Sahil Laul: Instead of taking my foot off the gas pedal, I over-corrected, I shot it into the right wall. Now you're along for the ride. Hit one wall, we might as well hit them both. Right, right. Because I mean, you know what, anybody to be left out. Right, right. Now I'm on fire, and I'm like, yeah, I I need to get out of this car. Tiny Tim, Turkish oil wrestling, and the hunting gods. What do these things have in common? They're all just a fragment of the unforgettable life of one of the most badass humans to ever walk this earth. And it's coming up right now. Welcome to Count's Culture, a late night hang built around the things that still matter. I'm Danny the Count Coker. If you're drawn to power, pressure, hard earned grit, and stories that never fade. You're part of the Count's culture family, so settle in. As always, I'm bringing you real, unfiltered conversations with heavy hitters from music, business, art, sports, and auto, and I'm never doing it alone. Today I'm joined by one of my own from Count's Customs. Like the adorable puppy you adopted from the pound, but thought quite a few times about taking it back, the only, the only, only Horny Mike. What's happening, Mike? That is great. That is the best. I've never even heard that. I feel so good about myself now. Well, don't forget, tomorrow we have an appointment. I'm going to go have the chip put in you so when you get lost we can find you. That's fine. mean, you know. You'd lost sometimes actually I've been out some late nights and I know I've called home I don't know where I'm at. I know it was ghetto Bob that set up the appointment to have you chipped So that's tomorrow. Not a bad problem. Let's get this done. We'll get that done. I feel like it know efficiency is gonna matter, you know, they'll know where I'm at every day Thorn right instead of calling me and say yeah, where are you yet? Right? You'll know where I'm at already. What does come pick you up? I like it. In just a moment, a fighter who forged his legacy the hard way is here. He turned discipline, damage and relentless work ethic into a career that defined an era. Inside the cage and far beyond it. A champion, a leader, a guy who never stopped evolving. Randy Couture joins us right after this. Steven Tyler started Janie's Fund for a simple but powerful reason. To help girls heal and move forward after trauma. I've been honored. to support and work with Janie's Fund over the years. This is about giving young women access to counseling, education, stability, and the confidence to reclaim their future. Janie's Fund is built on compassion, community, and real impact because every girl deserves the chance to stand strong. Learn more or get involved at JaniesFund.org and help change a life today. Today's guest is an American icon. man who didn't just compete at the highest level, he redefined it. He's a six-time UFC champion, a member of the UFC Hall of Fame and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, a Greco-Roman legend, a military veteran, an actor, a stuntman, an author, an entrepreneur, a producer, and one of the toughest human beings to ever walk this earth. Beyond all that, He's one of the most thoughtful, humble, and intelligent people I've ever met. A guy who understands discipline, identity, fatherhood, leadership, and reinvention better than anybody I know. A true warrior, a true gentleman, one of the most respected champions in combat sports history. Some call him Captain America, others the natural. I'm honored to call him friend, the one and only Mr. Randy Couture. How you doing, I'm gonna live up to that intro. I'm almost cheered up. It's all true. It's all true. That's the thing, man. mean, when you hear it like that, man, that's really you. Yeah, that's wild. I know, bro. But it's true, unfortunately, so you know. For people, for all you people listening and or watching, just understand there are friends here together. So ⁓ if you think to yourself, how is Mike getting away with this? If he starts gurgling. I said something wrong. right. Sometimes, it's like I saying earlier, before we wrap this up, I really want you to show me how to put him to sleep. How to put sleep, okay. Yeah, because there are times that it needs to happen. You just gotta find those carotids. High of seven seconds, you'll be done. You'll have to give us a display. Drooling on himself. I hope he doesn't pee himself. Right, right. Well, he does that anyways, right? I already peed myself. The worst problem is when he starts peeing on you. That's thing I hate the most. Well, depends on the position you got, When you're choking me out. I mean, let's be honest. Thank you, good night. We're already done. Bro, you're one of the toughest humans on the planet, but we've seen you in full grandpa mode. If the cameras weren't here, and it was just a perfect Randy Day in Vegas, What are you doing? Who's around? What are you up to? What's on the grill? What's in the glass? Wow, it's one of the crazy things about this life, being a public person, no two days are the same. No two weeks are the same. It's always a scramble to keep up with the schedule and keep up with everything. Those are the people that pay that price. My kids growing up, me chasing the wrestling dream and then fighting. That was time I'll never get back with them. there's a legacy there. My son Ryan is running the gym now. My daughter's doing great. She's got a five year old granddaughter and then seven year old Aurora. So yeah, stacking the grandkids in there for sure. The boys are here so I get to see the boys more. And it's always a good day. They were just at the ranch. managed outside of Flagstaff. That's cool. And it was the boys who were two and four, they were just there for the first time. Nice. Right after Christmas we had a blast. Went to Arizona and just had a great time. Yeah. That would be a great day for me to just spend with the boys. Yeah. Hanging out. Okay. And you know. I was thinking about getting into drag racing, as you know, we crashed the car. Oh yeah, we're gonna be talking I haven't even got to the racing part of it. You wouldn't think if you got to the racing part of Right, right. And crashed, I think it's inherent in the sport. it's all part of it. the training part and crashed, I mean that's kinda... Yeah. Kind of sucked, We're gonna dig into that. it's all good. Good. I got something here for you that I really admire because my father was as well. You spent years in the 101st Airborne and decades in combat sports. When you wake up now, retired from fighting, still training, what's the one military or wrestling habit that you can't turn off? Making my bed. Dude, I love that. What like a quick... Boom, you don't even think about it. morning. Every morning. Straight up from military and... Start off on the right foot. You accomplished something already today by making your bed. I If you've ever heard that Seal Commander give that commencement speech about that, man. Do something, get off on the right foot, make your bed every morning. I love that. Mike, are you soaking this up, man? Well, I mean, kind of do the same thing, you know? Kind Yeah, every morning I get up. Erica makes the bed. I did like so, you know? I'm happy that it's done every day on it. It's nice. He's right. It's So every day she's accomplished something. Yeah, she's accomplished something. I love it. I love it. Same thing. Oh my lord. Thank you for your service. I appreciate you. Yeah, I was a very warm at the top of my life. Signed at 19. Had a family on the way and needed to support that family and the Army allowed me to do that. I spent six years in uniform. It was a great time. Some of my best friends to this day are from that time wearing green. And ⁓ thankfully, I never had to put my butt on the line like so many of our men and women now since 9-11 and the war on terror that have actually had to go get shot at and do a lot of the things I trained to do and never had to do. Yeah, I get it. And there's a part of you that always had that question. I don't know about you, but I ran around a lot playing Army as a kid. Right. And you wonder how you would deal with that kind of pressure, that scenario. Right. I think. On the one hand, I'm thankful I never had to do it and put it on the line, but at same time, there's always that question mark, okay, how would I deal with that if somebody's shooting at me? So, I don't know, I don't really want to find out. Yeah, thank God you don't have to, but thank you for being there. They picked me up in high school, know, recruiting center, know, they come through the high schools and do that. They picked me up and they took me to the recruiting center and they popped the old video in and they were showing me and I was literally in there, I like five minutes and I was like... Yeah, I'm good. I'm good. I want to go back. I want to go back to the school. I was like, no, this guy can't yell at me like that. I'm going freak out, punch him in the throat. I'm going to be in the brig. It's not going to be anything good for me. I need to go back to the school. So that was why I opted out. Did you any members that were serving? No, no, no. I never knew anybody that was. They had taken me there. And honestly, mean, for me, was just. had a hard time listening when I was young, so... Not just when he was young. I'm seeing a pattern. Oh, big time. He's been with me for years. I don't think he's heard a thing I've said. I've heard so many things. I'm listening to all of them. This is what I call penance, you know? For some of the bad things I've done in my life, God gave me Mike. I'm here to serve. a clarinet partner. Right, right, exactly. Challenge you, test you, teach you to learn some new things. Right, right, right, right. Don't ever pray for patience. God will give you a reason to need it. Yeah. I had a great-grandfather, Arthur Griggs, that drove General MacArthur around the European theater in the Army. Oh My dad, Ed, was in the Navy. He was a CB. uncle was on the Kitty Hawk and Nam. My other uncle served in the Navy as well. sister and I were both Army. Amen. So there was a lot of military history there with the family. