By DANNY O’NEIL
P-I REPORTER
Randy Couture has been called “The Natural “and “Captain America “and he could be called the toughest guy to ever come from our state. He was a state champion in wrestling in 1981 while at Lynnwood High School and a three-time U.S. Olympic team alternate in Greco-Roman wrestling. But these days, he is best known for being a champion in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He announced his retirement earlier this year.
Q: So what does a retired fighter do?
Couture: I’m ready to kind of move on and open a new chapter in my life. At 42, almost 43 years old, I think it’s time to do something else. To think about other things and certainly there’s a lot of options with the sport’s popularity. It seems like a good time to make a transition.
Q: Some of those possibilities are in acting. You were in a movie with Steven Seagal, right?
Couture: That’s true. We did a movie this last year called, “Today You Die. “It went straight to video. It has been played on TV recently. I also did “Cradle 2 the Grave “a few years ago with Jet Li and (rapper) DMX, a couple of episodes of “Oz, “and I had my first kind of major role in an independent film called “No Rules. “You can buy that online. I just landed a part in a Rob Schneider movie that we’ll film this summer.
Q: Please don’t tell us you let Seagal beat up on you.
Couture: Well … that’s why it is called a Steven Seagal movie. I was one of the bad-guy bodyguards who got his butt whooped by Steven Seagal.
Dana White, the president of the UFC, called me when it came out on video. He was like, “You wimp, you got your (butt) kicked by Steven Seagal. “He left a message on my phone so I called him back, and I was like, “Who’s the bigger wimp, the guy sitting on his couch watching Steve Seagal or the guy in the movie?”
Q: You’ve been involved in the sport awhile. What’s it like to see what’s happening with the sport’s exposure and popularity it is experiencing?
Couture: The sport has changed immensely, largely I think due to the new owners from ZUFFA. They’re not so new now. They’ve owned it for a few years. But from my perspective, I can’t go anywhere without being recognized, without being stopped to take a picture, sign an autograph, and that’s certainly a new and different experience for me.
It’s a pretty fun time to be involved in the sport. There’s a lot of opportunities and a lot of pretty neat things going on. The sport is growing immensely. I think you will see that trend continue. It’s becoming the combative sport of the future.
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