As a gold standard and legend of mixed martial arts, Randy Couture will especially relish in his role of play-by-play broadcaster for the Professional Fighters League (PFL), which kicks off its second season in May. After all, the UFC Hall of Famer and pioneer will get to use his wealth of experience in breaking down fights, giving viewers priceless info along the way.
That and the PFL’s format alone calls for excitement, as it runs like a sports season, equipped with a regular season (on ESPN2 and ESPN+ Thursday nights), playoffs and championship. The PFL’s second season will include six weight classes, including the first-ever 155-pound women’s division, with each fighter fighting twice during the season from May to August. From there, the top eight fighters in each weight class will advance to a single-elimination playoffs in October, where they must fight and win twice in the same night to advance to the finals, which will be held on New Year’s Eve on ESPN2. Winners of each title bout will pocket a cool $1 million.
Having gone 19-11 in MMA, locked in a cage with the likes of Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz and Brock Lesnar to name a few, the 55-year-old Couture feels reinvigorated by the PFL’s fresh format and can’t wait for the second season to begin. Here, the MMA icon speaks with Sporting News about how the PFL fits in with the many MMA promotions out there, including the UFC, and the fighters to keep an eye on. He also gives his thoughts on whether Lesnar-Daniel Cormier or Lesnar-Jon Jones is the more intriguing fight and if Jones has tainted his legacy too much to still be considered the GOAT. That, and Couture lays out a blueprint for how all MMA fighters could have health insurance and more.
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Sporting News: How do you see the PFL fitting into the landscape of MMA with all of the different promotions out there?
Randy Couture: I think the folks that tuned in to see Season 1 of the PFL enjoy to see the progressive nature of a regular season, where they could get to know these guys and watch them competing, and see that translate to a postseason and a playoffs, ultimately culminating in a huge fight on New Year’s Eve for $1 million. That was something that I liked about it. I think it is absolutely a meritocracy — it wasn’t relying on publicity stunts and s—t-talking, frankly. It was reliant on going out, scoring points and winning fights. I think the fans appreciated that. One of the other promotions are using the other catch to generate interest on the fights. This is solely on the fighters. I think these fighters stepped up. They were asked to turn around every about six weeks and compete during the regular season. They were asked to fight twice in one night in the quarterfinals and semifinals. Whether they won or lost, I thought they all stepped up marvelously and made a huge statement for the PFL. We’re going to carry that momentum into Season 2, I believe.
Who are some of the fighters within the PFL and outside of it that have impressed you?
Obviously, Natan Schulte. He beat some very, very big guys to win the championship. He was fun to watch. He just kept moving forward and I love that kind of pressure game. I was impressed with him. Ray Cooper was a huge breakout [star]. Ray was fun to watch. The ferocity that he brings to the game … that intensity is very, very impressive and obviously the horsepower. You’re gonna feel it. I enjoy those two guys. I’ve been a fan of Michael Chandler for a long time. He’s a great wrestler — Mizzou — and rallied that wrestling background into a tremendous fighting style, a great gas tank, good technical fighter and he’s always fun to watch. So, him outside the PFL.
And I’ve enjoyed Kayla Harrison. I really appreciate her fresh attitude toward the sport, seeing her weaknesses and trying to shore those up and make them strengths. She’s been fun to watch develop, as she’s been fighting. So, I’m excited in Season 2, we’re going to announce a lightweight division for females and Kayla is obviously going to be an anchor for that.
You have history with Brock Lesnar. Both Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones have expressed an interest in fighting him. From your perspective, what’s the more intriguing fight?
I think either fight would be intriguing. Any time you have a smaller athlete competing against a guy the size of Brock, it always makes for interesting problems. It will be interesting to see how those guys approach a guy like Brock. He’s a very big man who’s very athletic. We’ve seen Brock in a couple of situations kind of shy away from the heavy-handed striking from his bout with [Cain] Velasquez. You talk about a rangy guy like Jon Jones, he’s definitely going to come out and put a fist or elbow in your face. It’d be interesting to see how Brock deals with that kind of pressure. Daniel is a little more surgical. He has heavy hands, but implements wrestling in his fighting style very well. It will be interesting to see how he deals with a wrestler, a guy who was a Division I champ like Brock, as well as Brock moves for his size. Obviously, I trained hard to go out and try to deal with him and solve those problems and it didn’t go my way.