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. Arthur Griggs, I remember as a small boy, he would tell us those stories about being in Europe during World War II. Yeah. It doesn't surprise me though, knowing you, because, you know, when stuff like that runs that deep in the family, it just keeps trickling down. Yeah. And I can see it in you. It wasn't something I set out to do, but... In the moment, with a family on the way at 18 years old, it made perfect sense to me. I get it. wasn't able to afford staying in college or going to college. thankfully the Army gave me that opportunity later down the road. Good. ⁓ It worked out. I did everything backwards, but it managed to work out. I like that. It sounds like you were being careless with your penis. That's one way looking at it. ⁓ my lord, ⁓ my lord. Bro, you're into some serious outdoor stuff, okay? If I said we were gonna disappear for a week, no cameras, no phones, where are you dragging me off to? What are we doing? And do think I could survive it? You would survive it. Okay. Yeah. You would learn a lot. Okay. ⁓ One of my favorite places on the planet was the Eagle Cap Wilderness in Eastern Oregon. ⁓ I used to pack in there with horses, set up camp, ⁓ and hunt from camp. You're literally in the middle of nowhere. ⁓ I'd spend a week out there, sometimes longer, and I loved it. Just living off the land. Yeah, there's no better place in nature, in my opinion. You want to find your soul and find your real self, there's where you need to be. Can you take Mike? You know what? I don't want to find my soul. I don't want to know where it is. I don't want to find my soul. I don't want to know where it is. Good. That's too much training and I'm pretty sure he's going to scare a lot of deer and elk away. Right, right. With those horns in. We're going to be family. We're just going be out there sitting there rubbing f***ing deers. Oh my goodness. Okay, bro, most people, most guys, they're retiring around 62. Not you. You're jumping into NHRA Pro Mod. That is a really wicked Yeah, we're taking a little trajectory course, you know, is changing there a little bit. I don't think I'm gonna get back in the car. No? Yeah, I got my gas license with the Frank Holley's drag school and he was amazing. He does one course here at the drag at the drag strip here every year. He's from Gainesville, Florida. Yeah, highly respected driver and you know national champ at one point. The thing that struck me the most in the school was he so much talked about what was going on right between your ears. Okay. And how important that was behind the wheel of that car. Okay. And speaking my language, I've spent years and years as both a wrestler and an individual combative sport of MMA and so much of his mental and how you deal with the adversity of our sport. then to hear him saying all these terms and things I was very familiar with from sports psychologists on the national team and everything else, I was like, oh my God, there's some of the same stuff right here driving this car. So I felt very comfortable with him, comfortable with the gas car, which is a nine or 10 second car. They wanted me to move up in class to a pro mod car, which is an alcohol car. And a five second car. mean, you were strapping your butt to a rocket. This thing is unbelievable. I was just getting used to the vision and everything that adjusts from the speeds of a nine and 10 second car. And then my first run in... Al Capone, a 1937 Chevy, I was like, ⁓ my God, what have I gotten myself into right here? Like my eyes, everything was just, I mean, it plays with all your senses. It was amazing. What made you want to get into drag? What I've been a car guy since I was a kid. I understand that addiction. One of those things, know, my dad was one of those guys that worked on all his own cars. And so there was, you know, I took out of shopping and welding and all these things because he was a welder by trade. again, trying to get his attention didn't work. I found the places I seemed to flourish, Russell and Nats and in the garage working on cars and tinkering on cars. An old ⁓ 70 and a half Falcon that I got through one of my mom's divorces that I played with that car all I loved that car and I sold that to try and go to college after high school and ended up with a baby on the way and headed in different direction. happened? Tell me about the crash. So this is my second run in Al Capone. We ran out of time down in south of Phoenix. We had the tractor to ourselves. Okay, and I got a bunch of gas runs in in a gas car Okay, I did my first run in Al Capone, which is the alcohol car the pro mod car. unbelievably fast. Yeah, I wish the shock Yeah, different that run I can only imagine and then we were out of time that day and so I and I needed way more runs to get certified in the pro mod class But I think I did everything I needed to do that day to get my gas certification. Okay, so then A month and a half later we rent, or not rent, but they give us a track called the Flying H just outside of Kansas City, Odessa. And we have that track to ourselves. We've shipped the car out there, Nathan Bates from Dominate Racing down in Phoenix, he's my crew chief, he builds these cars and these motors, amazing guy. Glenn Bell was there, he's a driver, a long time driver, so he's kinda being my mentor and helping me figure this, especially, cause he's drove an Al, he knows what Al's all about and how squirrely these... these Pro Mod cars are anyway. And so, first run that day, the Plion H, did a great burnout. Now you gotta back the car back up, stay in the groove. You got a ground guide that's, and my ground guide was pushing me left, trying to get me in the groove of that track. And the only thing I can think is when I stage the car and launch the car, you have a trans break, you let that trans break off, that car just takes off. You literally got the gas pedal to the floor. It's counterintuitive to everything you've ever been taught about driving a car. And now this car takes off, the front wheels don't come down for 200 feet. I this thing is a rocket. And it's toned down because I'm still training and learning how to drive this car. Well, the second I launch the car, we take off for the center line. I'm in the right lane. I take off for the center line of the track. Thankfully, there's nobody over there. We have the whole track to ourselves. ⁓ And instead of taking my foot off the gas pedal, which is what I should have done, I tried to steer it back into the lane. I overcorrected, I shot it into the right wall. Well, now you're along for the ride. You weren't driving this car anymore. were no control. And I mean, we hit one wall. We might as well hit them both. Let's do this right. Right. So I go all the way across the track. That one felt lonely. And hit the left wall. Because I mean, you know what? Anybody to be left out. Right. that was a pretty solid, almost. perpendicular impact. fuel canister is in the front of that car, burst the fuel canister, shot that alcohol fuel all over the car. Now I'm on fire. And I'm like, yeah, I think need to get out of this car. Yeah, that's terrifying. the belts, know, pop the door. I'm halfway out of the car. When the first EMT runs up, he grabs me by the Haas device and pulls me the rest of the way out. Yeah. And I don't even realize that I've been burned. Right. I I'm wearing two layers of Nomex, full balaclava, the helmet, the whole deal, the boots, the, you name it. Right. I had it all on. Right. but that alcohol fire is so hot. And you don't even see the flames. It's the other stuff that's smoking, that's burning, because of the heat. ⁓ And ⁓ then I'm just pissed. I'm standing there, I can't get this helmet off, I don't realize I'm with my gloves and the burns. ⁓ Finally, the EMT just reaches up and clips the helmet. And I take the helmet and the bill of club off and I'm just... screaming at the top of my lungs. I'm mad, I just wrecked this beautiful car in my second run in it ever. And the EMTs are like, oh, we need to get him calmed down. We need a sedative order. So I'm like, calm down. Glenn comes up pretty quickly. was almost there. Right after that first EMT, got me to lay down, got me calm down, the clothes start getting cut off and now I start realizing, ⁓ boy, this ain't gonna be good. Tell me about the injuries. Mostly the left hand. Got it. The pinky fingers, the one that's still holding on, straight and back out yet. Right. But all the other stuff, they thought I was gonna have to have grafts here on the thumb and on the palm of the hand, but that all healed up. I didn't need a graft, so. they would be taking skin off my thighs and applying it to my hands, which would not have been good. It would have doubled the healing time. Thankfully through stem regen supplements, hydrobarics, blue scorpion venom, all these modalities, people reaching out to me, giving me this stuff, peptides, collagen, all this stuff. I healed really, really well and really fast. The doctors were very pleased and I didn't have to have a graft. But then I had to make a decision. And again, I started weighing out. My family obviously pushed back pretty hard. I'm like, come on, Dad, what are you doing? You got grandkids now. And I really had to kind of balance out. Look, I spent a huge part of my life when they were kids chasing my dreams and establishing the legacy that they now get to enjoy. But I'm in a different phase of my life. Do I need a new hobby at 62? Not really, it ain't about money. But I was immediately intrigued by driving one of these cars. You start looking at it with different eyes when you go to the races. I went to Pomona 12 years ago as a fan. Met Ron Caps and Tony Schumacher. Huge. Amazing. And the horsepower, 24,000 horsepower on that line. I mean, you feel it in your guts. It's unbelievable. Your eyes snap wide open. You cannot blink. It's amazing. And so now they want me to drive one of these. I'm like, oh man, I'm in. And so in that process in Pomona, looking at it with different eyes, I ended up running into Randy Glady, Skag. One of the biggest power tool companies in the country. He won't go to the Home Depot's or the Lowe's. He does the mom and pop stuff. boy, I really respect that. here's the guys out making sure everybody's got water. He brings all his vendors right down to the starting line. This is how he markets his company. He spends his marketing budget on his race team. And now him and I just hit it off immediately. And he's like, man, I really kind of want you to be part of our team. And literally on a handshake deal. I'm gonna be part of Skag racing. And they don't have a driver in Pro Mods, so this is gonna work out. ⁓ What's a better driver, It didn't go so well. Is there any kind of automotive hobby stuff that you might go into that won't bounce you off of walls at several hundred miles an hour? I'm building a 63 split window. Great choice. My birth year. Only year they made that model of that car. It's always been my favorite car. I found one at 15. Took my best friend's dad over there, tried to talk this guy out of this thing, and they're a tarp in a barn and he wouldn't sell it in no way in heck. But it's been my favorite car ever since. then, you know, I've had a couple of Hellcats. had ⁓ an old Chevy, 49 Chevy that I loved. They kind of messed me around. And I'm selling that to a guy in the UK. But