The Scoop -- Randy Couture

Randy Couture, also known as “The Natural,” is a professional mixed martial artist (MMA) and former heavyweight champion of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). He’s held the title in both the heavyweight and light-heavyweight divisions, and is the only five-time champion in UFC history. He’s an MMA legend, and has used his status to raise money for his Xtreme Couture G.I. Foundation, which assists soldiers who have been wounded in action and their families. One of the ways that he raises money is through charity poker tournaments. He recently sat down with Adam and Diego and discussed the parallels between MMA and poker.

Diego Cordovez: The last couple of years, mixed martial arts and poker have kind of paralleled each other in the sense that they are both getting into the mainstream, and are getting sponsors and TV coverage. In poker, there has been a negative effect, in that people play up to the cameras, and it used to be very calm. Now, people win a pot, and they are screaming and doing dances. On UFC 100, Brock Lesnar won and had all these theatrics.

Randy Couture: Absolutely, he lost his mind.

DC: Is that good because he promotes the sport and people are interested? What’s your opinion?

RC: Actually, I don’t think it’s good. I’m not a fan of it. I think it goes against what we spent a lot of time building, in not only the camaraderie amongst the athletes, but the impression that we’re real martial artists. There’s some spirit in what we do. I think it goes against that.

DC: You don’t want people confusing you with the WWE.

RC: Absolutely not.

Adam Schoenfeld: Do you think he was just in that mindset that he’s a marketer, he likes playing the bad guy, and he got a little carried away?

RC: It’s honestly hard for me to say. I hope that he doesn’t continue to foster that persona. Obviously, that’s what he did in the WWE for a long time, but he was a real athlete before that. That stuff didn’t fly in collegiate wrestling, which is his background. I’m hoping he stays more true to that and stays away from the pro wrestling antics, because I think it damages our sport. It damages our reputation as mixed martial artists.

AS: We don’t like that in poker, either. Phil [Hellmuth] has had that image for a long time, but now a young guy will win a pot and he’ll do a dance, the robot. There should be a certain dignity, especially when the competition is over. You face the other guy in the arena, there’s no point rubbing it in.
DC: That’s the one thing poker always had. We’re competing against each other, but we are all in there willing to put our money at stake. You should have respect just for that.

RC: Your opponent forces you to learn things, practice, do things that you wouldn’t have otherwise done if you didn’t face that guy, and for that, I have to give him respect. I think there’s a camaraderie amongst us. We’re all trying to build this sport, and to get people to understand that we’re not crazy. We’re not thugs. We’re not idiots who just go beat each other up.

AS: Right. MMA has an image problem, and in some cases still has an image problem with government officials who are against mixed martial arts. They won’t allow it in certain states, which I think is a mockery, because it’s a super skillful battle of highly trained athletes. Do you see progress in that, though?

RC: A ton of progress. It was kind of interesting having just had our first show in Germany, because I lived in Germany, and I speak a little German. We had a press conference. I was thinking that I hadn’t answered that kind of question in eight or nine years. It was like going back in time. They were saying, “Oh, it’s so brutal,” and all the things that people’s first impression of our sport is. I think that there are some parallels between poker and MMA. I think people think of poker as gambling. At our first poker event, I got a lesson from Jamie Gold, who was the host. I was overwhelmed with the numbers and all the things that he dumped on me. I was like, “Which one was the big blind, again?” He just totally blew my mind. I said, “I can’t believe there is this much going into this game.” Now I get it. I’m trying to figure that stuff out as I watch it on TV. There’s a lot more going on there than people realize, and I think there is a similar parallel with our sport, too. There are a lot more tactics and techniques and things going on in a mixed martial arts fight.