HKL Exclusive Interview with Neil Melanson Pt 2: Xtreme Couture and Ryan Couture

Welcome to Part 2 of the three part interview with Xtreme Couture Grappling Coach Neil Melanson. In the last part, Neil spoke about Catch Wrestling and his upcoming book "Mastering the Triangle". In this part he talks about how he became involved at Xtreme Couture and Ryan Couture's training for his fight at Strikeforce Challengers. Come back tomorrow for the conclusion of the interview. 

Matt: How did the relationship with Randy and Xtreme Couture start out?

Neil: It started out because of Karo Parysian, I was with Karo, I was always with Karo and he was friends with Randy so I had met Randy a few times because of Karo. I had to come out to Vegas to do a photo shoot for Victory Belt, I can’t remember for what it was, it was for a book or something. I was at Randy’s gym and I was bullsh*ting with one of the girls that were working at the desk. And basically they said there was a possibility for an opening for a new coach because the guy that was there prior was leaving or whatever the case may be. So I had just retired medically from the Air Marshals services because I went blind in one eye so I put in a resume and told them I was interested and I think Karo called Randy and said, "Neil will do a good job for you", and I’ve been here for almost three years.

Matt: Before you were diagnosed with Behcet’s (inflammation of blood vessels) were you planning on becoming a fighter?

Neil: I was working pretty hard for it. The disease snuck up on me and I never thought it would get as serious as it did. I had every intention of working in a different government program because I like the security of having a federal job and I liked being a special agent. It’s something I always wanted to do since I was a kid. I was very proud of what I was doing and what I was doing for the country and I imagined that’s what I’d be doing for a long time. My addiction to the sport was something that threw all that off. I just stopped caring about everything -- I just wanted to train. I didn’t even care about being a champion. I just wanted to go out there and see what I can do with it. It was really a pure passion for it, I wasn’t gonna do it for the girls or be famous like some of these guys do, I just wanted to do it. My body couldn’t keep up, I had Karo telling me to quit and to take care of myself, but I couldn’t walk away from it. With the limitations now, I’ll never be more than a coach but I hope to be able some day go be able to compete in high level grappling competitions if I can get myself just healthy enough to put my body under that kind of stress. That’s one of my goals is to stop coaching for a bit and just focus on myself and go have some fun before I get too old or too sick.

After the jump, Neil talks how he got involved with Xtreme Couture and Ryan Couture's fight at Strikeforce Challengers: Beerbohm vs. Healy

Matthew: You are the grappling coach at Xtreme Couture; who are the main fighters you are training?

Neil: My core guys right now, it’s always Randy Couture, of course, we’re always training together. Frank Trigg, I’ve been training him for a while now, been doing some great things with him. Vitor Belfort, we train together, we had a great camp, unfortunately the fight [against Anderson Silva] didn’t turn out how we wanted it to. Gray Maynard, I’ve worked with him for some fights and I think I’m working with him for his next fight. This guy Mike Chandler in Bellator who I think is one of the futures of the sport. I have some brown belts and a few other guys who I work with. I have a lot of pros that fly in -- that’s I think is my big thing -- and work with me for a week and then fly out. They can’t live here for whatever reason so that’s the big thing I have, I have some people contacting me and I just train a little bit at a time. I’d say those are my core guys; I have Jason Trevino is a friend of mine, he hasn’t had many fights but he’s getting really good. Of course Ryan Couture, I train him as well. I work with everybody in the gym at some level, at pro class I’ll teach them and they work but privately. I work with some guys more than others. I work with Forrest Griffin sometimes too.

Matthew: Were you guys surprised at Lee Higgins’ ability to survive with Ryan on the mat?

Neil: I thought it was a good match up for Ryan. The guy was a tough kid, I knew he’d be aggressive, he was gonna fight his ass off. He’s just a step short on everything. He’s got a bunch of potential, it’s just that Ryan was gonna have one step ahead of him in each department and this guy would show up to fight so it would bring out the best in Ryan. I thought it was gonna be a good fight. I figured that Ryan would be able to submit him but I was really impressed with his ability to take. I thought the guillotine was  looking really close, the anaconda didn’t work out, I figured he was okay there. The way he was defending the rear naked choke in the end, I know that guy was hurting and he was tired and he didn’t want to give it up. I really respect him, he was heartbroken at the end of the fight and I know he didn’t want to give it up so he fought his ass off. It must have sucked to lose like that, but the kid did a great job. If he gets a little more technical and keeps that good attitude behind him, I think he’s gonna do much better in the future.

Matthew: With Ryan, we’ve seen a lot of improvement in his submission game, how often is he working with you?

Neil: He works with me all the time, a few times a week. He’ll take breaks of course but in pro class I’ll try and pull him aside. He spars a lot which is a good thing. He’s got a unique body type, he’s lanky but he’s strong. He’s not weak or overly flexible, so he can do some cool sh*t. I can do a lot of guard stuff with him, a lot of top game stuff with him. He’s a real good competitor, he’s got a great personality traits as far as his ability to learn, he’s very open minded. I was really happy with him in that fight because he was so calm, he could hear what I was saying to him. In a fight it’s so hard not to get tunnel vision, there’s so much going on and he could hear what I was saying. I could see him reacting and he was looking at me a few times and that showed really good ring presence for a guy who’s only had his second pro fight. So I was very impressed, that impressed me most: his ability to think his way through.

Matt: Who did Ryan primarily train with for the fight?

Neil: He trained with me and his striking coach was Tim Lane. Tim is a kickboxing coach who’s been working with some of the fighters here. A lot of the guys like him, he’s a high energy coach. He brings a different attitude to the MMA side. I don’t think he had a wrestling coach. There’s so many damn wrestlers at our gym, I mean there’s dozens of them that are good so he gets plenty of wrestling. It was just a really good fight, Ryan’s still got a lot of things to improve. I think he’s going to do fine. I know that Randy’s always worried about that. He doesn’t ever want to push his son into fighting. He wants him to do it honest. He wants Ryan to call his own shots, he wants his son to have the glory.

Just to give your readers some inside perspective. Randy loves his fans, he’ll never say no to an autograph. When Ryan fought over the weekend, Randy was just being there for support. After the fight, Ryan’s getting some attention but a lot of people are coming over to get photos with Randy or autographs. Randy, he wants his son to have that moment. He gets that moment all the time, so he shied away for a bit, trying to let Ryan have his moment. He fought a hard fight, people should cheer him because he’s Ryan Couture, not Randy’s son. It’s great to be in an environment with both those guys, because they’re so down to earth and level headed people that they handle that situation better than most. Randy’s a really good guy and Ryan’s a helluva kid, he’s a really nice guy too. I love being around these type of guys, I feel like this is going to be one of the most interesting times of my life. 

Matt: It’s good to see that Ryan has some good people around him that don’t just see the Couture last name and throw him to the sharks.

Neil: Yeah, Sam Spira is the management for Ryan and Randy. Sam’s a good guy, he knows what he’s doing. He’s a big part of finding fights and taking care of Ryan. Unfortunately, those guys never get the shout outs or the credit but they do an important job and Sam’s done a good job for him. I thought the event was outstanding, all the fights were interesting. 

Stay tuned to Head Kick Legend for the thrilling conclusion to our interview with Neil Melanson!