Thomas Gerbasi, UFC - How many more times will we doubt Randy Couture? How many times must he beat the Tim Sylvias, Gabriel Gonzagas, Chuck Liddells, and Tito Ortizes of the world until we say "enough"? Apparently not yet, as the UFC heavyweight champion will again be sporting the underdog role when he steps into the Octagon this Saturday to defend his title against Brock Lesnar in the main event of UFC 91.

As usual, Couture takes that role with his characteristic grace, knowing that he’s usually at his best when the odds are against him. In fact, it’s become part of the 45-year old Hall of Famer’s legend. Not that he’s banking on that legend to save him when the bell rings at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

“I just don’t get caught up in all that stuff,” Couture told UFC.com. “I take a rational approach and I have a pretty good idea of what I’m capable of and where my strengths and weaknesses lie and I seem to be able to figure out those same things in my opponents and come up with a plan that allows me to just go out there, relax, do what I need to do, and perform. The rest of it is a bunch of hogwash basically.”

Calm, cool, and collected, it’s been business as usual the last couple of months for ‘The Natural’, a far cry from the previous year, when a contract dispute kept him out of action for what will be almost 15 months come fight night. Couture admits that when matters were at their most contentious, he thought that his UFC 74 win over Gonzaga was going to be his last fight.

“There were a couple times in there where I thought ‘you know what, this is never gonna happen, and I’m probably not gonna be fighting again,’” he said. “I was resigned to and made friends with that idea, and ultimately it was part of the impetus to seek an alternative route to get back and to fight. I realized that I could toil away in the legal system for another year and spend another wad of money and still not get to fight, so the path of least resistance and the wisest choice was to let bygones be bygones and come back.”

Couture’s return was made official in early September, and though many fighters would have panicked about getting back in fighting shape for a November 15th bout, he picked up right where he left off with his gang of top-notch fighters at the Xtreme Couture gym in Las Vegas.

“Nothing’s been tough about it actually,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed it, it’s been great to be back in training camp, and to eat and sleep training. I’ve been home a lot more and it’s been fantastic. The ten week camp has gone really, really well, and I feel great. I feel really fit and ready to peak, but I’ve reached the point where I’m tired of training and ready to fight.”

He’ll certainly have a fight on Saturday with the imposing Lesnar, a fighter whose inexperience can certainly be overshadowed by the physical tools he brings into the Octagon. Couture, one of the most astute judges of talent in the game, sees what everybody else sees…plus a little more.

“I see the same big, strong, athletic guy that you guys see, but I see a lot of inexperience,” he said. “He’s basically still a wrestler, first and foremost. He’s added a few skills from mixed martial arts to go with that wrestling base, but he still lacks a lot of the things that he needs to be a real well-rounded fighter, and I think those are things that I can exploit. I know that he’s big and he’s strong, and I know that there are a few places I don’t want to be – I certainly don’t want to be laying around underneath him, and he’s gonna come out hard and try to put me there. So I’ll be ready to deal with that and I’ve been working on that pretty diligently for ten weeks now. I’ve wrestled plenty of guys his size over the years, so I’m just as much of a threat to put him on his back and make him fight from there as he is to me. I also feel like there’s an experience factor that’s not there for him, but it doesn’t make him any less dangerous. I just have to stay composed and stay focused, move my feet – a lot – and go out and have some fun.”

Continued at Sherdog...

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