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"That's just a lot of naive people who don't know what they are talking about [discussing the age factor in the fight with Couture]. I did five five-minute rounds today and they were the best rounds I've had in my entire fight career. Most people reach a certain age and they have no drive, no desire, no determination and they just give up. There are a few people out there in this world, in other sports as well, that hit 40, 41, 42. It doesn't mean they are going to give up. It just means you have to dedicate yourself more and be more strict in all areas. Your diet, everything you do, you have to be more strict. You have to be willing to pay the price. Randy Couture has proven numerous times that he can still fight with the best of us. Hell, he gave Brock Lesnar a hell of a good fucking first round. What more could you ask of a guy? How can you say anything negative about Randy Couture? He's still fighting his ass off. Me, there's some deserved criticism. I haven't prepared properly for a lot of my fights. I blame nobody but myself. I'm going to salvage whatever career I have left and make the most of it. Bottom line, I can still fight. I'm still learning, still improving, I just have to show it."
-Mark Coleman talks to Jonathan Snowden at Heavy.com about a number of topics, including discussing what it takes to stay competitive at this age.
Penick's Analysis: The entire interview with Snowden is excellent and worth a read, but these are very telling comments from Coleman about his and Couture's spots in the sport right now. He takes all the heat for missteps he's had throughout his career with training for fights and he sounds like he's really trying to turn things around and prove in this fight that he is more than capable of continuing in this sport at 45 and beyond. He's saying all the right things right now, and hopefully for his sake we'll see that it's not just talk on Saturday night.
[Randy Couture art credit Cory Gould (c) MMATorch]
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