Randy Couture: the UFC’s first two-division champion | Ultimate Fighter Reunion

Why fans still care

RANDY COUTURE kept winning titles at an age when most fighters have retired. He won the UFC heavyweight title three times and the light heavyweight title twice, the last of them at 43. He kept winning UFC fights well into his forties. He also made the clinch a real weapon in MMA, and a generation of fighters learned the game in his gyms.

Early life

He was born on 22 June 1963 and went to Lynnwood High School in Washington state, graduating in 1981. He then spent six years in the US Army, from 1982 to 1988, rising to sergeant in the 101st Airborne. An Army coach introduced him to Greco-Roman wrestling, and he boxed in the Army too. At Oklahoma State he was a three-time NCAA All-American at 190 lb and earned a degree in foreign language and literature.

Getting started

He wrestled Greco-Roman at the highest level, as an alternate for the US Olympic team and a 2000 Olympic Trials semifinalist. He got into early MMA simply by filling out an application to fight, and made his debut at 33. At UFC 13 in May 1997 he beat Tony Halme and Steven Graham on the same night to win the heavyweight tournament. Later that year he stopped Vitor Belfort at UFC 15. “I was a 34-year-old and most people already thought I was too old,” he said later. In December 1997 he beat Maurice Smith in Japan for the UFC heavyweight title.

Career chapters

1. 1997Wins the UFC 13 tournament, then the heavyweight title
2. 1999Co-founds Team Quest
3. 2000Wins the heavyweight title again against Kevin Randleman
4. 2003Beats Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz to win the light heavyweight title
5. 2004Loses and then regains the light heavyweight title against Vitor Belfort
6. 2006UFC Hall of Fame
7. 2007Comes back to win the heavyweight title from Tim Sylvia at 43
8. 2011Last fight, against Lyoto Machida

Heavyweight champion 1997 to 2002

He fought in Japan for a few years, with wins and losses in RINGS and elsewhere. In 1999 he co-founded Team Quest in Gresham, Oregon, with Robert Follis, Dan Henderson, Who’s Who number 16 and Matt Lindland. On 17 November 2000 at UFC 28 he stopped Kevin Randleman in the third round to win the heavyweight title again, then beat Pedro Rizzo twice in 2001. In 2002 he lost to Josh Barnett and Ricco Rodriguez.

Two divisions 2003 to 2006

He dropped to light heavyweight, aged 39 and coming off two stoppage losses. On 6 June 2003 at UFC 43 he took Chuck Liddell down repeatedly and stopped him in the third round to win the interim title. That made him the first fighter to win UFC titles in two weight classes. On 26 September 2003 at UFC 44 he beat Tito Ortiz on all three cards for the undisputed title. He lost it to Vitor Belfort on a doctor stoppage in January 2004 and won it back from him that August. Liddell then beat him in 2005 and again in 2006, and he retired. The UFC put him in its Hall of Fame in 2006.

The comeback 2007 to 2011

On 3 March 2007 at UFC 68 in Columbus, after about a year out, he came back at 43 to fight heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia. He dropped Sylvia with a right hand early and won every round, in front of a sell-out crowd of 19,049. Later that year he defended the title against Gabriel Gonzaga. In the third round he blocked a high kick and broke his left forearm, then took Gonzaga down and punched until the stoppage. On 15 November 2008 at UFC 91 he lost the title to Brock Lesnar, Who’s Who number 7, who outweighed him by 45 lb, in the second round. He then lost to Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira and beat Brandon Vera, Mark Coleman and James Toney. His last fight was at UFC 129 in Toronto on 30 April 2011, where Lyoto Machida stopped him with a front kick in the second round. More than 55,000 people stood to applaud him.

Beyond the cage

He opened his own gym, Xtreme Couture, in Las Vegas and set up the Xtreme Couture GI Foundation for veterans. He also acted, playing Toll Road in the four Expendables films and Dylan Flynn in Redbelt.

Style, technique and the corner

How he fights

He was a Greco-Roman wrestler who turned the clinch into an MMA weapon, tying opponents up against the cage and landing short punches and knees. Sherdog says this beat the “sprawl-and-brawl” fighters of the time, who could stop takedowns but couldn’t escape the clinch. Greg Nelson, a coach in Lesnar’s camp, put it down to three things: world-class Greco-Roman clinch work, pressure on the cage and the boxing he learned in the Army. His favourite tie-up was the left underhook. He took opponents down and punched from the top against Ortiz, Liddell and Gonzaga. He also finished fights with rear-naked, anaconda and arm-triangle chokes.

Teams and gyms

He co-founded Team Quest in Gresham, Oregon, in 1999 and later opened Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas. Forrest Griffin, Gray Maynard, Chris Leben, Ed Herman and Alistair Overeem, Who’s Who number 2 are among the fighters who trained at his gyms.

Stories people still tell

1. The broken arm.

   He broke his left forearm blocking Gonzaga’s kick in the third round and still won by stoppage.

2. Forty-three.

   He came out of retirement and beat a 6 ft 8 in champion in every round.

3. The farewell.

   At UFC 129 more than 55,000 people stood for him after his last fight.

Legacy

He was the first fighter to win UFC titles in two weight classes and is a UFC Hall of Famer. In 2015 Sherdog ranked him number 4 among MMA’s most influential fighters, for the clinch game he made standard and the fighters who came through his gyms.