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Interview w/ Ryan Couture

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Just about a month ago, I met up with MMA fighter Ryan Couture at the Xtreme Couture Training Facility here in Las Vegas.  Let me start off by saying that Ryan is one of the nicest people I have ever met.  I’m not just saying that either.  I had bumped into Ryan a few times before the interview and even a time or two since then and he is the real deal, a genuinely nice guy!

So, other than being a good guy, what can I share about Mr. Couture?  Well, of course, I asked him how he got started fighting and I was rather surprised by his answer.  I figured that he had grown up watching his dad fight and felt like if he did anything else he would somehow tarnish the legacy of the Couture name.  Come to find out, that wasn’t even close!

He told me, “I grew up wresting through school, junior high and high school.  Then went to college and took some time off from athletics to focus on school and socializing and then basically getting fat.  Then you know I have always been a fan of the sport as long as dad has been doing it; that was obviously my connection to it.  And as his career grew, I became a bigger and bigger fan and followed the sport more and more closely.  I was always curious about competition but wasn’t in any kind of shape and didn’t really think I would ever get around to doing it.  After college, when I had a little more free time, I started taking more of an interest in fitness and getting back in shape.  I started grappling and dabbling in a little bit of kickboxing as well.  I competed in some grappling competitions and had fun with that.  Then when I got the opportunity to relocate to Vegas and work for the gym that kind of stepped up my interest even more.  The training went to a whole other level and it just grew from there.”

I asked what other skills Ryan had added to his arsenal over the past couple of years leading up to him becoming a professional fighter and where he felt he was strongest.  He says he has to go with his submissions and more specifically his “offensive and dangerous guard”.  Ryan was a Blue Belt in BJJ through his gym back in Washington and has since earned a Purple Belt under Neil Melanson here at Xtreme Couture.  Even though Ryan has only been fighting MMA since 2009, he racked up an amateur record of 5-1-1 with all of his victories coming via submission!  Then, on August 13th 2010, in his professional debut, he was able to triangle choke Lucas Stark for the win in just 75 seconds. 

One of the hot topics out there in the MMA world right now is the “lay and pray” fighting style, where a guy goes for takedowns, but ultimately uses them to score points with the judges and control his opponent with little to no effort being put forth to finish the fight.  I asked Ryan what he thought of the situation and he said that he can’t fault a guy for wanting to get his hand raised with no injury.  I followed that question up with the flipside of that coin. I asked about the pressure on fighters to “perform” because of the entertainment aspect of sports.  He said that it is always in the back of your mind and that is why some guys come out and take risks.

When I asked if there were any fighters that he looked up to he couldn’t narrow it down right away.  He mentioned a ton of guys at Xtreme Couture.  When he did start naming names, it was still quite a list… “Gray, Tyson, Martin, Mike, Jay, Rodrigo, Alessio…”

I was curious if there was anyone out there that Ryan wanted to fight, maybe to avenge his one loss or someone who might be gunning for him because of his name.  Turns out there are and somewhere down the line he would like a chance to finish his last amateur fight that ended in a draw.  He said that it was a real back and forth crowd pleaser.  Let’s hope that comes together for him.

Unfortunately, Ryan was scheduled for a fight this past November 19th, but was forced to withdraw because of a serious infection.  He is wrapping up some treatment and said as soon as he is released he will get to fight again.  This will probably be some time in March.  With 5 fights left on his STRIKEFORCE contract, we will get to see plenty more action from this young up-and-comer!  It is going to be exciting to see his career unfold.   

Ryan’s main sponsors are www.inflictsports.com and www.itaintchemo.com. 

He is a great guy and it was a lot of fun to sit down with him.  Look for him on FACEBOOK and TWITTER!

Re-posting of Martin Kampmann interview…

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A couple of months ago, I was able to sit down with Martin Kampmann at the Xtreme Couture MMA training center here in Las Vegas.  Martin is a great guy and we had a very nice talk. 

This interview took place right before he fought Jake Shields.  I have spoken to him since that fight and plan to interview him again once he knows what fight is coming up next…

You have had an amazing career!

20 pro fights with only 3 losses, most recently to 2 outstanding fighters, Nate Marquardt and Paul Daley.  Let’s talk victories… 7 KO’s and 6 submissions… very well rounded!

Huge fight coming up here pretty quick.  Are you training w/ the same guys as usual?

“I’m training with a core group of guys here at Xtreme Couture.  I also had Drysdale come in.  Had some other guys come in like Pat Healy.  He was down here to help me out a bit.  I’ve been trying to work with some wrestlers to help with my takedown defense.”

How important is the other guy’s game plan? 

“I definitely look at his strong points and his weak points and I try to put together a game plan from that.  Of course, I try to think about what his plan is coming in, but if you expect and only prepare for one thing you could be surprised.  You got to be ready for anything.  I think it is good to study your opponents.  This fight for instance, I know the guy, in his last 20 fights he has been trying to take people down and submit ‘em.  Most likely he’s gonna try to take me down and submit me as well.  So, of course, I have been working a lot of defense on that.” 

The fight before that, the guy I was fighting, also a good submission guy, but he had a lot of knock out power, swingin hard for the fences.  So, then I was training for that.  I will change it up a little bit.  My primary schedule before the fight will be the same, but I’ll adapt a few things, tweek it up a little bit depending on who I am fighting.“

It is going to be an amazing fight. I cannot wait!

“I am looking forward to it.  I mean, I think he is kind of boring a little bit.”

That has been in a lot of articles lately… how guys who are strong wrestlers can take people down, but then just lay on top of them.

More general… is there anyone in the MMA that you look up to? 

“The first one to come to mind, of course, is Randy Couture.  He is the main guy here at the gym and he is a great inspiration to be around and a great inspiration to train with.  He is a great guy.”

Where do you see MMA is heading in the next few years?

“hopefully keep evolving and get a bigger fan base.  Become the biggest sport there is and have the paydays grow with it! (laughing)

Dana White said that the UFC’s number one goal right now is to go “global”.  Over the last couple of years there has been a clear effort made to capture the European market.   In the next couple of months there will be events in England and Germany.  Do you feel like this has had an effect on the sport?

It was announced last week that the UFC is expanding to Asia.  Any thoughts on how that could change things?  

“going global is a great thing.  Most sports are global.  Of course some sport like America football is the biggest hit in the US, but soccer is played almost everywhere in the world.  I would love to see it go global.  I am European.  I’m from Denmark and I would love to see the sport grow in Denmark. It is still growing as a sport and getting bigger and more exposure in the mass media, but it’s still a lot of years behind where it is here.  So, whenever I am home I try to do my part.”

On a lighter note… what do you like to do for fun here in Vegas!

“I like to hang out with my friends and my wife.  This Sunday I went hiking up at Mt. Charleston with the dog and my wife.  Go to lake, I like to be outside when it’s not too hot.  I like to play poker, as well. Just chill.  Relax a lot, you train hard and all you have the energy for is the couch.”

Thank you so much for your time and good luck with the fight!

My chat with the Dave Farra…

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Before I headed down to the Palms to meet up with Dave Farra, I had a pretty good idea of who he was and what he did.  However, I am trying to be as professional as possible and become a better interviewer.  So, I jumped on his website www.davefarra.com to learn a little more about him.  This is what his site has to say in the “about” section…

“Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Dave got into media at a young age. On air with his own radio show at just 19, Dave was destined to make an impact early on. He worked at the South Carolina radio cluster that gave him his break for five years before promotion after promotion moved him out West in 2005 to a prominent radio station in Las Vegas, NV.” 

This is where I first heard of Dave Farra, on his morning show on X107.5 Las Vegas.  I quickly became a fan of the show and a fan of Dave’s.  The show is great!  As if having an amazing morning show in a major market weren’t enough, his website goes on to tell of awards and recognitions earned for the show, additional projects and accomplishments.  Here is what it has to say,   

“While continuing to host his award winning radio show for KXTE-FM (winner of ‘Best Radio Personality’ twice, and a nomination for ‘Best Alternative Radio Show In The Country’), Dave began doing work as a TV host for Raw Vegas TV on red carpets around Las Vegas. This valuable experience led to high profile jobs doing commentary and hosting for Red Bull, Ring Of Fire MMA, The International Poker League, and more. Throughout his career Dave’s work has been seen by millions on Versus, Direct TV, ESPN, Sun Sports Network, Sport South, The Dish Network, Vegas TV, FSN and CNBC.

Somehow Dave manages to find time to also executive produce television programming. In 2009 Dave developed the fast paced half hour mixed martial arts program MMA:30 that had a home on DirecTV and FSN South before the first episode even completed filming. January of 2010 marked another big moment in Dave’s career as another show he executive produced, The 2009 World MMA Awards, aired on the Versus Network to critical acclaim.”

Wow, this is a guy who is making things happen and that is exactly why I wanted to talk with him.  I was super happy when he agreed to meet with me. 

As I sat down to come up with a list of questions to ask, my excitement turned to worry.  I hadn’t thought about it before, but I was about to interview a professional interviewer.  What in the world was i going to do?  Question number one:  “Any tips on interviewing?”  And that’s no joke!

After Dave offered me some great advice and we talked about a few other things, I did my best with the rest of the interview.  At the risk of asking the obvious questions, I couldn’t help myself.  I asked, “What is your dream match-up?”  With barely a hesitation, Dave answered, “GSP vs. Anderson Silva!”  To my surprise, he threw in a “Roy Nelson vs. Brock Lesnar”.  That’s awesome!

Then I asked about his predictions for UFC 121 coming up this Saturday.  Here are his picks… Sanchez over Thiago, Ortiz over Hamill, Lesnar over Velasquez.  The only one he wasn’t sure of was Shields and Kampmann.  He said that he couldn’t believe the odds on this fight (3 to 1 for Shields) and he thought Kampmann was going to “give Shields some trouble”.  I agree and hope Kampmann pulls it out!

My last question was whether or not he was excited about any other upcoming fights.  He mentioned two.   The Maynard vs. Edgar fight, to which a Maynard victory predictionwas added and the Roy Nelson vs. Shane Carwin fight.

It may not have been the greatest interview, but I thought it was a pretty good talk.  Dave Farra is a super nice guy and I am thankful for the time he set aside for this.