I've always loved cars. I've loved working on cars, loved tinkering around with welding, metal sculpture, all that kind of thing. So I think I'm gonna settle down and just drive a nice 63 split window. That's a great idea. And not race. Are you restoring it or are you modifying Doing a rest of them off. Rest of them off, beautiful. So it'll look like a 63 on the outside but underneath be an LT, supercharged All the comfort creatures. Nice, know, with disc brakes and all those. Have you driven a 63 lately? Yeah, I know. Oh my gosh. I flew out to Cincinnati, there's an old sheriff out there, he had six of these things. I'm like, there's no way this guy's got six of them. Yeah, yeah. And I drove two of his. And I'm like, man, this thing drives like a Sherman tank. I'm not paying this kind of money for something that drives like it is, there it is, that kind of money. I love the Restomod idea with them. They are arguably one of the most beautiful cars ever built. that... only one year with the split window is amazing. mean, and obviously being a fan, you know the story between, you know, Duntoff and Mitchell, you know, the feud of, you know, the split window and all that. Yeah, absolutely. I have no idea what you're That's why I don't... Well, know, Bill Mitchell designed they got rid of that bar because they started a destructive view. Oh, a view, yeah. They made them into Grand Prix's and they were doing a bunch of stuff with them. Absolutely. That's why was only one year. in the 67, they put a 427 in that thing. Absolutely. See, feel like I need That's a very sought after car. They made a few of those. Yeah, big time. I think one of those just passed at the auction didn't sell for almost $3 million. Yeah, one of the original big block aluminum headboards. One of the 427s. All right, check this out. I'm gonna drag you through a lot of your life stories here, but before we get going there, we do a thing here on Count's Culture where you get to put me on the spot for anything. Ask me anything you want. One question, Cars, I don't care about this one. Cars, TV, family, Vegas, I don't care. My own dumb decisions, whatever. Ask me a question and I'm gonna do my best to not dodge it. So what came first for you? Was it cars or was it music? Because I know you're a big music guy. That's a great, thank you for asking, it's a great question. And I wonder which one of those bugs bit you first. it was music, believe it or not. And it was the first thing in my life and I'm so thankful ⁓ that I got to, you know, my father was... biggest influence of my life, but not only a military guy and all of that, but he was a musician. He actually had a band when he was in the military. He used to play for generals and stuff. ⁓ wow, that's cool. But he was a musician and brought me up in music, gospel music. I started singing gospel music as a young guy. was doing southern gospel and black gospel music and that's what I grew up. See, now that kind of surprises me as the vamp. Yeah, exactly, exactly. And then he also worked at Ford Motor Company in Detroit. My whole family worked at Ford. And so I grew up in cars and motorcycles, but the first thing in my life was music. And it never changed. And then I walked away from it for a while, and then as life progressed, and ⁓ God blessed me with the opportunity to get back into music. my path led me into motorcycles and cars as far as career is concerned. And then I was blessed enough to be able to get back into music. So now I get to do that again. And I'm thankful, man. Great question. Thank you for asking. I appreciate it. I knew you had both those loves and I wondered which one was first for you. Yeah, absolutely. Well, you know, can't make any money in music. It's tough. It really is tough. Absolutely. Very few do. But the love for cars and bikes and music, boy, it's a close equal, but music was the first. It's a close sequel on the Tardy Big Money on custom cars too. Yeah, you know what? It is, it is. It's hard life. Again, again, the Lord's been good to me and I'm so thankful. We're gonna take a little break you guys. Don't go anywhere. We've got more with Mr. Randy Couture coming back. Stick around. There are a few causes more important to me than camp freedom. Camp freedom isn't about what someone's lost. It's about what's still possible. We give disabled veterans, first responders, and Gold Star families something powerful. Time outdoors, shoulder to shoulder, fishing, hunting, riding, away from hospitals and stereotypes. Out here, it's not therapy, it's camaraderie. If you're looking to support something real, monthly giving, sponsoring land, or just learning more, Camp Freedom is changing lives one acre at a time. Head to CampFreedomPA.org to show your support. Randy, take me back to Linwood High, the kid in Washington who ends up a state champ. What kind of kid were you? What were you into before you discovered wrestling? Well, soccer was my first sport. Nice. I started that at five. All right. Grew up in a single parent household. My mom and I was oldest and only male, had two younger sisters. And my mom had me in every sport you could think of. They'd keep me out of trouble. Tennis lessons, roller skating. I mean, you name it. Sports camp every summer, soccer, baseball, all the way through. ⁓ The one thing she told me I couldn't do was box. I wanted to box. A load boxing. We laugh about it now. You do it back then, you got it out of your system. I don't think I would have. I was one of the box, was sneaking away to the Linwood Elks Club. And she found out I was going to boxing practice. I'll let you play football, but you are not boxing. So that was the one forbidden sport. It's probably only turned you on more to ⁓ it. I'm like, I'm gonna do it. Fighting really was an extension of wrestling for me. Again, my best friend Bobby Stevenson, ⁓ we were in the sixth grade. His older brothers, David and John, were wrestling at the junior high. Okay. And so I'm going with Bobby. Parents are taking us to the district meet. We're gonna watch the boys wrestle. Okay. And we never wrestled a day in So this is how it started for This is how it started. Okay. And they thought it was funny and they put us in, me and Bobby, in the novice tournament in the district meet. This is for just kids, you know. I never wrestled. Never even practiced. How old are you? I'm 11. Okay. Sixth grade. Okay, never practiced never never never been on a mat. Okay pin a kid with a headlock I got my first bloody nose and I even know what the hell I did The coach was trying to show me. Oh, you did a headlock, you know, put two toddlers here One of them is gonna headlock the other one. It's a natural thing So I rolled in a junior high school the next year seventh grade that same PE teacher was the was the wrestling coach And he remembered me from that moment and it's like oh man wrestling starts Monday. I'll see you there I guess I'm going on a wrestling team. Okay. And I found my spot, man. I found my friends, the place where I seem to flourish. And like I said, a single parent household, those coaches started filling that void. Gotcha. When I needed a kick in the a**, they were the ones that stepped up and gave me a kick in the a**. Yeah. I needed a pat on the back and hey, it's gonna be all right. They were the ones that did that too. Coach Casebeer in junior high, still friends to this day. I was just gonna ask that question, bro. Coach McAvoy, my high school coach, he moved away, moved to Arizona and a different stuff, but even when I got inducted into the Snohomish County Hall of Fame up there for wrestling and stuff, he came to that banquet. I mean, he was just an important guy in my life. They gotta be so proud of you, man. Coach Winter in the Army, he was the Army coach that guided me. I thought I was done wrestling. Signed up as an air traffic controller. Really? Yeah, in 1982 and little I know, five million soldiers stationed in Central Europe at the time of the peak of the Cold War. And sports programs were huge for morale. Wrestling and boxing were very big in the Army because of the combative nature of the sport. So I ended up on a wrestling mat. My daughter was actually born over there while we were stationed in Germany. Ryan was a toddler there and learned to walk. He started speaking German. had an, know, Oma, the grandma upstairs would babysit the kids and... He literally started speaking German over there. I don't remember any of it now, but it was pretty wild that he spoke with perfect intonation. was like, oh my God. I have a couple little Germans running around here. That's good stuff. But yeah, was a great experience. And it got me back on the wrestling mat and headed towards, I always had an aspiration of being an Olympian. Got it. My favorite sport as a kid was skiing. My mom was an avid skier. Her dad drove the ski bus. It was one of her favorite sports and lot of her favorite memories, riding that ski bus with her father to go skiing up in Washington. Because the ski resorts aren't that far away up there. That was one of the beautiful things about the Pacific Northwest. You're 45 minutes from the water, salmon fishing, crabbing, all that, and you're maybe an hour... 20 minutes from the mountains and the ski slopes. Everything right there at your disposal in the outdoors sense. So you get skiing in your soul. skier. Still to this day I love to ski. And somehow I ended up on a wrestling mat. Moms would have rather you ski and you're like, I'm going to beat people up. Again, I've been told... You know, what a tough guy my dad was, and what a good wrestler he was in school. And I saw his name up on one of the high schools at Edmonds. It was in the same school district that he grew up in. And so I thought, well, maybe if I go out on this wrestling mat, I'll get his attention, he'll come around. I think he ever saw me wrestle a single match, but I found the place where I flourished. I like the story, you ended up... in the Greco-Roman because of a paperwork screw-up. Accident, yeah. What in the world was that all about? So, like I said, I was stationed in Germany. I'm just training on the base gym. I didn't have cauliflower ears back then. They didn't come until I started wrestling for the Army. I have been staring at that. You a wrestler? been touch it the whole time. That's good way to lose a finger. My bad, my bad. Smacking. That's as as a rock, aren't they? It is hard. The real problem is they don't bend. Your ear will fold over, mine don't bend. There's always no camp starts. get a scab right here from shooting doubles. And then every shower, you know, because they rip in the back. And then said that hot water hits and they go... Trying not to curse out loud. as a rock. But yeah. and I ended up wrestling, this lieutenant