Randy Couture is a UFC Hall of Famer, actor and former US Army Sargeant. His new movie called “The Manson Brothers Midnight Zombie Massacre” is available in theaters and on VOD. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about his Hall of Fame career in the UFC, transitioning into becoming an actor, his role in “The Expendables” franchise, his thoughts on how Jake & Logan Paul are changing fighting, whether or not he would want to fight again, his match against Brock Lesnar for the UFC Heavyweight Championship, his legendary matchups with Chuck Liddell and much more!

On when it was time to retire from UFC:

“You never really know. It took me a long while to warm up the idea to walk away from the sport that I had been involved in so long. I’d had every injury that I have ever had flare up again. It was the first time I remember my brain saying to me ‘Hey. Maybe you should do something else.’ Once that conversation starts, you’ve got to take it seriously. But I was comfortable that I was making the right decision for me. I was walking away from the sport on my own terms. I didn’t have a doctor or a promotor telling me I shouldn’t do it anymore. That transition for a lot of people is a huge task. It’s a big problem and a big piece of your identity.”

On what was next for him:

“Thankfully I had acting. I had been acting for 15 years at that point. So I could just shift my focus from getting ready for another fight and grinding out another camp to getting another movie.”

On how to prepare for a role:

“You are reading the story, understanding your character and how your character fits into the story. You have to find a way to relate to that character. At the end of the day, you are trying to find a way to tell the truth. If you are trying to act, nobody is going to buy it, it’s not going to work. You look at some of the best actors you can name, a lot of their characters are very similar. That has been the biggest challenge for me as an actor. I have spent my whole life as an athlete and boxing up my emotions. Now I want to let all of that stuff out, so it’s a little weird. But it’s been fun and fun learning so much about the process. I continue to get better each and every time I put myself out there.”

On the similarities between fighting and acting:

“I think you have to be coachable. They are both competitive. In acting you go in for a read and it is a competitive industry, especially right now with the Marvel films. But that taps into the fight mindset I had before. I can be as prepared as I can be and it’s like one hand washes the other. Being diligent, rested, ready to go. I like to be the first on set and know exactly what we are doing that day. Those are all things that came from fighting, wrestling and being in the service. You look at the world in a particular way becasue of those experiences, and you apply that to everything you face.”

On his future acting goals:

“I want to be challenged. Everyone always puts me in that box of ‘Oh yeah he is one of those fighters…’ It does bring the physicality to those action roles. And I love that genre, but I want the challenge. I want to do the romantic comedies, the westerns, things that people wouldn’t normally see me in. That’s the cool thing about The Manson Brothers Midnight Zombie Massacre, it’s outside the box for me. It’s comedic, and if I tried to be funny it would never sell. But that’s the good writing of Mike and Chris in developing that script. I had a great time doing that.”

On a possible career in WWE:

“You know they [WWE] never really approached me. I never received a message, they never asked me to come to a show. I don’t know becasue of my amateur wrestling background that I wasn’t going to be too interested in that. But it’s hard to say. I know the amateur and Olympic wrestling ranks as well as anybody. I chased that dream for 16 years. But the professional wrestling never really bit me. I watched it as a kid, but I knew it didn’t seem right. It wasn’t something that tickled me.”

On not being a mean guy:

“I think some of that comes from my wrestling mentality. I had to wrestle people who were my friends for a spot on the team. One of us was going home p*ssed off. It’s just the way it is in wrestling. I was never one of those guys who had to generate a bunch of animosity or run my mouth. For me, it was just an expansion of wrestling. There was a little bit of difference in the rules of engagement, but a very similar tactical sport. I just applied that wrestling mindset to that and kept that same attitude. I just wanted to be me, I didn’t want to create a persona or the things that other guys were doing to market themselves. So I kept it simple and I think a lot of the fans appreciated that.”

On crossover stars in the fighting world:

“These crossover fights… The only person to come the other way was James Toney in 2008 in Boston. That was a huge fight and a fight that I took very seriously. I felt like the reputation of our sport was on the line in some ways in that fight. I had a lot of respect for James a fighter. But the real question was how much MMA was he going to be able to learn. We answered that question very quickly!”

On Jake and Logan Paul:

“I’m not a fan of all the antics and the rhetoric from the Paul brothers. But if they are doing something, it is poking Dana White and shining a light on the disparaging difference between fighters pay in MMA and fighters pay in boxing. There is no transparency in MMA. How are you supposed to negotiate your fair value in the marketplace if no one knows how much money is being made in the sport in each and every event? That transparency is in boxing becasue of the Ali Act that was implemented in 1996, to protect boxers from the promoters that were taking advantage of the boxing world. We [MMA fighters] don’t enjoy that protection. It’s a simple fix, we have been lobbying hard to trying to get it to a vote in Congress and in The Senate. But the relationship between Trump and Dana White, it was difficult to get that done. We are not in that administration anymore, and still not having much success with it.”

On Dana White:

“I don’t have a relationship with UFC and that is largely down to Dana White. He thought I was the enemy quite a while ago when they bought the company. We butted heads immediately on ancillaries and contract rights. Nobody else was paying attention at that time and we were not getting along well, but they were stuck with me. I was the World Heavyweight Champion and signed with new management. We started pointing out a lot of issues in a 17 page document they call a contract. We kind of forced them to adjust a few things. But the backlash was they made the contracts even worse. That sucks for all the other fighters that didn’t have the leverage. But if it takes a guy like Jake Paul to get behind that, I’m all for that.”

On a possible comeback:

“Honestly it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. I retired and came back once, I can’t see myself doing that again. I am 58, so 10 years out and I haven’t been in fight shape for so long and that is a whole different animal. To think that I am going to go back out to do one of these crossover boxing matches, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. I have put my body through a lot of wear and tear with all the fighting. Now I have come to terms with that, going out on my terms is a good thing, I want to stick to that.”

On what he is grateful for:

“My mother, my kids and the opportunities bestowed upon me.”

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Randy Couture can be found on Instagram here and Twitter here.

Featured image: Bleacher Report