It’s been a minute for the reason that man referred to as “The Pure” executed certainly one of his trademark arm bars to choke out an opponent contained in the UFC Octagon. Greater than a decade-and-a-half have handed since he submitted James Toney within the first spherical of their ballyhooed 2010 heavyweight bout.
But, at 62 years previous, Randy Couture would possibly simply be having his largest impression but—within the wellness business, and significantly for navy vets like himself. As so usually is the case, it began with a hashish gummy.
“This complete journey started with making an attempt to resolve sleep issues,” Couture says, warming to the concept of speaking about his life to me. “I used to get up at three within the morning, and about 5 years in the past, I discovered CBN gummies.”
Quick ahead to 2026, and Couture’s the lead pitchman for a wholly totally different kind of hashish product. He lately partnered with startup Energetic Model THCv to market the fashionable cannabinoid tetrahydrocannabivarin, which, much like CBD, isn’t marketed as psychoactive. Couture says he went his total preventing profession with out utilizing any hashish, however now makes use of some type of the plant, together with THCv, each day.
Apparently, he’s additionally branched out to different plant-based medicines. Since hanging up his preventing gloves as a professional, The UFC Corridor-of-Famer says, lately, he’s loved quite a few ayahuasca retreats and experiences with psilocybin, amongst different highly effective pure treatments. To completely admire simply how inconceivable it’s for The Pure—a cultured Military vet raised by a strict single mom—to be spearheading the alternative-medicine scene, it’s important to perceive simply how he received right here.
Couture earned his nickname from his pure skill to excel at absolutely anything he did—generally with hardly any coaching. Whereas {most professional} athletes peak of their 20s, Couture made his MMA debut a month shy of his thirty fourth birthday. That day, in Might 1997, he wanted lower than a minute to submit opponent Tony Halme at UFC 13.
Earlier than that, he starred as a highschool wrestler in his hometown of Lynnwood, WA, incomes a person state championship throughout his senior 12 months. Upon graduating, he enlisted into the US Military and was a part of its one hundred and first Airborne division.
Like loads of younger individuals, Couture experimented with weed in his late teenagers. Lynnwood Excessive didn’t drug check athletes, so toking a joint right here and there was by no means an issue. However that stopped when Couture placed on the camouflage for Uncle Sam.
“I all the time admired the heroism of serving within the armed forces, and I wished to be part of it,” he says candidly. “I wasn’t into recreationally getting stoned or something like that, however I didn’t have a alternative as soon as I joined the Military.”
Couture wished to maintain wrestling, so he utilized to check out with the Military’s Freestyle wrestling group. To his shock, he was assigned to tryouts for the department’s Greco-Roman group as an alternative. A clerical error meant Couture had to decide on between ready a 12 months to reapply for the model of wrestling he’d identified his total life or auditioning instantly for a mode he’d by no means identified.
As an alternative of ready, The Pure jumped proper into Greco-Roman—a variation of Freestyle with out the leg takedowns—and rapidly rose to the highest. Couture spent six years within the Military and received a number of worldwide titles from 1982-88 earlier than being honorably discharged and heading to school on the age of 25.
“It was a really formative time in my life,” he says. “Being a Chilly Conflict veteran, I by no means needed to put my butt on the road not like so many of those women and men, since 9/11, have truly needed to battle in a fight zone. They educated me as an air visitors controller, however I actually spent most of my enlistment wrestling for the Military.”
So dominant was Couture on the mat, he earned spots as an alternate for Staff USA’s wrestling group on the 1988, 1992 and 1996 Olympics. Within the meantime, he was a three-time NCAA All American at Oklahoma State College whereas pursuing a level in literature. He continued to wrestle after graduating, heading again residence to the Pacific Northwest to teach at Oregon State College.
Couture liked teaching however knew his ceiling was increased as a competitor. At 31, he left the Oregon State gig and started coaching full-time. In Might 1997, he debuted within the UFC at age 33, profitable a four-man match to turn out to be the Heavyweight division champion.
Like at so lots of his earlier stops, Couture was placed on the again burner earlier than getting the prospect to show himself with the UFC. He mentioned promoters initially wished fighters with extra various martial arts backgrounds, and positioned Couture on the alternate checklist. Sound acquainted?
However simply three weeks forward of that wonderful afternoon within the spring of 1997, he received the decision.
“It was like one hundred pc adrenaline and one hundred pc worry on the identical time,” he says of his first battle. “I didn’t know if the day would ever come, however as soon as I received the prospect, I used to be going to benefit from it.”
Later that 12 months, after Couture received his third consecutive UFC title in as many tries, “The Pure” nickname was born. Dominant from the start, Couture loved a legendary 14-year UFC profession within the Octagon that earned him simply the fourth-ever spot within the sport’s corridor of fame. As a part of that journey, he opened his personal MMA coaching middle in Las Vegas, launched one of many UFC’s hottest clothes manufacturers and forayed into appearing with gigs in The King Of Queens, Hawaii 5-0 and The Expendables, amongst a number of different tv reveals and movies.
Nonetheless, one thing was lacking. Couture, a self-described “health freak,” spent a long time with what felt like countless ache. He went numerous nights with out sleep and had bother staying current, regardless of loads of train and an immaculate weight-reduction plan. He questioned: If health and weight-reduction plan had been the important thing to a wholesome life, why was he struggling a lot?
That query marked the start of a brand new chapter.
Along with his navy {and professional} preventing profession within the rearview mirror, Couture returned to hashish through the pandemic for the primary time since his teenagers. When CBN labored for his sleep, he ventured into psilocybin. Then got here the ayahuasca retreats. Then the venom from the Sonoran Desert Toad.
All of it labored. All. Of. It.
He’s sleeping eight to 10 hours an evening and might now take pleasure in days “with out falling down the rabbit gap.” He handed over his 24,000 square-foot Las Vegas coaching gymnasium to his son Ryan, additionally a former MMA professional, and spends his free time visiting his daughter Aimee in Oregon. Couture has three grandchildren between Ryan and Aimee and says his improved well being has allowed him to understand each second with them much more.
So, when Energetic Manufacturers pitched him on their THCv merchandise earlier this 12 months, Couture says it was a no brainer.
“Even in comparison with on a regular basis hashish merchandise, that is distinctive as a result of it’s fresher than sedating,” he says. “Now we have these preconceived concepts that stoners are getting the munchies on a regular basis, and you realize, aren’t doing something each day…Energetic’s THCv is the other of all of that, which was actually intriguing to me.”
Nowadays, when Couture’s not together with his household, he’s both driving his Harley Davidson Street Glide or knee-deep in his work giving again to fellow veterans. His Xtreme Couture GI Basis hosts greater than a half-dozen occasions a 12 months across the nation, largely bike “Trip For Our Troops” occasions during which Couture spends the day biking and chopping it up with fight vets in several cities nationwide. His household’s Las Vegas mega-gym additionally welcomes at the least 50 veterans each Friday free of charge coaching and fellowship.
The plant medication has helped make all of it doable. His personal well being—maybe nearly as good because it’s ever been—has made his wellness journey attain a lot additional than the self.
“We’re making an attempt to assist these heroes get via their PTSD and their traumatic mind accidents,” Couture says. “These plant-based modalities may help stroke sufferers reclaim a few of their operate, and so they may help delay or stop Alzheimer’s. They’re very profound. You are feeling such as you’re shedding a bunch of programming, shedding a bunch of previous habits or dangerous habits that don’t serve you anymore,” he provides of his expertise with hashish and psychedelics. “The veil of actuality comes down, and also you type of see via. Who knew The Matrix was a documentary as an alternative of a characteristic movie?”
Though scientific analysis more and more helps the advantages of each hashish and a few psychedelics to deal with PTSD, Couture says he’s cautious about who he brings up plant-based medication round. He jokes that some individuals low cost the recommendation as loopy speak from somebody “who received punched within the head an excessive amount of.”
However, he says, he hopes individuals perceive there’s loads of entry-level methods to get medicated with out leaping straight to toad venom.
“I’ll all the time be an advocate for hashish, THC, CBN, CBG and CBD and simply utilizing it in applicable methods with the correct terpenes.”
And identical to that, The Pure finds himself on the prime of a very totally different recreation. This man’s a pure for positive.
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