approaches me in the gym in Fliegerhorst Kassern in Hanau, West Germany. That's how long it was, West Germany still. That's right, that's good. And he's like, you wrestle? I was like, I had wrestled in high school. You want to come up with a wrestling team? I was like, well, heck yeah. So he would rent a band every weekend and we'd drive to a different base in Germany. and wrestling a tournament. And we were holding wrestling practice, you know, two days a week in that same gym. They had mats. And then I ended up going and walking on to a German club team. That's how sports are in Europe. They're not in the schools like they are here. They're clubs. And ⁓ so I ended up wrestling for a German club team and going to this championship tournament. my first year, never wrestled Greco before. I wrestled college style as a state champion in 1981 in folk style or college style wrestling. I'd only wrestled freestyle one time before all these tournaments in Germany. I'd never wrestled Greco. ⁓ Greco is the two Olympic styles, freestyle and Greco. Greco is the ancient style, all the holes take face from the waist up. You can't trip or grab the legs. It's like judo without a gi. Got it. Got it. ⁓ And then freestyle, you can do the fireman's carry and the double leg and the single leg and all the leg attacks in freestyle. Those are the two Olympic styles. And then the American style is folk style or collegiate wrestling, what we see in all our schools here. We're the only ones in the world that wrestle that style. Just like the Japanese are... pretty much the only ones that wrestle sumo. Every culture kind of has its indigenous wrestling style. Swinging in the Alpine states in Europe, there's a bunch of places, gurus, Turkish oil wrestling. I once you dig into the sport, there's wrestling, those hieroglyphs of wrestling on the pyramids of Egypt. It's one of the oldest sports in the world. Whoopin' ass has been happening for a long time. A long time, But I am in the freestyle tournament, the fifth core championship, and... I get off the mat and they're calling my name again. I'm like, I just walked off the mat, I can't be up again. They put me on the Greco bracket by accident. So I run over to the head table and I'm like, oh, I just got off the mat, what do mean I'm up again? Well, you're on the Greco bracket. You gonna wrestle or not? All right, what the hell? So I went ahead and wrestled the Greco tournament. I won the Greco tournament. All right, what's up here? So now I'm like, That makes you look like the bad ass. And it was a really fun... and a fun style, I'd never done it before. So again, I was immediately intrigued by this particular style. And then I find out, you know, we have very few American medalists in this style, it's not a terribly popular style in the United States. In Eastern Europe... in Russia and Scandinavia, hugely popular. Way more popular than freestyle is, Greco is. But in America, we're the redheaded stepchild. It's not very popular at all, which only intrigued me that much more. It's like, ⁓ I wanna be a world champion in this then. You know, because we don't have that many of them. ⁓ ended up being coached by one of those guys that had won one of those world championships, Coach Frazier, Steve Frazier. Great guy. That's cool. But that was where that came from, and that's how I ended up on a Greco mat. And it became one of my favorite styles. Little did I know, of all the styles of wrestling out there, Greco was one that translates directly to fighting. because of the upright posture, the clinch fighting and hip fighting that we do in MMA is totally allowed. I can hold you and punch you, dirty boxing. Show me. We've got those horns too. Show me what Those horns are really gonna help. I'll keep the game stationary. Mike, I didn't tell you this, but we brought you here for merely illustration purposes. Did you this rug was just here by accident? You're gonna get some rug burns. ⁓ All right, brother at Oklahoma State you're a three-time all-american twice in the NCAA finals at 190. Yeah, what's the one college match? Still plays in your head and what unfinished business lives in that memory I was never that kind of athlete. I lost matches I probably shouldn't have lost. My senior year, my last year on the team, I ended up wrestling Mark Kerr in the final. Mark caught me in a cradle and put me on my back damn near pin me in the finals of the NCAA Championship. My second time in the finals and now I'm losing five to nothing. And I came back, I ended up losing 11 to six. I never made up the five point spread. But those two matches, my junior year was Paul Keysaw in Bakersfield. I ended up with him in the final. And I had wrestled him once before, the year before, at the Nationals and beat him. But when we wrestled him in the dual meet, they held him out. because you lose that match that could affect your ranking going into the national tournament. Nobody remembers who's going to win the duel meet. Everybody's going to remember where you were ranked and how you placed at the national championships. They held him out of that duel and I didn't get to wrestle him that season. And then I ended up wrestling him in the finals and lost, I think it was five to three. I'd have been five to four, but I can't remember. But lost twice in the finals. Big setback. 92 and 96 Olympics, was the number one guy in my weight class. Everybody expected me to make the Greco team and win a medal. Beating medalists and world champions in other tournaments and just hadn't put it together in the actual world championships yet. managed to come up short in the 92 and the 96 trials. In the final match to make that team, I ended up losing those matches. So if I'd have let those setbacks and that adversity shut me down and not forade into MMA, I would have. Look what I would have missed. Yeah. Thankfully you never know. Right. You didn't stop me. It's a beautiful thing. kept training. I kept chasing it. Decided after 96, I was going to go to 2000, chase another quadrennium and try to make the 2000 team. And I was in the finals again in 2000 and lost to a young up and coming kid, Garrett Lowney. Tough match, three to one. And he went on and won a bronze medal in Sydney. There was this young 19, 20 year old kid just won a junior world championship and then beats my old. How how were you at the time. I was. 32 at the time. and he was what? How old was He was 19 or 20. Yeah. Yeah. Tough kid. But I had to make a decision then. Was I going to keep wrestling? I started fighting in 97. Did both, which was a challenge. I feel like technically, if I was training in wrestling and getting ready for a big wrestling tournament, the Nationals or the World Cup were one of the big tournaments, then all the fighting stuff I was learning was taking a back seat and it wasn't improving and getting better there. So it was constant juggle. ⁓ and I knew one had to go. ⁓ And I'd already chased the wrestling one about as far as you could chase it. What would you have done ⁓ professionally if the fighting had not been? If fighting had not come along, I would probably be a college coach to this day. Nice. Yeah, I loved coaching. State was a great place for me and really, really, I was the assistant wrestling coach there and I loved it. ⁓ I think I would still be probably moved up into the head coaching rank somewhere and be coaching at a collegiate level somewhere if fighting had not come along. think honestly, I think you would have been magnificent at that as well. ⁓ Not only as a coach, but just kind of as a mentor to some young guys. I really enjoy coaching and I volunteer and coach at Centennial High School for five years after that. I left my coaching job at Oregon State to pursue fighting full time. It's interesting because the head coach, Coach Wells, didn't like the fighting. it was bad for wrestling, he thought it was bad for the university. The sport was still looked at as a fringe sport back then. With these crazy guys getting in a cage, punching each other in the face. It was a whole different animal back then. And we were largely misunderstood. They thought we were criminals. We must be criminals. ⁓ you're one of those fighters? ⁓ my God, like I'm somehow gonna bite you. Come across the table and bite you. No, that's boxing. You only bite in boxing. You're kind of still a coach because I mean you still go around you know coaching people how to be you know I'm teach a lot of seminars and and I obviously we have a team here with extreme couture that I don't get in there as much as I would like to but because of the travel schedule But yeah, I love going in there and especially on Wednesdays because it's wrestling day. We make them all wrestle on Wednesdays But it's good for Look at you grin when you talk about yeah, that's your fun day there The wrestling mindset is a grind It's whole different mentality. ⁓ The dichotomy of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and then wrestling, collegiate wrestling, international style wrestling. They're two approaches to the grappling sport. Very intriguing and very interesting. Jiu-Jitsu is that path of least resistance. I'm lay on my back and use my legs, my long levers and frustrate you and get you out of position until you make a mistake. ⁓ Wrestling, I'm gonna run at you and run at you and run at you until I bend you or break you and get what I want. When I was younger, I lost to every single wrestler. Anytime I fought with someone or anything like that, they'd wrestle me to the ground and I lost horribly every time. I hated it. Got mad as hell at wrestlers. Then I learned. Yeah. that guy was wrestler, leave him alone. Leave him alone. Leave him alone. I've had police officers tell me, like, see those ears, I'm just shooting you. I ain't wrestling now, we ain't doing That's hilarious. That is hilarious right there, man. So, okay, you have fought 24 times in the UFC. 16 title fights, six reigns. Oldest champ. in history. What's your hands down favorite in-ring moment from your entire career? Oof. How's that for a question? That last 10 seconds of the Tim Sylvia fight in Ohio, Nationwide Arena, rings in my ears to this day. Run us through it. I came out. I had retired, I was going through a divorce and stepped away from the sport for I think 13 months at that time. And then started commentating a little bit for the UFC then when they were on Fox and that. ⁓ And the Tim Silvia, Andre Oloski show at that time in the heavyweight division and they'd gone back and forth, both of them. And I knew Tim well, before he ever won the title, he'd come out and train with us at Team Quest up in Oregon and stayed in my house, literally helping, it the middle of a remodel. So he was helping me, know, pull nails and do crap in the