Konan
08-27-2010, 02:27 PM
Source: UFC.com
UFC Hall of Famer, Randy Couture has been talking about his fight with Heavyweight Boxing champion, James Toney at UFC 118 in Boston, Massachusetts on Saturday night, saying he won't be tempted to stand and trade with the Boxing legend.
Speaking via UFC.com, Couture said:
“I learned to put that devil in a box a long, long time ago and keep him locked up. He does not get out. I think there are a lot of people who would like to see me stand with James and punch him in his mouth, but I’m a lot more comfortable putting him on his back and punching him in his mouth there.”
“It’s been a little more difficult because there’s no MMA footage on James and we don’t know what kind of things he’s trying to train to do, and how much is he going to realistically be able to learn between when we started this and the fight. So we’re predominantly going off his boxing style and technique, and if you take him at face value, that’s basically what he’s dragging up into the cage and he’s pretty confident that’s gonna be enough for him. So I’ve been working pretty diligently with Gil Martinez and Ray Sefo on the striking piece of this puzzle, and figuring out the distance and the angles and the best way to set James up. And obviously I’ve been working diligently with Neal Melanson on my ground game for quite some time now, making some changes and some big improvements in that area of my game. So I think both of those things are gonna come into play in this fight.”
“It’s real important to take him out of where he’s comfortable and certainly out of that range of exchanging and striking, and it’s not some place where I really want to play around with him. Statistically, if you look at what he’s done, 80 percent of his knockouts occurred when he was under 200 pounds. He hasn’t had a lot of time knocking out big guys, and with the bigger guys he’s kinda gotten used to them coming after him because he is smaller, and that allows him to use his shoulder roll and his head movement and all the things that he’s known for – that uppercut, left hook, and right hand. It’s obviously a lot different in mixed martial arts for a lot of reasons, and I can’t walk out and come to him the same way I would with some of my other opponents. I’ve got to make him extend himself and make him come after me a little bit, which I think is gonna be something definitely new for him.”
“Strikers are capable of learning the wrestling – it just takes time. There’s a muscle memory that comes from years and years of wrestling and it isn’t easy to pick up. It’s one thing to learn the technique by the numbers, and another thing to be able to execute it in real time against a resisting opponent. It seems, at least from my experience, that wrestlers have a particular mindset that they’ve had ingrained in them from the time they were young and learning wrestling technique, and they’ve applied that same mindset to the striking. And it’s still different, even for a wrestler, to learn the striking, but it seems to come easier going that way than going the other way for some reason.”
“I’ve certainly looked at the tape and I realize that James poses some interesting problems and is going to be very dangerous early on in this fight. And if I get careless or reckless or am overconfident, he’s got the tools and the power to end the night real quick. I give him respect for that and I take that very seriously. So I don’t think there’s any way I can get careless or be reckless or overconfident in this fight. I’ve got to be sharp and I’ve got to be ready to go.”
Many believe that Toney's best chance of winning this fight will be to land that big knockout punch on Couture, if Randy can take Toney down, it could be a long night for "Lights Out."
UFC Hall of Famer, Randy Couture has been talking about his fight with Heavyweight Boxing champion, James Toney at UFC 118 in Boston, Massachusetts on Saturday night, saying he won't be tempted to stand and trade with the Boxing legend.
Speaking via UFC.com, Couture said:
“I learned to put that devil in a box a long, long time ago and keep him locked up. He does not get out. I think there are a lot of people who would like to see me stand with James and punch him in his mouth, but I’m a lot more comfortable putting him on his back and punching him in his mouth there.”
“It’s been a little more difficult because there’s no MMA footage on James and we don’t know what kind of things he’s trying to train to do, and how much is he going to realistically be able to learn between when we started this and the fight. So we’re predominantly going off his boxing style and technique, and if you take him at face value, that’s basically what he’s dragging up into the cage and he’s pretty confident that’s gonna be enough for him. So I’ve been working pretty diligently with Gil Martinez and Ray Sefo on the striking piece of this puzzle, and figuring out the distance and the angles and the best way to set James up. And obviously I’ve been working diligently with Neal Melanson on my ground game for quite some time now, making some changes and some big improvements in that area of my game. So I think both of those things are gonna come into play in this fight.”
“It’s real important to take him out of where he’s comfortable and certainly out of that range of exchanging and striking, and it’s not some place where I really want to play around with him. Statistically, if you look at what he’s done, 80 percent of his knockouts occurred when he was under 200 pounds. He hasn’t had a lot of time knocking out big guys, and with the bigger guys he’s kinda gotten used to them coming after him because he is smaller, and that allows him to use his shoulder roll and his head movement and all the things that he’s known for – that uppercut, left hook, and right hand. It’s obviously a lot different in mixed martial arts for a lot of reasons, and I can’t walk out and come to him the same way I would with some of my other opponents. I’ve got to make him extend himself and make him come after me a little bit, which I think is gonna be something definitely new for him.”
“Strikers are capable of learning the wrestling – it just takes time. There’s a muscle memory that comes from years and years of wrestling and it isn’t easy to pick up. It’s one thing to learn the technique by the numbers, and another thing to be able to execute it in real time against a resisting opponent. It seems, at least from my experience, that wrestlers have a particular mindset that they’ve had ingrained in them from the time they were young and learning wrestling technique, and they’ve applied that same mindset to the striking. And it’s still different, even for a wrestler, to learn the striking, but it seems to come easier going that way than going the other way for some reason.”
“I’ve certainly looked at the tape and I realize that James poses some interesting problems and is going to be very dangerous early on in this fight. And if I get careless or reckless or am overconfident, he’s got the tools and the power to end the night real quick. I give him respect for that and I take that very seriously. So I don’t think there’s any way I can get careless or be reckless or overconfident in this fight. I’ve got to be sharp and I’ve got to be ready to go.”
Many believe that Toney's best chance of winning this fight will be to land that big knockout punch on Couture, if Randy can take Toney down, it could be a long night for "Lights Out."