Former UFC champion, and current UFC Hall of Famer, Randy “The Natural” Couture (19-10) will look for his fourth straight win, something he hasn’t done since 2001 fighting at the King of Kings 2000 Final event, when he meets Lyoto Machida at UFC 129 in Toronto, Canada.
There had been talk of Couture making one last run at a UFC title, but the former two-division champion says that this is it for him, win or lose against Machida he plans on retiring after UFC 129 on April 30.
Couture made the announcement on Tuesday during a media teleconference call for the upcoming event.
“I want to go out on my terms and decide when enough is enough, and I think that time has come. I’ve had a great camp, everything is spot on, I can’t wait until next week. It’s a fight I’ve been looking forward to for a long time, and it’s finally gonna happen. But it’s time to focus on the other things I’ve got going on in my life after this fight … That was one of the things that I struggled with because I am as healthy as ever. I feel great and I absolutely have the ability to continue to compete at this level. But I don’t want to wait until I have those issues to think about and weigh into training camp or a fight. I don’t want to wait until I have that injury and have doctors telling me ‘hey look, you can’t fight anymore …’ It’s about the journey, it’s about the performance, and as long as I have a good performance, I’ll be satisfied and happy.”
Couture is set to appear in several movies, two are currently in post-production at the moment, ‘Geezers!’ and ‘Setup’, as well as staring in ‘The Expendables 2′ set for release in 2012.
HT: UFC.com