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Home , Brock Lesnar, Eye of the Tiger, Forrest Griffin, Randy Couture, Wanderlei Silva

FLEX FEATURE Forty-five year-old legend (left) and relative newcomer 31-year-old trade words with FLEX before they step into the ring and trade blows in the biggest fight in UFC history

BY JON FINKEL PHOTOGRAPHY BY PAVEL YTHJALL AND ISAAC HINDS

170 FLEX | DEC. ’08 FLEXonline.com 171 FLEX Fight For The Ages LESNAR CAPTAIN READY TO AMERICA BROCK RETURNS THE WORLD FLEX gets in the cage Two months from his much anticipated and into the mind of UFC bout with Randy Couture, UFC legend Randy Couture Brock Lesnar granted FLEX access as he trains for his fight to watch him train and endure pain with Brock Lesnar as he prepares for the fight of his life

As president, Teddy Roosevelt believed in Florists aren’t named Brock. Neither are som- speaking softly and carrying a big stick. As meliers or interior decorators. No, when your a colonel, Jack Nicholson’s character in A name sounds like the words “brick” and “rock” Few Good Men, Nathan Jessep, believed in smashed together, there’s really only one calling walking softly and car- tough enough to justify rying an armored tank your signature: fighter. division. As a certified Luckily, this is exactly badass, Randy Couture what Brock Lesnar is. speaks softly but carries From his All-Amer- the ability to ground ican days at and pound his oppo- the University of Min- nents into submission. nesota to his reign at This obviously isn’t a the top of the WWE to huge sampling, but it’s his entry into mixed safe to say that tough martial arts, Lesnar guys, whether they’re seems drawn to one- real or in the movies, on-one combat the way are cut from the same Clint Eastwood was cloth — though few have drawn to playing tough been cut in combat, lit- guys. Just as nobody erally, as many times as else could have starred Randy “The Natural” as Dirty Harry and Couture. He’s like the nobody else could have Brett Favre of the UFC, but instead of a pulled off the line “Go ahead, make my day,” career with the Green Bay Packers, he packs nobody else could have gone from a titan of punches. And kicks. And chokeholds. And fake fighting to a contender in Ultimate Fight- his career isn’t filled with stats. It’s filled with ing in just a few short years. To pull off that scars. And it isn’t a career about one disci- feat, you can’t just decide to try mixed martial

COUTURE pline, but all of them. arts; you have to commit to it.

172 FLEX | DEC. ’08 FLEXonline.com 173 FLEX Fight For The Ages And in so doing, you commit to It’s a career that’s taken spectacu- the big things, like the idea that you lar advantage of the word “mixed” in could be seriously injured during a . Wrestling? He fight, and the little things, like the won his first championship in that fact that breaking in a new pair of discipline when he was 18 years old. gloves can make your hands look like Then he was a three-time NCAA you stuck them in a blender. Division I All-American wrestler at “I try to work in new pairs of gloves Oklahoma State University. Hand-to- as often as possible,” Lesnar says. hand combat? Couture spent six years “This way I get used to doing the in the Army. Muay clinches and holds with tight gloves.” Thai? Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu? Ask the Lesnar says this standing in his men who have submitted to him in gym in Alexandria, . The agony if he’s mastered those. Couture gym is two and a half hours north of made his UFC debut in 1997, winning St. Paul, which means it’s two and a the tournament. Since half hours from anything resembling then, he became one of only two a big city, which is exactly how the MMA fighters to hold a champion- fighter wants it. “I’m a country boy,” ship title in two different divisions: he says, referring to his roots in light heavyweight and heavyweight. . “I moved here a few He is also the only five-time champion weeks ago and we just finished put- in UFC history. ting this training facility together. Or, you if you want a testament to It’s perfect for me.” his greatness, you could just ask one Perfect, to him, means perfectly of the dozens of worldclass mixed anonymous. martial artists who flock to train with “This is how I like to train,” he him. . . says. “I just need the equipment and 7 winner, Amir my training partners. Nobody else Sadollah. These are just a few of the has to be here.” guys squaring off when we step foot This last statement seems a bit into the Xtreme Couture training redundant, because if you don’t facility on a steamy September day in have specific directions to the for Couture’s photo shoot. training facility, you have abso- There’s so much talent in this room lutely no chance of accidentally you could sell footage from the secu- Top: Couture in the middle of a flurry of punches with trainer Ron Frazier; middle: Top: Lesnar takes an elbow to the throat as he trains; middle: Lesnar works on his stumbling into it. It’s in a nonde- rity cameras to Spike TV for a couple Couture ends his rounds with a bang, then rests on the cage for support; bottom: the chokehold and then catches some air in the middle of his marathon training session; script building in a nondescript million dollars. It’s like wandering view from the top level of the Xtreme Couture training facility. bottom: Lesnar bull rushes training partner Marty Morgan in Lesnar’s prep for part of a nondescript farming town locking horns with Couture. into a gym and finding Jay Cutler (although nondescript in northern spotting Phil Heath on a set of bench Minnesota means that its breath- presses. taking scenery blends in with all But at the center of it all at this the other breathtaking scenery —

