Skip to main contentLast Friday the Team Quest headquarters, a garagelike space behind a used-car lot at the corner of Southeast Stark Street and 182nd Avenue, was full of young men--ripped, tattooed, barefoot--beating the living hell out of each other.
Compared to sports temples like the Rose Garden and PGE Park, the gym is practically invisible. But within mixed martial arts, a growing cult sport combining boxing, wrestling and Eastern disciplines like judo and karate, this is a hallowed hall. Team Quest largely owes its subcultural reputation to Randy Couture, a 40-year-old with a junkyard-dog build and the battered brows of a lifelong combatant.
Couture, who has a sterling amateur grappling résumé, was once the wrestling coach for Oregon State University. Now he's light-heavyweight king of Ultimate Fighting Championship, mixed martial arts' big league. A favorite among rabid fans lurking on websites like Maxfighting.com and Sherdog.com, Couture may be the most famous Portland athlete most people in Portland have never heard of.
"I'm pretty used to obscurity," says Couture, a soft-spoken gentleman when he's not kicking someone's ass. "Someone recognized me in U-Haul the other day, of all places. It always strikes me as odd when it happens."
Last Friday found Couture gearing up for a battle with former light-heavy champ Tito Ortiz, slated for this Friday night at Las Vegas' glitzy Mandalay Bay Casino. UFC hopes to pack Mandalay Bay (ringside seats run $350) and attract pay-per-viewers at $30 a head. By harnessing pro-wrestling-style hype to legit competition (Vegas runs a line), UFC is gaining ground on mainstream sports, with its stars popping up on talk shows and in movies.
That success just sweetens the pot that lured Couture out of the university into UFC's octagonal, caged ring.
"There's no money in wrestling," he says. "I knew some guys who were doing this ultimate-fighting thing, and it looked intriguing. I ended up having my first bout in May of '97, and they paid me more for that one fight than I'd made in a whole year coaching. After that, it was pretty academic."
Couture says his background in Greco-Roman wrestling prepared him well for UFC's tactically similar "kinetic chess." Not that some adjustment didn't take place. "The first time someone punches you in the face, it's an experience," he says. "But you get used to it."
Randy Couture fights Tito Ortiz during UFC's "Undisputed" pay-per-view card this Friday, Sept. 26. See www.ufc.tv for details. For more on Team Quest, see www.tqfc.com.
WWeek 2015