house. And then we'd be bolting twice a day to go train. And I knew Tim well, he was a great guy. And I'd watched him win his first title against Rico Rodriguez, somebody I had lost to. So, you know, me and his manager, Monty Cox, jumping up and down when he won that title. And then the opportunity, you know, like I said, was Andre Tim's show, and it was getting to be like watching paint dry. It just wasn't very exciting. They kind of cleaned out the whole division. Tim had just fought Jeff Munson up in Sacramento, and I was commentating that fight. And again, he the guy really engaged. mentality shifted a little bit. And I wasn't in his corner or one of his coaches, I was just his friend. I could see this from the outside, he was wrestling not to lose. Instead of going out there like he did in his early career, he was going out there, rip your head off. He was going out there to beat somebody's butt that night. And then he got so comfortable, because he'd had the strap for so long, he started wrestling or fighting not to lose, which is absolutely the wrong mentality. ⁓ And I think that was costing him, and again, Andrzej Smoslouch for sure, Orlowski's still fighting to this day, he's an amazing athlete. But that... Munson fight was hard to watch, it really was. And so I was having dinner with a buddy, still retired, and he kept poking me, he'd been poking me all year. He'd bite the giant, he'd bite the giant, because they'd all seen us train up there. And I'm like, man, I'm not fighting the giant, leave me alone. But we'd had a couple sockies that night, it was his birthday, and he again started in on me, you gotta bite the giant, man, you need to bite the giant, I know you'd beat the giant. And I'm like, ⁓ man. Apparently text Dana White that night from the sushi place. Yeah, man that fight was like watching paint dry I could beat either one of those guys. Yeah, he didn't text me back. He called me immediately Are you serious? Yeah, like yeah, man. I come out of retirement to fight either one of those guys Oh, that fight was signed three weeks later. I was gonna say that guy is undivided at 10. Yeah, absolutely So I signed on three weeks later. I'm getting ready to fight Tim in Ohio. Yeah and Biggest crowd we'd had in North America at that time, 22,000 people, and that crowd just went off. And I had practiced that little left inside kick, because Tim's so tall. Yeah, he's big boy. And the way he moves his feet and uses his jab, you have to stay out of the way of that damn jab. Because what's coming right behind that right hand. And so I had practiced that left inside kick to break his balance and bring his head down a little bit. I was going to throw an overhand right and a left hook. I Oberhand Wright landed right on the money. And he fell like a redwood tree. I was as surprised as everybody else in the damn arena. They jumped to their feet, I'm like jumping on him. And I'm just kind of glad the fight went all five rounds. Because everybody was questioning my sanity anyway. 44, you're going to go in there and fight this giant? What's wrong with you? You're going to eat your ass whooped. And I'm like, nope, didn't go that way. and grinded on him for all five rounds and I was kinda happy that it went that way, but that was the closest I came to that one punch knockout. I was never that guy. I was more of a battle of attrition type of a fighter. I'm gonna put you in some uncomfortable positions and grind on you till you don't wanna be here anymore. And that was my style. So. What's that like turning on the warrior against a friend? Yeah, yeah. mean, there's just rules of engagement. Yeah. And this is what we do. Yeah. And yeah, let the chips fall where they may, but I mean, like to me, it's... stand up and shake your hand and be happy with the outcome regardless. And I've lost some of those against good friends and I've won a few of those against good But see, like you said earlier, you were talking about, know, Tim kind of approached... things ⁓ in a wrong way where he was like fighting to not lose. Where was the guy who wanted to rip people's heads off? So the question is to you, Matt, how did you get in there with the friend? I'm here to rip your head off. It's a mentality that you develop. That's wild. It came through the sport of wrestling. Every time I walked out on the center of that wrestling mat, my job was to break you, not physically hurt you, but mentally make you quit. What was it like? work harder than you wanted to work. How are you and Tim after you? We're still friends to this day. I do a charity ride up in Quad Cities every year. Nice. And he lives up there. Yeah. And he comes out, helps me. He didn't even drink, but he helps me guest bartender and do a bunch of stuff for the foundation. And Tim's a great guy. He really is a great I was blessed to have him here once. He was at the shop one time. I told you, he came in the front lobby. With Matt. Such a big boy. Yeah, with Matt Hughes. And he sat down on the couch in the lobby and broke it just by sitting down on the couch. That's how big Tim is. He sat down on the couch and went, he's a huge man. He just won one of those slap fighting competitions. Oh gosh. You imagine standing in front of dude and giving him a free crack? No way. No way in Feeling that tree trunk come down on your face. No, no. Bad idea. I got beat up by a lot of friends when I was young. ⁓ We were still good after that. no big deal. Always keep in mind, Mike, I'm your friend too. And I'm thinking about it We've always wondered why I haven't kicked my ass yet. Alright, let's go down a different path for a minute here. Randy, you walked away from the UFC in 07. It was ⁓ public and a messy way. And when you strip back the politics... and the press conferences out of it. What was the real breaking point in your head and would you handle it the same way today? I would handle it the same way and advocate for fighters. I was trying to do the best thing for me, my career, my family, the legacy I was establishing as an athlete, a professional athlete. have a very short window to do that. I'd pushed that pretty far. ⁓ I was on the outs with the company back then and we never saw eye to eye. ⁓ I held them. their feet over the fire when they bought the company in 2001 over the ancillary rights in their contract. I had a great management team at the time and they're like, why would we sign away all these ancillary rights in perpetuity forever to you guys? I get that you get the fights and every time he steps up in the cage, you can do whatever you want with that, but why would we give away all these ancillary rights in every category? That doesn't make any sense. And so we fought for those ancillary rights. I'm one of the few athletes in MMA that has all his own ancillary rights. So to do a video game, write a book, be in a movie, I don't have to ask Dana White or anybody else's permission. I have those ancillary rights. I it goes. And a lot of other guys didn't understand or had poor management and signed those contracts and signed away their ancillary rights in perpetuity. Obviously we just settled one of the class actions. because fighter pay has always been an issue and they work very, very hard to keep us under 20 % of the take from any single event in the sport. Show me another professional sport where that's the case. It's ridiculous. And they do a very good job of that. keep it to about 13 to 15 % of the take is the real number. But their job is to keep us, their goal is to keep us under 20%. And now you're hearing John Jones and... Francis Nagano and some of the top tier, top upper echelon fighters talking about fighter pay and those things. The lead class just settled, you know, $300 million going out to about 1,100 fighters. The Davis class is still pending. Probably be another year or two before that settles. There will be a fairly significant number in that class as well. The big difference between the two classes is there will be injunctive relief wrapped up in the second settlement, which will. force them to eliminate the restrictive contracts, create transparency on our sport, they're have to disclose how much money they make off any single event. How am I supposed to negotiate my fair value in the marketplace if nobody knows how much money these guys are off of any single event? I mean, if we hadn't dug in and done the math and figured out that we're making 13 to 15 % of the take off of any single event. that we as athletes fight in. No 401Ks, no health insurance, no nothing. We have accident insurance now, but that's again because I was chirping and they brought in accident insurance. Well now if I got hurt in practice getting ready for a fight, that accident insurance will cover that. to get me fixed back up. But that's why a lot of fighters were fighting injured. Because they weren't going to get paid and they weren't going to get that injury covered by anybody unless they walked into that cage on fight night. And that's wrong. There's no way around it. I hear you. I'm going to start advocating for pink body guys. I'm not sure what the cause is gonna be yet. I'm not sure what language that was. I'm working on it. I don't know either. We're gonna try and figure this out. We're gonna take a quick break. We're gonna try and figure out what Mike's talking about. And we're coming back with more with Randy Couture. Don't go anywhere. There are few causes closer to my heart than the Extreme Couture GI Foundation. This organization exists for one reason, to stand by our wounded veterans and their families when they need it most. From financial support and housing assistance to transitional help after service, the Extreme Couture GI Foundation steps in where it matters. This is about honoring sacrifice with action, not words. If you're looking to support something real through donations, involvement, or just learning more, the Extreme Couture GI Foundation is making a difference, one family at a time. visit xcgif.org to show your support. Randy, we got a lot more of your personal story coming up. I don't want ⁓ to ⁓ get away with this without talking about bikes with you, man. We get a lot of musicians. on the show, we get car guys on the show, but I wanna geek out with you for minute about bikes. You are a big bike guy. this segment I'm gonna call it ⁓ Bikes Are People Too. ⁓ So we're gonna start off with this one. ⁓ The first vintage bike that ever made your heart stop. What was it and where were you when you saw it? Do remember? Vintage bike. Yeah, first vintage bike that really just, went, ⁓ man. Well, I think, I didn't get my first road bike until I moved here. Yeah. And I was here in 04. ⁓ Filming the Ultimate Fighter, the first season. then that spring of 2005, I was in the process of moving here