particular gym is Couture. When he an embarrassment of country LESNAR walks in, the room slows for just a riches, if you will). Still, compared moment as everyone puts an eye on to the star-studded training facility him. After all, it’s the house that he that his opponent, Randy Couture, built. Would you be able to keep your is training at in Las Vegas, you eyes off Babe Ruth as he strolled can’t help but feel like you just through Yankee Stadium? Didn’t stepped into the scene in IV think so. when Rocky arrives at the remote And just like that, Couture is stand- Russian cabin he was given for ing in front of you. You hesitate to some old-school training — except introduce yourself. Not because he’s that, unlike the Italian Stallion, too intimidating (which he almost is) Lesnar won’t be facing a Russian but because you realize you’re holding giant at the end of his training; a bottle of Xtreme Couture natural rather, he’ll be taking on just the water in one hand with an official opposite: Randy Couture, a.k.a. Xtreme Couture T-shirt in the other. Captain America. COUTURE 174 FLEX | DEC. ’08 FLEXonline.com 175 FLEX Fight For The Ages No, you’re not intimidated. You just Eye of the tiger “Most of the guys that I’ve Repeat. Over and over again. proof that the training is working feel like a fight geek. But with a job to brought in to work with me have In fact, there are so many rounds when he takes down his biggest spar- do, you look at the icon, who is about wrestled with Randy at some being fought and techniques being ring partner with the same ferocity two months out from his major heavy- point,” Lesnar says. “This way worked on we couldn’t keep track if that he did when the morning began. weight championship fight with Brock they can fight like him and help we wanted to. One minute Lesnar’s Then the buzzer sounds from the Lesnar, introduce yourself and dive me prepare.” taking down a man about his size, the timer and the marathon ses- right in with a question: “It’s been over Sparring with partners like next minute he’s escaping a hold from sion of one hour, 45 minutes is over. a year since your last fight. After all your upcoming opponent is stan- someone who’s built just like Cou- Finally. the battles you’ve been through, are dard , wrestling and MMA ture. Every second brings a new chal- After a quick cooldown, Lesnar you training differently now because dogma, but when you look at the lenge, with each partner giving lumbers into the weight room and sits there’s been so much time between size and ability of the guys that everything he has to push Lesnar to down on an incline bench to, well, the title defenses?” “I’ve been training my Lesnar will be throwing down the limit. Round after round. Minute only word that seems to apply is whole life,” Couture says. “As with all clock in sync. I want to know exactly gym. Above him hangs a massive with every day for the months after minute. “drain.” Water pours out of his body my fights, I always start to zone in 10 how I’ll be feeling in every situation fighting mat that was used in a live leading up to the fight, you figure After an hour of practice, the like a glacier that suddenly found weeks out. I’ve been doing this for so that could arise when I’m in the ring UFC event. Gallons of dried blood out that in order for him to beat once-dry Zebra wrestling mat is itself off the coast of Hawaii. In no long, I know exactly how to prepare with Brock, so if that situation occurs, and sweat stain the canvas. It’s like Randy Couture, he actually has to splattered with sweat — like a water time, pools of sweat large enough to my body. The only difference this time regardless of where we are in the a Picasso of pain. Below him, a fight a half-dozen Randy Cou- balloon fight broke out and everyone be koi ponds begin to develop on the is that I have to train for someone with fight, I’ll be ready.” legion of martial artists work tures every day. That says just as just fled. As partners rotate in to floor below him. my opponent’s size.” This last statement is easy to through drills, no doubt trying to much about the caliber of his tussle with Lesnar, it becomes appar- “Here comes lake Lesnar,” one of The size he’s referring to is the 6'4" believe once you witness a Couture catch the eye of their hero. And in opponent as it does about the ent that, although he’s working hard, his training partners, Greg Nelson, and nearly 300 pounds of muscle that mitt session with trainer Ron Frazier. front of him, barely two months desire of Lesnar himself. He’s he’s not wasting energy . . . nor is