Issue 078

August 2011

Randy Couture shares a laugh on the ring apron during his training camp for Lyoto Machida at UFC 129. While ‘Captain America’ didn’t get the result he wanted, suffering a knockout loss to ‘The Dragon’ at the UFC’s biggest ever show, his legend remains unshaken. Flip to page 78 to see FO’s exclusive look into Couture’s last workouts prior to his final bow.

Lorenzo Fertitta on Randy Couture

“There’s no question that Randy Couture has to go down as a pioneer. He’s actually a living legend. He has done everything in the sport: from beating the best guys in the world, to holding world titles, to defending world titles. He has helped to define the sport as we grew up, because when we started this thing, it was really in its infancy and people didn’t look at it the way they look at it now. Randy was one of those guys who had the ability to communicate to the general public and to help the sport to crossover. He has this incredible way of speaking about the sport, and people look at him in a way that they’ll say, ‘This is not a barbaric sport.’ That’s because here’s a guy who’s extremely intelligent and charismatic. Then you couple that with his way of approaching the game. It wasn’t ever about brute force, or brawling, or anything like that with Randy; it was very cerebral. Randy took every fight, broke it down, had a gameplan and basically broke guys down, depending on what their strengths or weaknesses were. He’s a true professional. Clearly, he’s going to go down as one of the greatest of all time”

Photograph: Eric Williams

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada