- Randy Couture applauded Kayla Harrison for having a sensational UFC debut
- “The Natural” predicts Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul
- The former two-division UFC champ picked his best MMA knockouts of all time
Randy Couture shared his thoughts on Kayla Harrison’s successful UFC debut, Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul prediction and best knockouts in MMA history.
Kayla was meant to fight in the UFC
In an exclusive interview with Middle Easy, “The Natural” raved about how Harrison dominated and submitted Holly Holm in her UFC debut. Couture said he knew Kayla would come to the UFC “at some point” and nothing about the former PFL champion’s successful transition to the UFC surprised him.
“Well, first of all she did it absolutely right. Wasn’t surprised when she made the change because at the end of the day, she’s trying to establish a legacy as the best female fighter in the sport and so at some point, she’s probably gonna have to go fight in the UFC because they’re the elephant in the room, they’re still the biggest promotion, 650 fighters to that roster, the most recognizable and most well-known name in in the sport for a reason. They’ve been around the longest and they’ve done an amazing job and they’re a marketing machine so I wasn’t surprised by the change,” Couture said.
“And I thought Holly Holm was the perfect person to introduce Kayla to the UFC I mean, obviously after beating Ronda the way she did, it made a lot of sense for that matchup and Kayla went out and did exactly what we expected Ronda to do to be quite honest when they made that match up the first time around. Kayla went out and executed it she put her exactly where she needed to be, she made her wrestle her as much as she could and submitted her. Don’t get me wrong I’m a fan of Holly,” he added.
Allow me to introduce myself 🗣@KaylaH gets the submission victory in round 2! #UFC300 pic.twitter.com/iqHsNgpl7w
— UFC (@ufc) April 14, 2024
Randy says Mike via KO within 2 rounds
Couture also weighed in on the upcoming and talked-about Tyson vs. Paul showdown. Like most MMA legends, the former UFC two-division champ is also convinced that Tyson “still got it.”
For Couture, the fight is not fixed and he expects “The Baddest Man on the Planet” to come in aggressive early in the fight. Couture predicts Tyson to finish Paul in the first two rounds but he is unsure about how the boxing legend would perform if the fight reaches the latter rounds.
“Look at the training footage, that pop is still there, that explosive speed and power is still there. I think this is obviously still a 58-year-old Mike Tyson but he’s still got it in my opinion and so that bodes well for going out and this probably ending within the first or second round and the longer it goes, just like when Mike was in his prime, the longer it went, the questions started rising. How’s the conditioning going to be, how’s his mindset going to be getting into those later rounds because he traditionally didn’t do as well the longer the fight went,” Couture assessed.
“Commend Jake Paul for being willing to literally step in there with an icon in the sport and one of the most vicious knockout artists the sport has ever seen. That’s balls the size of church bells in my opinion there are not a lot of people that are going to be willing to get in the ring even at 58 with Mike Tyson. I like that Jake has backed it up, I think he’s in trouble with this one,” he continued.
“I don’t even want to say that [it’s fixed] because I don’t think that’s true. I don’t think Mike would do that. I see Mike going out there and tearing him up in in probably under two rounds,” he added.
Yes it's a real sanctioned fight with @jakepaul#PaulTyson pic.twitter.com/7HGnyYGlcs
— Mike Tyson (@MikeTyson) April 29, 2024
Randy’s best KO of all time
In light of Max Holloway’s last-second knockout win over Justin Garthje at UFC 300, Couture also picked his best MMA knockouts of all time.
Couture struggled to recall some of them but he agreed that Holloway vs. Gaethje was one of them. However, “The Natural” declared Dan Henderson’s KO win over Michael Bisping at UFC 100 as the best of them all.
WATCH: Max Holloway KO’s Justin Gaethje at UFC 300 pic.twitter.com/QQNSX88too
— Overton (@OvertonLive) April 14, 2024
“In the top of that is going to be Dan Henderson and Michael [Bisping] obviously I’m a little too close to that one but that was amazing, that KO was ridiculous. Max Holloway’s performance and Justin Gaethje is amazing. Those are two amazing warriors and very fitting for the BMF belt, let’s be honest that was an incredible fight both those guys lay it on the line every single time they walk up into that cage and it’s amazing,” Couture said.
“Hard pressed to come up with three more knockouts that stick out. There’s so many amazing ones out there but, gosh! You know I don’t know if I could come up or just off the top of my head name three more but those two immediately come to mind for sure and the other one just happened a couple weeks ago,” he continued.