he jokes. Lesnar smiles and looks down, is Lesnar. They’ve been working together for into the future, sits Brock Lesnar. willing to do whatever it takes. getting hurt, because despite his amused. “We’ve brought in some big guys to three years, but it might as well be “I’ve already started visualiz- On this particular day, he’s training partners’ best efforts, some- “I’ve got two of them going now,” spar with me,” Couture says. “These three hundred. With barely a grunt, ing the fight,” Couture says. “The putting himself through a gaunt- times their blows land like tennis he says pointing at them. “That one’s guys are helping me prepare for every- they descend into a flurry of punches, night before, I’ll go through every- let of wrestling drills. And since balls being lobbed at an M1 Abrams Lake Superior and that one’s Lake thing that Brock might do. He’s like a blocks and weaves that would make thing I want to do. The first round, he protects his training regiment tank. He’s simply too big and too Michigan.” freight train that just keeps coming Hollywood’s finest fight choreogra- the first contact, everything. Then like Colonel Sanders protected strong. Everyone cracks up and Lesnar straight at you.” phers proud. This particular fist I visualize all the things that could his secret blend of 11 herbs and “All of the lifting I do now is cir- smiles wistfully. At that moment, it’s This is why this fight is so intrigu- frenzy lasts 45 minutes and it involves happen. But right now, I’m putting spices, we can’t go into specifics cuit training,” he says. “It’s all to clear. If it takes two lakes of sweat a ing. It’s not just old lion against young almost every square inch of the ring, together my game plan.” about the workout we’re allowed fatigue the muscle and just keep day to drown Couture in the cage, lion (Couture is 45, Lesnar is 31), it’s from floor to fence. Which is? to witness, but suffice to say, it’s pushing. I want to push the muscle to Lesnar will put in the work. If it takes also strong versus stronger; force plus “I can tell when Randy wants to “I’m going to be the aggressor,” punishing — punishing in its failure and keep doing it so that I can an ocean, he’ll do that too, because experience versus brute force. It’s like pick up the intensity level and I just he says. “Nobody has ever really physicality and punishing in its hold my strength longer.” Brock Lesnar is a fighter, and that’s a scientific equation for combat. bring it,” Frazier says. “He’s looking punched Brock in the mouth. I’m methodology. Fight. Grunt. Sweat. In the last round of the day, we get what fighters do. “I think people are excited because really good right now. Really sharp.” going after him. That’s what I’m both of our backgrounds are in wres- When the 45-minute session comes going to do.” tling,” Couture explains. “Plus, he to an end, Couture sits dog-tired on If Randy Couture can pull it brings all of his fans from WWE, so the of the octagon, his soaked off, UFC 91 might be remembered there’s going to be a lot of eyeballs shirt against the cage. He rolls his as the day a 45-year-old man watching this fight.” neck a bit and you can see that he’s stopped a freight train with a sin- Acknowledgment of the fight’s not running from the pain. He’s gle punch. No other tough guy has

huge draw, however, doesn’t mean absorbing it. His eyes dart around the ever done that. LESNAR that Couture concerns himself with the hype. “You can’t let yourself think about all the other stuff going on,” he says. “All I do is focus on training.” That training currently involves two sessions a day at Xtreme Couture. The first session is cardio, strength and conditioning; and the second ses- sion is sparring and technique. “I do a lot of core training now,” Couture says. “I still lift some weights, but I’ll do lighter weights for lots of reps. Everything I do is to try to simulate the intensity of the fight. All the train- Before the storm, Couture (left) and Lesnar wait. ing is based on getting my internal COUTURE 176 FLEX | DEC. ’08 FLEXonline.com 177 FLEX Fight For The Ages

NOW AT FLEXONLINE Want more Couture and Lesnar? Check out our behind-the- scenes video of these photo shoots on flexonline.com today!FLEX LESNAR >>UFC 91: Couture vs. Lesnar takes place live Saturday, November 15, 2008, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, . >>UFC 91: Couture vs. Lesnar will be available live on pay-per-view at 10 pm EST/7 pm PST on iN DEMAND, DirecTV, DISH Network, TVN, Bell TV, Shaw Communications and Viewer’s Choice Canada. COUTURE 178 FLEX | DEC. ’08