FLEX FEATURE Forty-five year-old legend Randy Couture (left) and relative newcomer 31-year-old Brock Lesnar 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 wrestling 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 mixed martial arts. 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 United States 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, Minnesota. 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 heavyweight 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. South Dakota. “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. Wanderlei Silva. Forrest Griffin. says. “I just need the equipment and The Ultimate Fighter 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 Las Vegas 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 Rocky 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 Everlast 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 boxing, 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.