A Final Word With Randy Couture

TGR: When was the first time you knew you could fight?

RC: I was in a fight in seventh grade. And you know, everybody picks on the seventh graders. This ninth grade kid decided I was the guy he was gonna pick on and he started harassing me at lunch hour. I hit him with a double-egg and put him on the ground and punched him in the face about five times. Nobody ever really picked on me after that.

TGR: Worst damage you did to somebody?

RC: The cut I put on Pedro Rizzo’s cheek the second time I fought him. It opened up a pretty good gash on his cheek.

TGR: What’s the worst you were hurt?

RC: An elbow to the eye socket when I fractured my eye. That was the worst one, for sure.

TGR: Who delivered that blow?

RC: That was Ricco Rodriguez in Connecticut.

TGR: Do you remember the first time you ever saw your own blood?

RC: Yeah. I was play-fighting on the playground in the second grade and my buddy swung me around head first into the cement wall. I cracked my head open and laughed it off at first. Until I reached up and brought my hand down and saw a handful of my own blood. It freaked me out.

TGR: Did you ever feel remorse after crushing somebody?

RC: You never really want to hurt anybody. But as far as beating somebody up to win the fight, within the limits of the rules, I don’t have any remorse about that.

TGR: How long did it typically take your body to heal after a fight?

RC: A typical fight, a week. But I’ve had some fights take months, you know, with the eye injury and things like that. The leg kicks that Pedro laid on me, the first time we fought, took about three weeks before I felt right again.

TGR: What was the best thing about Ultimate Fighting?

RC: The things I love most are the tactics and the technique involved. That’s what I got into. The one-on-on nature, as well. It was just me out there alone. I’ve got no one else to blame.

TGR: You’re doing some acting now…Who would play you in a movie version of your life?

RC: I guess it depends on which stage of my life you start it at. But probably right now, Ed Harris.

TGR: Ed Harris?