied herself for a role in the premium cable debut of women’s MMA at EliteXC’s Destiny, sitting backstage in a Southhaven, Miss., arena. She was a bundle of nerves.

I’d never met him before, Carano recalled. I think he was just making rounds and being supportive. He sat down, and my head was wound up a little bit too tight. He looked at me and said, ‘you know why we do this?’ And I looked at him, like, ‘no, why am I doing this?’ And he said, ‘because we love it, right?’

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