My Friends Interview With Ryan Couture

Zach Buchanan August 14 at 5:47pm
Ryan Couture interview:

Were you surprised by how quick it went?

"Yeah. I thought if we hit the ground I'd catch him eventually, but I didn't expect it to come that quick. I lucked out that way."

Is there a lot of pressure with the family name?

"I didn't really feel it all week, but I think just based on how I felt in the ring actually performing, I think definitely that got to me a little bit. I didn't feel as comfortable and loose as I'd hoped I would. But I got the result and got it quick, so I'm happy."

You said before the fight you wanted to keep it a standing fight and show some of that off...

"Yeah, that went out the window quick. I couldn't quite find him with my jab. I think I was aiming a little too high. He's shorter than a lot of the guys that I spar with. When I missed the first few times and I walked into his right hand, I decided to get where I was comfortable and kind of try to get the jitters out with a little clinch work and ground work. I ended up getting the finish before we ended up back on our feet. I think if we ended up standing again, I might have settled in more and been able to get things working. It happens a lot, especially with the striking I'm kind of a slow starter. Obviously I couldn't be happier with getting a finish in a little over a minute."

Talk us through how you got the finish.

"I got into that clinch, I was going to look to work some knees, and then just ended up with a good position so I took the takedown that was there. In a half-guard, I'm not always super stable in maintaining top position from half-guard, so he was able to scramble up and reverse the position. But as he did, he ended up with one arm in my guard and one arm out, and that's a free ticket to that triangle choke, and that's my favorite submission. So I knew what to do there, slapped it on and locked it in tight and got the tap."

Was he a reasonable level of competition for you?

"I think for just starting out, obviously I think Strikeforce is making an investment in me. Obviously with my last name I can be a marketable character, so I don't think they wanted to match me too tough for the first one. But he's definitely on par with a lot of the more recent fights I've had at the amateur level, so it's a good transition into pro fighting."

Do you want your next fight to be a little more challenging?

"Definitely. I'd like to continue raising the bar every time out and work my way up. Eventually I'd like to be competing at the top level that there is. I've got to start somewhere, and I think this was a good start. It takes the pressure off to start out with a win, and it will definitely raise the bar for me next time now that they've seen what I can get in there and do."

Thanks for posting this Bird. It's good to see that Ryan is aware he didn't do anything special by beating that opponent. That guy was 2-5 as an ammy and Ryan was 5-1-1 I think so if that guy was right on par with who he has been fighting as an ammy I think he's just been fighting chumps the whole time. That said Ryan does have good technique he may be a future star but no one can tell when he's fighting guys that suck.