and the show was just airing. And the biker build-off was going on, going on. The final, the big finale at Planet Hollywood. Not Planet Hollywood. No, was Hard Rock. Hard Rock. ⁓ I have a very good friend, Mike Davis, who's Suicide Jack Choppers, out of Richmond, Virginia. He built me a chopper after this experience, but he invited me to go ride with him that day with a bunch of the other biker builders. met Van Ness and all these guys, Mondo. I mean, who's who of building cool choppers? And got to ride around with these guys all day long. Ended up at Mondo's shop, which is like a... Hells Angels Museum. Absolutely. amazing. It so cool to walk in. Look at all the memorabilia and all the stuff in there. And I had one of most embarrassing moments. Ever. I'm riding one of Mike's bobbers. Suicide Jack Choppers, built bobbers. I have a bobber that he built me. It's my favorite bike. And I'm riding one of his bobbers all day with these guys. And then we parked at Mondo's. There must be 20 or 30 bikes parked in this asphalt. out there. So I've got the bike in neutral. I'm pushing it through all these other bikes to get clear before I get on it to start it. Well, somehow I'm pushing it. I get on it. I start it. Well, it's jumped into gear. And this thing shoots out from underneath me in front of... 15 of the best bike builders in the world. Goes 20 yards and then skids on the asphalt. I'm like, oh my God, what did I just do? And I'm shrinking, shrinking. Every hand in the place just turned to see this bike go down. I'm like, oh my God. I have no idea what went Might as well have been standing there naked. Right, right, right. I mean, it was horrible. Right, right. And they picked it right up and broke the peg off. They put a new peg on it. we can scratch the paint, that's all that really matters. I got on the bike and rode away. And so embarrassed. All the time, all the time. But Mike, a year later, ⁓ made me a bobber. It's called a Soldier of Fortune. And it's a green, raked out chopper, 88 CC Rev Tech. Perfect. Paul Cox air ride seat in it. ⁓ One of Denver Cycles springer front ends. I mean, it's an awesome bike. It's got affliction. This was right when my affliction relationship was starting up. And so I asked them if I could use some of their artwork, because they were doing all those cool graphic tees. And I did my first walkout shirt with them a year later in 2006 for the Tim Sillies. And that was two skulls with military helmets on. ⁓ And that's what's on the side of that bike. And there's this new shirt they came out with, 101st Airborne Skeletons in uniform, like a World War II scene. That's on the back fender. And it's Army green, and it's got all the Army badges and tags. So that is my favorite bike. And you still have it. Oh, I still have that bike. I will never sell that bike. Where is it? it here? It's in my garage here. Right here? Yeah, that's the green Is that the one I wrote? No. You let me ride that one? I have, like, I mean, You should have never let me... Unbelievable. Unbelievable. That's way too personal. Right, right, right. Where would you go if you only had one long bike road trip left? And who's riding with you? ⁓ boy. I've been to Sturgis once, I went to the 75th, and that was cool, but way too many people. I like Deadwood way better than Sturgis, because it was a lot less bikes, and I felt like in Sturgis, there was a policeman at every intersection waiting for you to roll through, or whatever. Don't do anything wrong. Yeah, not that I'm out trying to do anything wrong or get away with anything, but it was just like they were looking for it. Right, absolutely. And it wasn't comfortable. Not to mention as a public person once that cat's out of the bag. Yeah, there's no way I imagine you got some First place I met him. Yeah. Yeah, we're those crazy scooter things you were riding around the sidewalks in plenty affliction store and he was wearing extreme couture shirts like hell is this guy But that's actually what we met the first time So I've already done there. I don't know if I wanted, I think if I was gonna do that last ride, ⁓ it would be a bare-tooth pass in Montana, up by Glacier. I mean, spectacular. ⁓ The scenery's amazing. And then drop down into Yellowstone and ride the 110 mile loop around Yellowstone. That's beautiful. mean, that would be incredible. Who are you banging hand bars with? Who's going with you? Well, Lisa Gorsache would be going with me, for sure. She's got her own little Harley that she rides. Stevie. Love it, love it. Awesome, awesome. She would definitely be going. Nice, that's cool. think Mike would have to go off. Not on that monstrosity that he has. No, no, no, no. He's getting that bare-tooth pass on that thing. That thing's got a death wobble at 45 miles an hour. The jaw dropper is only for looks. I like to drive around to parades and ****. Right, right. That's a slow cruise right there. I got my own ride. I got my own ride finally. I bought my own bike finally. I a nice new road glide. ⁓ beautiful. We're ready to go. So when the tour thing comes back around, we're That is a flying couch. ⁓ big tongue. It is. It's so easy to ride. Especially compared to mine. Mine literally feels like there's two fat girls on the back, one fat girl on the front, and we're just going cruising. That's how it feels to ride my bike. Fat girls jumping you. ⁓ man, don't go anywhere. We've got more with Mr. Randy Couture coming back. Stick around. If you're a fan of this podcast, of counting cars, or of my shop Counts Customs, head over to countscustoms.shop for official gear, collectibles, and shop favorites. Or better yet, come by and see it all right here in person. The builds, the history, the vibe, it's not a showroom, it's an actual working garage. Online or in Vegas, Counts Customs is always worth the stop. Randy, let's talk about Ryan for a minute. Let's talk about Ryan. A lot of kids... They run from their dad's shadow. He ran into yours and chose the same sport. What did it first feel like when he told you he wanted to fight? Well, was an old-f***ing moment, for sure. I bet. ⁓ You know, he had a... He was third in the state of Washington his senior year. ⁓ He lost one match, and I was proud of him because that's... There's the match you don't want to lose. Your goal is what? To be a state champion. Yeah. So to have the fortitude to lose the match and wrestle back to get that bronze medal and still get on the podium, that's championship spirit in my mind and I was very proud of him that day. ⁓ Same announcer, when I won a state title, was announcing then, and messed up, and said my name instead of his name. And I was, I saw the look on his face, and I'm like, ⁓ man, come on. Ed Aliberty, a great guy, and I've known the guy. He knew my father. My father was in school, my dad. And so this guy had been around forever, great guy. And what a cool moment for him to get to announce. Not only my state championship, knowing my dad back in the day when he was in high school. And then I see my son now on the podium and I mess the name up. I'm like, ⁓ man. Ouch. Yeah, but... You were too far in his brain. Ryan had a chance to go wrestling college. He was like, Dad, I don't want to wrestle in college. I just want to go to school. Well, you know you're getting a job, right? You turn it down to scholarship? Yeah, you're getting a job. He ended up going to Western. He got a degree in math. He was working for Wells Fargo. probably on the management track. And this was the same time I'm opening the gym here ⁓ in 06-07. And so I'm like, man, what's the bank pay you? I'm still running around doing seminars and fighting all over the place. I need an anchor here at the gym. But I can trust that to manage this place while I'm out doing my thing. What do they pay you? They benefits and I basically made him an offer and he left the bank job to come down here and run Extreme Couture. And he's a very, very bright kid. I mean, like I said, a degree in math. I'm you want to get punched in the face for a living? What the hell is wrong with you? He was here about four months, kind of learning the ropes and managing the gym and he's like, dad, I really want to fight. I'm like, oh God, all right. There we go. So obviously had to hire a real gym manager so he could, and he still worked the desk and basically learned every facet of that business. But went to training and doing the things he needed to do to immerse himself in the team and get his fighting skills. He was a very, very good wrestler. But he needed all the other stuff to go with that. And so he said about that, and he just seemed to take it all in stride. And we kind of had an agreement. when he decided in junior high school that he wanted to wrestle. First of all, I'd already put him through a divorce. And I knew why I walked out on that wrestling mat. And I was concerned that that was why he was walking out on that wrestling mat. To get my attention. I'm like, man, you got my attention. You don't need to get my attention that way. This is a tough sport. ⁓ But he said, I also saw the passion that he had for it. So as a father and a coach, I was seeing the things I needed to see. And he was doing it because he really wanted to do this. And I told him then, said, I'm taking a big step back here. You've got to coach. You don't need to hear from me. If you want my opinion about anything on this mat, you're going to have to ask me. Otherwise, I'll be at every match I can be at. I'll be your biggest cheerleader, but I'm not saying a damn word unless you ask me. Because I've seen too many of these dads that live vicariously through their kids and drive their kids crazy. And I didn't want to be that guy. So when fighting came around, We took that same tact. said, you know, this is a tough way to make a living, getting punched in the face for your money. I thought you were gonna be a banker. I you were smarter than this. But again, I saw the passion that he had, the genuine passion that he had for the sport and loved being part of the team and with the guys and all that. ⁓ that put my mind at ease. I knew he was gonna do the work, make the sacrifices and get in there and grind and learn the things he needed to learn. So you finally found a comfort level. And again, I told him the same thing. said, look, I've got a staff here, you got workout partners, you got everything you need here. You don't need anything from me. I'm staying out of this. You're already dragging that last name around on the back. You're gonna be a target from day one. And now in their first amateur fight, have six reporters wanting to interview him. And he just took all that with grace, style and integrity. It's just an amazing job. And I couldn't be prouder of him. And he did a great job in the sport. Spent most of his career fighting for Bellator as Scott Coker. Yeah. Was entitled contention at one point there and that particular fight didn't go his way. Gotcha. But was an amazing fighter and great competitor. Had more submissions than I had. He was really good at that part of the game. Nice. I need to introduce him to... Mike over here. I have not talked to him before. He's met Mike. Yeah, he's met Mike. I unfortunately remember, let's see, we were hanging out at the D and I was talking to his wife. I had just got some new Avisalines. And I remember talking to her and I remember seeing a piece of spit go in her mouth. And yeah, I remember her looking at me and me looking at her and I was like, ah. I know that happened. Do you know that happened? Neither of us want to talk about it. Could you not tell Randy? don't want to tell your Now she gets to relive it. While she watches this interview. It was a strange moment for all of us. I can imagine. can imagine. Oh my gosh. Oh my, okay. All right. I'm going to take a left turn here. Take me back to that very first Hollywood phone call. The one where someone said, hey, Randy, we want you in a movie. What in the world was your honest, real deal reaction? Did you ever feel like something like this was gonna happen? No, that was not something I ever saw coming. Tell me about this. I mean, was in the sixth grade play, The Christmas Carol. I played Tiny Tim. God bless us, everyone. I love it, amen. right. But that was the extent of the drama, the acting and all of that. Gotcha. It's not something I ever saw. I've been a movie goer, an avid movie goer since I was a kid. My mom used to take the three of us and drop us off at the for the double feature. That gave her five hours by herself. Yeah, not something, I got a call from the UFC. Hey, they're making this movie called Cradle of the Grave with Jet Li and DMX. They want authentic cage fighters for this fight scene in the movie. Do you want to do it? Wow. And I, back in 95, going into the 96 games, I got asked by USA Wrestling if I would be in a... commercial for Nations Bank. And this was a SAG gig. they were a huge sponsor for the whole Southwest region going into the Atlanta games. So they did this commercial, know, the country boy makes the Olympic team, so I'm running, know, in sweats, working out in the barn, running through the fields. And then the Olympic, you know, it was all a part of this Nations Bank commercial. So in a weird way, I was already tap-hardly into a SAG card. And then... Fast forward a few years after that, they were doing, maybe you remember this TV commercial about all these athletes with their scars. Peek-a-boo Street was on that with their knees. The cowboy with the missing eye. Ronnie Lott with the missing pinky finger. I was in that commercial. Really? With my ear. Okay. And just a sweaty, still shot of me on a mat with a singlet on. Okay. Again, sad gig. Okay. Couldn't believe it. the paycheck from that silly commercial that aired during the World Series. So I'm like, oh my gosh, this is crazy. But then I get this call from the UFC, me, Chuck and Tito all got the call. And we were all three in that movie. The funny part about that is Chuck and Tito at that time wouldn't fight each other. Tito wouldn't fight Chuck. Chuck wanted to fight Tito, but Tito wouldn't fight Chuck. And then they end up fighting each other in the movie. And I end up fighting Jet Li in the movie. Yeah. Let's go, chicky. That was my one line in the movie. Yeah. You have one line in That was my one line in the movie. That was That was the experience, I ran gently over. I'm supposed to throw a big right hand at him, his whole shtick is he doesn't want to fight anybody, keeps his hand in his pocket in the whole movie. And I throw this big right hand at him and he doesn't get out of the way. And I ran him over. The director lost his money. I just ran over the star of the movie. I'm freaking out. And he's laughing. His English wasn't as good back then. He still spoke decent English. This was after Leap of Weapon 4. He'd become a huge star. Yeah, but they asked for it, man. They're the ones that asked you to come down here. But he was very gracious to party. He's not like, you know, I'm an acrobat. I'm a more... I'm a martial artist, but I'm not a fighter. He expected me to wind up. I didn't know how to throw a stunt punch or any of that, so I just launched it. Consequently ran him over. Thankfully, I didn't hit him with it. I ran him over. Oh gosh, that's funny. That's funny. You've been on sets with, oh my gosh, man, Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, 50 Cent, some really, really huge personalities, man. Were you ever honestly like starstruck somebody you met. It was a crazy day to get a call from my agent and say, hey Sylvester Stallone called, he wants you to come by his office, he wants to talk to you about a project. Now that's certainly an appointment you keep. Big time. We ain't blowing that off. And I'm military anyway, so I show up 10 minutes early. If I'm not 10 minutes early, I'm already late. Right, right, right, right, right. And so I'm there, he brings me into his office, we're waiting on the casting director. And she's late. So we're talking, just he's telling me about the project and all that, know, and then all of sudden the casting director comes barging in and she's nervous because she's late for this meeting, was nice alone, right? And she comes through the door and she bumps his bookcase that's right inside the door. He's got all these action figures on this bookcase from all these movies that he's been in. like Cobready and all these different movies. Brigitte Nielsen ⁓ from Cobready falls off that bookcase and hits the floor. Jesus, where were you a couple years ago? Gotta use you. And ⁓ my God, we fell out laughing. It was hilarious. That's great. Broke the ice, she settled down, we had an amazing meeting. He explained this movie he was putting together. And he was originally talking to me about being Hill Cesar. Hill Cesar was written for Wesley Snipes. Wesley had a small problem going on back then. Understood. So he was going to revamp it, you know, this college educated kid with cauliflower ears that rants about his college cauliflower ears and quotes Nietzsche all the time. And this was how he saw this character. He was going to adapt what he'd already written for Wesley, for me, to play Hale Caesar. Well, about two weeks after our meeting in his office with Brigitte, He gets Terry Crews to play Hail Caesar, which was a perfect fit for Terry. He was almost the comic relief in some crazy action scenes and stuff. So he went back and wrote Toll Road into the script so he could keep me in the movie. Talk about feeling honored. That's way cool. He was just such a fight fan, and him and I had hit it off. I'd met him before at Donald Classic, because he had his own line of supplements back then, in the Stone, I think they were called. ⁓ And so I had met him at some of those at the Arnold Classic a couple times. ⁓ And obviously he's a huge fight pan, a boxing aficionado. Yeah, I can imagine. I Barney Ross, his name in the Expendables is actually a name of an old boxer from back in the day. He is an encyclopedia of boxing. And he loves MMA as well. Yeah, yeah. They warned you, you don't ever want to meet your heroes and somebody like Stallone, I look at him like, wow, that's amazing. I'm told he's like the nicest, coolest. He's a great guy, he really is. I enjoy working with him, he's very, very smart. Everybody assumes, you're Adrian, that somehow he's missing a beat. Dude, he wrote that! He wrote Rambo, he wrote the first Excalactics. He's an amazing writer, hugely, very, very intelligent man. So, we're in three. Kellen Lutz, all the young ones, you know, it was the... Old crew versus this young crew with Ronda Rousey and all those guys, right? Great movie, great concept. ⁓ We're getting decimated by these tanks, so it's not written in the script, but Patrick Hughes, the director, is like, I want you and ⁓ Dolph to sneak down and take this tank and then turn it around and start blowing these guys up. I'm like, okay, well, that'll be interesting. So we sneak down, we shoot these guys in the tank, and now we're standing on the tank. There's no dialogue, there's no nothing. Britain to get us in this tank. First of all, ain't no way either one of us are fitting in this tank. It is real Russian tank. I mean, I'm way smaller than Dolph, and I tried to get in there. There is no way. You would have to grease me up. And then where's the cameraman gonna be? Don't worry about that. We just need some dialogue on top of this tank after you've killed these guys to get you in the tank. We're gonna build a sound stage so we can get a cameraman in there with you and all of that. I'm like, oh, okay. But we're still having this debate standing on a tank. And so Sly comes running up, what's going on? And he's like, oh, we got no dialogue written for this impromptu scene to get these two guys in this tank. I was like, oh, man, you. You say, I don't know how to drive a tank. You say, bullsh**, I've seen your mother. I almost fell off the tank laughing. Just like that. He comes up with the one liner that... ...you change it to your sister. Right, right, right. I was just like, ⁓ my God. That's perfect. That's good stuff. That's good stuff. Randy, it is almost time to let you go. Before I do, we do a thing here on... on Count's Culture. It's called Pump the Breaks. I'm gonna ask you questions that fans that watch and listen. Oh cool. Have, they wanna know from you. If there's a question that comes up that you don't wanna answer, you don't wanna get into, you don't wanna talk about, Pump the Breaks. You ready to rock? Yeah, let's do it. Here we go. When was the last time you cried? Oh gosh. God, that would be this weekend. It's been a crazy 18 months. I can only explain what I've been experiencing in the last year and a half is a spiritual awakening. I started having all these emotions a year and a half ago in June, right before my 61st birthday. All these emotions start pouring out of me. And I'm like, I've got CTE. I got punched in the bean too much. Something's wrong with me. I couldn't figure it out. And it's like this generational trauma. Have I just been stuffing these feelings down for so long that they're just coming out, whether I want them to or not? It was really, really interesting. ⁓ I've kind of embraced that and dug in and kind of. looked in, tried to find some answers and figured it out. And the only thing I can come up with is that I have several friends now that are experiencing a lot of similar things. There's a big shift in our consciousness. the way we're all connected and all of that. I've been embracing that. I an