Justin Bolduc – Nokaut.com
Nokaut: First, congratulations on your win against Tim Sylvia. How are you feeling?
Randy Couture: I’m feeling great, thank you very much. I mean I don’t think I could have ridden it any better than it went. It has been a whirlwind since the fight. I’ve been home four nights now, literally since the fight. I’ve been traveling around doing a whole bunch of media and stuff so it’s been pretty crazy, but fun at the same time.
Nokaut: How does it feel to still have all the support that you do in your return a year later?
Randy: It has been pretty awesome. It’s been overwhelming. I think there are a whole lot of late 30-early 40-somethings out there who kind of feel like they have a lot of fight left in them. For some reason my agent and this fight struck a chord with those guys and motivated them to get back in the gym, take on some new endeavors. I kind of spoke for them saying we’re not sorry for being old anymore, we have a lot of fight left in it [laughs]. It’s been a pretty overwhelming response and it’s been very cool.
Nokaut: It was kind of an odd match-up with you and Sylvia where everyone is saying we can’t count you out, but at the same time saying that he’s just so big. What is it like now for you in the Heavyweight division, with your trouble in the past against big guys, and you now getting by him?
Randy: I think that styles make fights, and those guys that gave me trouble in the past were more than just big guys, they are also very, very good grapplers. That is my strength, fighting on the ground. So especially if you end up on the bottom of a guy like them it can make for a rough night. I think that I am a much better fighter now than I was four or five years ago, when those fights occurred, and I’m much more capable of dealing with even a bigger grappler.
I thought the Sylvia match-up was a great style match-up for me and his area of weakness is my area of strength. Anytime you can find a way to exploit that makes for a good night. So yeah, he’s big, but I have some big guys in camp that prepared me well to deal with that size, and range, and weight. So it’s been good, real good, it couldn’t have went any better.
Nokaut: What was it like actually grappling with Sylvia, was he as strong as you expected or did you feel like you had a big edge on him when you got in close?
Randy: Actually I was surprised that he was able to be as effective and protect himself as well as he did on the ground. I expected to be a little more effective there and a little less effective in the standing department. I figured he would have the edge striking and in the standing position. I figured he would have an advantage striking with his range and prowess. But I think I surprised me there and he surprised me a little bit on the ground.
Nokaut: When we saw him fight Jeff Monson, Monson was trying to shoot a lot for the takedowns. With you it was more with the body clinch. What do you think the differences are up against Tim and what do you think caused them to play out as they did?
Randy: I definitely studied those tapes, like Ricco and the other grapplers that approached him, and their shots weren’t very well thought out, they shot from the outside and were scared to get in and engage in that standing- striking range. That made it difficult to transition all the way to Tim. I knew that wasn’t going to be successful. I feel I bring a fairly unique skill set in the wrestling sense with my Greco background to a fight that I felt I could take advantage of with Tim and fight my way inside rather than shoot that outside shot. He’s very long, very heavy, and he does a great job sprawling so I fought my way to the clinch and then found ways to knock him down and trip him from there which was much more successful.
Nokaut: Now you talked about when you had trouble in the past with big guys that they were grapplers. There is the possibility that you could be fighting a big one in Gonzaga, or arguably the best striker in mixed martial arts in Mirko. Is there one you feel you match-up better with and who would you rather fight?
Randy: I’m not that familiar with Gonzaga, I’ve only seen him fight that one time in the UFC. I think I am a better fighter both on the ground and standing up then I was when I fought Josh Barnett or Ricco Rodriguez, so I think I’m a different animal now, even to face one of those guys again. I would much rather fight Mirko, I think style-wise he’s a much better match-up for me and certainly as far as name recognition in a big fight match-up, Mirko is a huge name in our sport, so I would much rather fight him.
Nokaut: With the purchase of PRIDE the big talk isn’t so much your next title fight, instead the big name popping up is Fedor. What are your thoughts there?
Randy: I think contrary to what most people think, Fedor has his hands full with Matt Lindland here this weekend [laughs]. Matt is one of those junkyard dogs that doesn’t go away easily and has a tendency to make everybody’s fights look terrible. You can’t count Matt out, even if he still loses but makes a good fight out of it, it is still a win-win for him. I think Fedor is, no question, pound for pound probably the best fighter in the world right now and with the two organizations sort of coming under the same ownership it certainly opens the possibility for me to fight him. I got into this to fight the best guys so if I get to fight him I’ll be all over that.
Nokaut: A lot of people have been talking about how age would be a factor for you, but in your fight against Sylvia you went all five rounds, you kept pushing, you didn’t stop at all. You looked like you performed better than some of the younger guys do inside only two rounds. How does your conditioning feel as far as age?
Randy: Well everybody wants to make a big deal about age, but I don’t think it’s an issue. I don’t feel like I’ve slowed down. I think the wrestling age of our sport allows me to compete at a combative sport at a much older age. My conditioning is great; I don’t think it’s an issue. I have to rationally evaluate my training and my competition performances. At some point I’m sure I will slow down, I won’t last forever, but it’s lasting now and I’m going to keep going as long as I’m holding up.
Nokaut: You’re down 2-1 with Chuck, is that another fight we could potentially see after your successful return?
Randy: If people wanted to see it, I don’t really care much about revenge. He bested me two out of the three times, but that doesn’t really matter, that’s the way it goes- fight for fight. He’s very good at what he does. If people want to see that fight again or if the UFC offered him up I’d be willing to fight him again, he’s one of the best guys in the world and it would give me a chance to even up the score.
Nokaut: How many fights do you have left, three more?
Randy: I have three fights left on the contract.
Nokaut: Are you considering more than that or just taking it one at a time?
Randy: I’m taking it one fight at a time and see what happens. I’m anxious to see how Mirko competes in April and we’ll kind of go from there.
Nokaut: Any final words to your fans and the readers at Nokaut?
Randy: I don’t have anything left to say, I think we’ve covered it all. Everything has gone very well. Hang around for the ride and try to keep up.
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