MMA Legend Randy Couture Retires

Randy “The Natural” Couture decides he’s done fighting.  Again.  Only this time it feels real. 

Via Twitter, Randy Couture has decided to hang up his 4 oz. gloves yet again.  This time, however, there’s a feeling of finality to his statement and the timing.  Stating that there were other “amazing things happening in my life” that he wanted to explore Randy used that fateful two-word phrase to explain why:  “It’s time”.

Looking back over Couture’s remarkable MMA fighting career he fought giants, legends, boxers, young Vitors, old Vitors, Icemen, wrestlers, kickboxers, Couture even fought “The Truth”.  Couture always entered the cage prepared and brought a more cerebral approach to fighting.  His defining moment came in the early days of the UFC against a monstrous youngster named Vitor Belfort who was thought to be invincible until Couture out-wrestled and out-lasted the Brazilian phenom en route to a stunning TKO victory.  This win earned tremendous respect for Couture and paved the way for conditioning based workouts and pre-fight strategy.

One day after NFL ironman Brett Favre saw his consecutive starts streak end, one has to wonder if Couture finally realized that Father Time was the one opponent who could never be outworked or out thought. 

Couture recently starred in the motion picture “The Expendables” and has his Extreme Couture gym in Las Vegas to look over.  His son Ryan Couture has a promising MMA career and was featured on Showtime Challengers in August.

The list of boxers who risked permanent damage with their inability to walk away from their sport at the appropriate time is endless.  With the size and skill level of today’s current heavyweights increasing almost daily, here’s at least one writer who hopes Couture holds to his retirement plans and realizes that one fight too early, in a sport as violent as MMA, is much better than one fight too late.