ayahuasca journey a year ago and that was amazingly powerful. I've done a couple of psilocybin journeys now as well. Again, trying to get in touch with my higher self, be a better man, be a better human. That's a great answer. That's great question. I've sent that in. That's great one. Number two. You might wanna pump the brakes, this is up to you. If someone locked you and Dana in a room for one hour. what would they see when they opened the door? We'd probably be sitting there laughing. Okay. We don't hate each other. gotcha. He's got a business to run. At the end of the day, fighting is a business. have a legacy and a family to take care of. We were coming to opposite sides of the table to make those things happen. I got no issue with Dana. ⁓ We've seen each other on several occasions. He's probably not gonna call me up and wish me a Merry Christmas, but you know, we don't dislike each other. It is what it is. Great answer to another great question. Yeah, you know, I don't think we'd have an issue. Love it. You guys are crazy out there, by the way. Number three. Dogs see a version of their owners that nobody else gets to see. What does your dog know about you that the rest of us don't? Wow, that's an interesting question. That's great. Great, man. I mean, if I could reach myself like my dog can, I'd probably never leave the house. Next question. We'll pump the brakes on that. We'll pump the brakes. Brakes are pumped. Question number four. What was the best hunting or fishing moment of your life? ⁓ A few years back, gosh, more than a few years back, this is right after I first moved to Vegas in 2005. ⁓ had a... Beyond the Hunt with Rick Croyder. and Julie Crudert, and then had Staying Safe with Jesse and Ginger, both hunting shows, and they both inviting me to go hunt with them on their shows. So one week I'm in, right outside of Sturgis by Devil's Tower, chasing pronghorn and whitetail deer with my bow. I shot one of each. And then a week later, 40 miles away in a different part of the state, same thing with Jesse and Ginger, Jason, White-Tailed Deer, and Pronghorn. And I killed two more. This might be the best, I mean, the hunting gods are shining down on me in this two week period for sure. Amazing, had a blast on both of those shows. Yeah. All right, was a great two weeks. Great answer, great answer. Number five, you've cornered so many fighters, what's the most honest thing you've ever said to someone in the minute between rounds? It's such an important position, being a corner man ⁓ and having a corner man that you trust. They're used to hearing his voice in that arena. mean, there's two voices I could pick out. My mom's ⁓ and that corner man's voice, because he's been yelling at me in the whole camp. ⁓ that's what you want. You want that same one voice yelling at you that whole time, because that's what you're going to pick up in the heat of it. And that guy on the outside of the cage sees things that you can't see in heat of the moment. And you need to be honest. Eric Nixic, our head coach and manager at the gym now, I mean, he's been coach of the year a couple times. He's an amazing. corner man and an amazing coach. And sometimes you gotta be brutally honest. Dude, you're getting your ass kicked. You got one round left. You gotta make something happen this round or it's over. I mean, you gotta be honest. Got a lot of fire under their butt sometimes and you can't blow smoke. You gotta be truthful. Okay, love it. Another good answer. We're at the finish line. I got one more final question for you. This is, is... Yeah, you've been a soldier, a wrestler. a champion, a coach, an actor, a dad, and now a grandpa. When your grandkids are old enough to Google you, what's one story you hope someone tells them that they're never gonna find online? ⁓ boy. Wow. That is a great question. Holy smokes. That's not from a viewer, man. That's from us. Well, hasn't somebody already dug up on you? Throw it online. It's interesting, because I have all these clippings and magazine covers from Black Belt Magazine and all this stuff in this bin that I saved over the years because my youngest... know, my two older children lived it. They were there. My youngest wasn't, he wasn't really part of that. So I've saved all this stuff now. I have this bin of stuff in storage that I rarely look at. ⁓ And I don't know that he'll ever look at that stuff. But I think ⁓ at some point I certainly, like. My grandkids, I'm pretty sure my granddaughter is gonna be WWE Roliderby, one of the two. I mean, she's a beast. And Ellis, the two-year-old is, they call him the big baby on the block already. And he's ways the same as his four-year-old brother. And he's got a little wrestling in him already. So it'll be interesting. ⁓ they would probably go all the way back to setting a goal to win a state championship going into 1981. Asking my mom, I shared that. mean, those are the type of goals you wanna share with somebody who's gonna help you stay on track. And my mom was that person. So I said, mom, I wanna... take wrestling season off from my job at the grocery store. And I can't pay my car insurance or my gas money if I'm not working the job. I want to be state champ this year, it's my last year. And she said, all right, I'll cover your car insurance and your gas money through wrestling season. Do what you need to do. And that was the template. I drew that map. I sat down, she got me an old Sears and Roebuck. plastic weight set, know. Started doing the extra running, learned how to, I Schwarzenegger's encyclopedia of bodybuilding, trying to learn how to lift weights. I'd never done any of this stuff. And that year I set about doing all this extra stuff to try and achieve that goal and managed to get up on top of that podium ⁓ my senior year. But now I knew, holy cow. It actually works. And that became the cookie cutter for everything I was gonna do down the road from there. And that would be the story I think that my grandsons would certainly need to hear and I think my granddaughter too. Love it. That's cool, bro. Dude, I just wanna say thank you. Thank you for taking this time with us here at Count's Culture. Thank you for your service. Thank you for these amazing stories that you've shared with us. Thank you for the human being that you are and that you're sharing with the world, man. You absolutely rock, man. Thanks for being my friend. I appreciate that very much, Amen. been a fan of the show for years. Thanks, man. Thanks. Obviously, as a car guy, I what you guys did. Yeah. And this guy here. Yeah. I know know, inherently meeting him in Sturgis and, you know, just becoming friends. It's hard not to like the guy. I know. I know. People, you know, because of the show and the way and the way I pick on him all time, people think I can't stand him. And people ask me when we're out on the road all the time, they're like, why do you put up with him? I'm like, you guys don't understand. We pick on each other because that's what brothers do. Yeah, friendship. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, I want to tell both of you something. Coming from where I came from in Michigan, trailer park, all this bullsh-t. Getting involved with Danny, being on the TV show, getting to meet you over the time, you know, and getting to hang out with you and all this, you know. I've learned something. I've learned a little, Lito, like, we don't get, we didn't get it back then when I was in Michigan. When I was in Michigan in the trailer park, I would have never assumed in my lifetime I'd be sitting on this f***ing couch with you guys. And I've gotten to watch both of you. Like, Danny's an incredibly nice, amazing person. This guy gets out, he does. I've watched him on many, many occasions. He's the nicest guy to everybody. And I remember Danny saying something a long time ago. He said, listen, You get on this show you start getting up on a pedestal I won't be the first one there to kick you out of that kick that pedestal out from underneath it That's the truth. Yeah. Yeah, all I'm saying is you guys have been wonderful You know like people to you know, do they call that? didn't people that in you guys are the ones that inspire me to be nicer to people when I see people out I'm a sweetheart to people because a lot of times about how I watch you guys I appreciate that. Thanks, man. I'm just saying, I've learned a lot. I'm surprised that you guys be gracious. Well, I didn't come out gracious, so you know, I could only... I hope you weren't wearing those hard ones. Mom probably still hates you to this day. Exactly, dude. My mom was a hard girl. Oh my gosh. Randy, thank you, Pleasure. Sincerely. And when the weather starts getting a better, let's get in the wind. Absolutely. You can ride jaw dropper. I'm actually quite surprised he didn't name a panty drop. You're Randy Contura. You can handle three fat girls. ⁓ my gosh, bro. No way you can't ride that. I love it. love it. Ladies and gentlemen, the man, Randy Gator. You rock. You rock. Thank you. Thank you so much. Bro, was that fantastic sitting here hanging out with Randy the Natural Couture? It's always an amazing thing for me that I get to hang out with Randy. I know. mean, flat out, I've always been amazed any time he's ever called me and said, hey, you want to come to my Halloween party or one of my rides. It's amazing that Randy Couture even calls me. Like, I get giddy and I want to show some of my friends, but that would be... I get it. He's such an amazing guy. accomplished so much. have so much ⁓ respect for him. And then like you said, hanging out with him ⁓ is awesome. when I just picked up the phone and called him, you want to come do this? And yeah, his heart's He's the nicest, genuine, most genuine person I have ever met. Yep, I agree. He is the nicest person that can literally disassemble you in seconds. ⁓ yeah, I forgot that. tear your face apart as he tells you, listen, I didn't want to do this. Right, right. She really did make me. Right, right. And he's smiling at you the whole time while you're trying to... He might even make you feel better about getting your ass looked at by Like afterwards, like this has been a life lesson for you, not me. I know it, I know it, I know it. I love him. Well, that's a wrap, everybody, for this episode of Count's Culture. Spending time with you is hands down... Best part of my week. If you want the full experience, head over to our YouTube channel at Counts Culture. Culture is with a K. And watch the entire episode there. You can also find the show on all major podcast platforms. And please connect with us on TikTok, X, Facebook, and Instagram for exclusive and behind the scenes content. Until next time, be good to one another, follow your dreams, and be cool in everything you do.