Simply NATURAL

MMA Sport issue 10 interview exclusive with Randy Couture

Mmasports: What have you been filling your time up with?
Randy: Basically running the business, the schools are doing well. Our clothing company is doing really well. We’re getting ready to re-launch the nutrition line and reorganize that company, got rid of a partner and trying to get that back up on it’s feet and trying to get it running the way it was supposed to be running all along. I got several more acting gigs, can always use those. I’m doing a movie in March in China called ‘Mandrake the Magician’ with Universal. I sold a TV show to Spike about a military base drama, that I’ll be a main character in.

Mmasports: What’s the deal with you and your fighting career at the moment?
Randy: I have a contract with the UFC that I have wait until expires. They can’t make the Fedor fight happen, so I have to wait until it expires and then have to make the fight myself, which the soonest it may be is October. I’m still training though, I’m still having a lot of fun.

Mmasports: What do you do when you’re not here?
Randy: I’m traveling for all the businesses. All the schools, I have around the country.

Mmasports: When did this gym open up?
Randy: It will be a year in February. It’s about 12,000 square feet total. It’s a good size, we can see ourselves expanding even. We’ve got a little over 400 members, regular members and then 15-20 pro fighters. We’ve also got locations in Vancouver, Canada, there’s one in Wellington, FL, one in Lombard near Chicago, IL, we’re opening up one in Kansas City, MO and Toronto, CA, the first quarter of this year. I try to get to the locations as often as I can. Once a year maybe twice. Try to do a seminar or training. School teaches all ages. We’ve got a kids program that is 6 years old and up. Got about 20 or so of them that come on a regular basis here and they get to train in mma and wrestling. I only work with the pros, I don’t do regular instruction, all the fighters do the regular instruction.

Mmasports: Do you miss goofing off with Joe Rogan?
Randy: (laughs) Yea, I do miss commentating. I think I’ll go back to that eventually.

Mmasports: What fighters here do you see here that maybe people don’t know about that catch your eye?
Randy: We’ve just got such a great crew, top to bottom. People that most people don’t see a lot or know about are people like Mike Pile, he has been a steady performer here and would really like to see him get a break, which he deserves. We’re really excited about Gray Maynard and him coming off the show and doing all he’s done. Tyson Griffin one of the toughest guys in the 155 weight class. Obviously guys like Forrest, Trigg, Kendall Grove, he’s obviously doing well, Gina Carano, Elena Reid, the women are starting to pick up, (ask if Gina is there)..Gina’s not here now, but she’s here training most of the time. If she’s not up doing a tv show or something, she’s here training. She just did the new American Gladiators series. So yeah, overall we’ve got a great group of people. Stephen Bonner is great. We attract such great talent because we do things a little different here, we don’t get into the purses. We create an environment that is good for the fighters, they take care of each other and push each other to the max.