He's not exactly a chip off the old block, but Ryan Couture is showing a pretty good skill set for a kid who only made an MMA career a goal a few years ago. The son of UFC legend Randy Couture, won his second pro fight with a rear-naked choke at 4:40 of the third round against Lee Higgins.
"I just want to continue to get more comfortable in there," Couture said. "My skills held up there pretty well to what they do in the gym. I want to just pursue that comfort level. I think getting almost 15 minutes in here was a big help."
Couture's father is still an active fighter at 48 years old. He's held both the UFC light heavyweight and heavyweight titles. He was also an alternate on three U.S. Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling squads.
The younger Couture was ahead on the scorecards heading to the latter part of the fight before he landed the finishing move. He dictated pace throughout in both the standup game and the ground. The 28-year-old was constantly on the move going from side-to-side, switching stances and mixing in lots of kicks. A conventional fighter, he was effective as a southpaw with both the outside kick to the front leg and some vicious body kicks with his left. But it was on the ground where Couture wore down Higgins.
Late in the first, he worked a standing guillotine choke and dragged Higgins to the mat. He transitioned to a tight d'arce choke. He had it locked on over the final 15 seconds of the round, but Higgins survived.
Higgins tried to close space and play the clinch game in the second. Couture stayed on the move and softened up Higgins with more leg and body kicks. With 2:35 left in the round, Higgins got lazy with his hands and got drilled with a right, that buckled his knees and dropped him.
He got right up but didn't have his wits about him and was taken down with 2:29 left and mounted 16 seconds later. Couture first worked for an arm-triangle choke. Higgins defended that well, so Couture took his back and eventually slapped on a body triangle. As he squeezed the air out of Higgins, Couture worked for multiple attempts at a rear-naked choke. While doing so, he pounded away at Higgins' ribs and got in some nasty punches to the side of his head.
Couture gave Higgins (2-1) a lot of credit for his defense on the ground.
"He was tough as nails. He was hand fighting me like crazy. He wore out my forearms," Couture said. "I can't hardly ball up my fists anymore. I was real glad I was finally able to get him there at the end."
Higgins was ineffective on the feet and again tried to get it to the ground early in the third. Couture's takedown defense was excellent. The Las Vegan bounced around the cage landing occasional shots and took down a tired Higgins again with 2:08 left. Now he was battling the clock. Couture quickly moved to take his back, flattened him out and spun him over where he once again locked on the body triangle. Couture worked several chokes that were very tight. With 20 seconds left, Higgins couldn't hold out any longer and tapped.
Couture has no set schedule for his next fight, but he looks like he may be able to carve out a solid career at lightweight.His father also got a late start to his pro MMA career.Randy transition from amateur wrestling to MMA at age 33. Of course, it was also very much an outlaw sport back in 1997 with little earning potential. His son is a drawing card and is certain to be part of a future televised Challengers card.
"I just want to continue to get more comfortable in there. My skills held up there pretty well to what they do in the gym," Couture said. "I think getting almost 15 minutes in here was a big help."
Strikeforce Challengers undercard (courtesy MMAjunkie):
Ryan Larson def. Erik Apple via submission (triangle choke) - Round 2, 3:14David Douglas def. Nick Gonzalez via submission (rear-naked choke) - Round 1, 1:05
Ousmane Thomas Diagne def. Aaron Franco via TKO (strikes) - Round 1, 4:22
Drew Pendleton def. Dennis Dombrow via submission (guillotine) - Round 2, 2:38
Jenny McCarthy Jessica Alba Jessica Biel Jessica Cauffiel Jessica Paré Jessica Simpson Zooey Deschanel
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