Do you think Jon Jones has tainted his legacy too much with his failed drug tests to still be considered the GOAT?
He’s certainly had a great competitive history in the cage. Obviously, the stuff that has gone on outside the cage tarnishes some of that. That’s what people may remember. But he’s still a young man. He still has a long time left if he wants to continue his career and solidify that position and kind of wash away some of that other extracurricular stuff. He’s got plenty of time, it’s not like the clock is ticking. It’s really up to him. If he wants to straighten some of that stuff out and eliminate those things from his life and continue to use the God-given talent that he has, he’s definitely a formidable opponent for anybody.
Who stands as your toughest opponent through the years?
Every guy I faced was tough. I looked at it as problem-solving at its finest. I’ve always said the toughest fight I was in throughout my career was the first time I fought Pedro Rizzo in Atlantic City (in May 2001). It was a five-round, back-and-forth brawl. I broke my nose, I got kicked in the thigh about 14 times in that fight. I didn’t walk right for about three or four weeks after that fight. Funny enough, it was the first time my mother had come to a fight in person. She was happy she was there in person. She knew I was fine, whereas she may have had some concerns if she was watching it on TV.
Earlier this week, it was announced that Dana White signed an extension to remain as president of the UFC. You’ve been critical of the UFC’s treatment of its fighters in the past. What have you seen from the PFL in comparing how the two promotions treat their fighters?
On the whole, I haven’t just been critical of the UFC. I think the sport has some flaws. I think the PFL is a nice step in the right direction of addressing some of those issues. I think fighters are getting a fair shake. I think a lot of these fighters are getting a shot at making some real money in a regular season and onto the postseason, with a shot of $1 million. It’s not a small thing. There’s a very small percentage of fighters that are making six-figure incomes off of mixed martial arts at this point. We’re being taken advantage of by promoters — and that’s a general statement.
There’s no transparency in the industry, it’s anti-competitive, they tie up our ancillary rights. Why didn’t the Fedor fight happen, when Fedor Emelianenko and myself were at our peak? We were the No. 1 and No. 2-ranked heavyweights, but we were signed with other two organizations that had very exclusive, stringent contracts that prevented that fight from happening. That’s the anti-competitive nature of mixed martial arts right now. Why shouldn’t Ryan Bader, who’s the heavyweight champion of Bellator, be able to challenge the best guy in the UFC and see who wins that fight? It’d be a huge fight. Right now, we’re using the WWE model for the most part and fighters are signing away their ancillary rights. That’s their ability to make money and develop brands after fighting and I think that’s a travesty. If the fighters don’t get together and basically demand better treatment — start working on getting 401K, some health insurance, some of the things that actors and athletes in other sports enjoy — we’re going to continue to get the short end.
Were you insured during your years with the UFC?
No. Later in my career, they came up with accident insurance. Accident insurance is not the same thing as health insurance. It certainly helped if you blow out your knee or break your teeth in the training environment to rely on that accident insurance to hopefully offset some of the cost. But if you get sick or come down with a skin infection, you’re on your own unless you got health insurance. I was fortunate enough to start Xtreme Couture MMA and my key personnel pulled together and got health insurance. Plus, I had been acting for 20 years and managed to make enough to be eligible for the SAG — the Screen Actors Guild insurance. I was one of the fortunate ones who had health insurance through other means — it certainly wasn’t MMA.
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How can the health insurance situation change?
I’ve become the spokesperson for the MMAFA (the Mixed Martial Arts Fighters Association) and if we get a large enough pool of athletes together, we’d be eligible as a group to apply for health insurance. There’s enough of us. There’d be a nominal fee to get some sort of health insurance in place, to start thinking about retirement plans. I think the model that most closely relates to mixed martial arts would be the Screen Actors Guild. You got a bunch of studios out there trying to make films and you got a large pool of actors that are part of that association. Through that, they get their health insurance and retirement. You look at USA Wrestling, they got a membership card, insurance. It makes sense to explore implementing a similar deal. It’s just a function of educating the fighters in recognizing that we are the commodity. We’re what all these promoters want. If we unite and come together, they at least have to give us the minimum criteria.
