Coach: Couture so passionate about catch wrestling
Matthew Roth: You guys have Randy coming up against Lyoto Machida, what are you guys working on with Randy as…
Matthew Roth: You guys have Randy coming up against Lyoto Machida, what are you guys working on with Randy as Machida does pose some different questions with game planning as he’s a Judo and Sumo guy. What do you guys expect in the fight with Machida?
Neal Melanson: … I’ve already started studying tape on Machida, looking for some of the patterns that I can find. I’m trying to keep a lot of that to myself as it will be a very difficult fight and I would hate for anything to get (out). But I’m also studying Randy’s fights to see what they might be studying to see for weaknesses, you know?
Randy has gotten so much better on the ground and people who have trained with him in the last six months will tell you that. Randy is an amazing grappler now and he’s got a hell of a little submission game and he is brutal and he’s constantly evolving.
He’s so passionate about grappling and Catch Wrestling and it’s what he loves to do. So even though Machida is a very good ground guy, I’m very confident that if it ends up on the ground, Randy could turn it into his advantage.
Randy has been hinting to me that that they’re kicking him off of co-Main Event … I think they bumped him down and put Jose Aldo’s title fight as the co-Main Event.
MR: Have you spoken to Randy about how much longer he’d like to keep fighting?
NM: Randy loves the sport but he really likes to be acting … I think that he’s getting frustrated because Hollywood doesn’t seem to be so efficient. Like things can change so quickly, where he’s got a part and set to film and then he’s all set and then the next week “Ah, we’re cancelling it” or “We gotta push it back”.
They wanted him to fight Rampage … But he was just like “Well, if I had to fight Rampage they’d push me into a title shot and I don’t want to do that. I just want to fight Machida, it excites me”. It was actually Machida that made it happen.
Randy’s not really interested in pushing for the title or being a champion again, he just wants to fight a few different guys that he’s having fun with. He’s a six-time champion, what else does he have to do? Something about Machida just fires him up and keeps him happy and motivated.