Randy Couture

A native of Lynnwood, WA, Randy Couture established himself as one of the top-tiered Mixed Martial Arts champions and professional Greco-Roman wrestlers in the world. Couture served six years in the army, where he subjected himself to intense training as a boxer alongside the standard basic-training routines. He then underwent 25 years of training as a Greco-Roman wrestler and delved into MMA with full abandon, cultivating a unique fighting method dubbed "Ground and Pound" that involved flooring and pinning down an opponent and pounding the individual with one's fists. Occupationally, Couture held a six-year post as a strength conditioning and assistant wrestling coach at Oregon State University. In 1997 (at age 33), he formally entered the Ultimate Fighting Championship competitions and chalked up a formidable record, courageously taking on, and defeating, such formidable opponents as Chuck Liddell, Pedro Rizzo, and Kevin Randleman; he also moved into announcing on pay-per-view fighting events.

In terms of film work, the majority of Couture's early on-camera appearances consist, unsurprisingly, of live wrestling and MMA events. He moved into dramatic roles, however, under the aegis of no less than David Mamet, in the esteemed playwright-cum-director's 2008 martial arts saga Redbelt. Coincident with this, Couture also signed on to star opposite Rob Schneider and David Carradine in the crime comedy Big Stan (2008) and appeared as the villain in the straight-to-DVD Universal sequel The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior.

~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide