"I am building a new gym; a training facility. It's a women's fight gym called Vixen Crew Combat Club. It will be a very large facility here in Las Vegas...I have a new clothing line in the works that will feature not only apparel, but equipment and fight gear. We're working on a reality show that is not about fighting; it's a surprise. And I'm also managing and coaching/cornering several girl fighters on my team. Seems like I'm at a fight almost every other weekend, so there is definitely a lot going on with me...you will have to really put me down or put me to sleep to get me out of there and I'm just going to continue to grow and focus on learning and training my butt off, which I always do, and try to help grow the sport. I'm trying to create more opportunities for women and opening up the door for my girls from the gym by managing them, cornering them and helping them get fights all over the place. I am also going to start up my promotion again, after everything else opens up," stated female mixed martial artist Kim Couture as she talked about her upcoming July 9th fight, her future plans and much more.
PC: How is everything going Kimmie?
KC: Good, and you?
PC: I'm doing great. Thanks. I know you have a lot going on, but now you have a fight scheduled as well. How are you fitting in time to train and how is training going?
KC: I do. I am getting a very good training camp in right now, amongst everything else I got going on right now. I'm pretty darn busy over here, but I am surrounded by great coaches and have such a supportive team of talented girls that are sooo much help in and out of the sport. I feel very blessed.
PC: Can you name some of the things you are currently working on?
KC: Yeah. I was gonna leave it as somewhat of a surprise, but since it's already leaked out, I am building a new gym; a training facility. It's a women's fight gym called Vixen Crew Combat Club. It will be a very large facility here in Las Vegas . It's the first of its kind that I know of here in Vegas. It's about 20,000 square feet and it will have a lot to offer. It's going to be for a lot of the top female athletes, and general public as well, and we will also have a kid's program. I have a new clothing line in the works that will feature not only apparel, but equipment and fight gear. We're working on a reality show that is not about fighting; it's a surprise. And I'm also managing and coaching/cornering several girl fighters on my team. Seems like I'm at a fight almost every other weekend, so there is definitely a lot going on with me.
PC: Just a little bit busy (laughing). With all of that going on, how are you balancing things?
KC: I'm pretty good at juggling projects. In fact, I think I've told you before, I do better when I have a million things going on. If I only had one thing going on, I would be bored and procrastinate. I have my new fight team, Vixen Crew. It's a solid group of girls here in Las Vegas who are some of the top fighters around here that I have been training with. A couple of them were pro boxers before, Muay Thai and K-1. I have got some good girls and most of them have more experience than I do. They are just enlightening to train with and learn from and be able to help them on the ground as well. It's just made the process of training a lot more fun. I'm bouncing back between Wanderlei Silva's gym and Tapout still. I just feel very fortunate to be able to work with some of the top talent here in Vegas. I am so appreciative to Wanderlei and his wife for all their support.
PC: You will be the co-main event on HDNet on July 9th in Tampa. Tell us a little bit about your upcoming fight.
KC: Yep. It will be the co-main event live on HDNet on July 9th in Tampa, Florida, as you mentioned, at a place called the St. Pete Times Forum. The girl is Marianna Kheyfets. I don't really know anything about her. I know that she was a kickboxer before and she's been with American Top Team, so her Jiu Jitsu, I would imagine, is pretty good. She's won some kickboxing accolades and some amateur MMA tournaments. There is not a lot on the internet to find about her. I prepared for wherever the fight may go and we will see what happens. I guess I will find out that night (laughing).
PC: You usually have a pretty distinct reach advantage over your opponents. Do you know anything about her size at all?
KC: I think she is a little bit shorter than me. I'm sure I will have a reach advantage. I usually have a reach advantage over people that's the same size as me because I've got monkey arms. It's going to be interesting and I'm looking forward to it. I'm kind of hoping that it does go to the ground, so that I can utilize some ground skills that I haven't gotten to show in any previous fights. I don't know how many times I have been to Florida this year. I had rarely ever gone to the state and now, all of a sudden, I have been there like 10 times since the beginning of the year (laughing), so I'm getting very familiar with things down there.
PC: Is there any additional pressure to being the co-main event on a televised card such as this one?
KC: No. when you start off in the very first fight of your life on HDNet...and how many years ago was that? It was like 3 years ago. I've fought co-main event on Showtime as well, so I'm definetly familiar with that size of show. It's been that way from the start and there is no pressure on my side. There will probably be pressure on her side.
PC: Is the goal to get as many fights as you can and then eventually start landing some fights in Strikeforce again?
KC: Yeah! I love Strikeforce. Scott Coker is doing an awesome job. There are not a lot of girls getting to fight on that bill besides Cyborg. I know they were doing a tournament and I don't think it's done yet, but yeah, I'm ready whenever it comes back around for me. I've been anxiously waiting to see Keri Vera fight again, but she hasn't fought since I fought her. I'm excited to see her get back in there. I'm a big supporter of her and I want to see her do well. I would just like to see more girls out there fighting. I know they are fighting all around, but it just seems like the shows are broken up and they are competing all over the country right now. It would be nice to have a consistent showing for all of them.
PC: What did you take away from the loss to Vera?
KC: I learned a lot from that fight; Kim Rose and Keri Vera. Those two fights are what I felt the most growth from as a fighter. I think with Keri, I learned that I need to go in there with not so specific of a gameplan. I would like to go in and just be ready to fight, wherever the fight may go, which I feel like, technically, I'm prepared for everywhere it goes, but when I try too hard to stick to a gameplan, I focus on one thing. You know, I was focused on that takedown against the cage and there was 10 other things I could have done from there. That's when I got kneed in my eye, just because I was so focused on that one move that I put myself in a bad position. She took advantage of it a couple of times and that rung my bell. In fact, getting kneed in my eye hurt way more than breaking my jaw. It's hard to recover from that. So I just need to be more careful and more cautious and don't put myself in that position because I'm so focused on one thing. There are plenty of things that I can go to. Everybody has kind of seen me start from scratch and I am growing as a fighter. And because I have been on big cards and co-main events, people expect a lot from me, not realizing that I've only had a few years at this. But you will have to really put me down or put me to sleep to get me out of there and I'm just going to continue to grow and focus on learning and training my butt off, which I always do, and try to help grow the sport. I'm trying to create more opportunities for women and opening up the door for my girls from the gym by managing them, cornering them and helping them get fights all over the place. I am also going to start up my promotion again, after everything else opens up. The first two Nights of Combat were successful and the fighters on my show seemed to have a great time with it as well. It's all been a great experience though and I love being involved in every aspect of the sport.
PC: You can't teach any athlete heart and you seem to have a ton of that. Good luck in your fight and I look forward to speaking to you afterwards. Is there anything you want to say in closing?
KC: I just want to thank all of my girls: Michele Guiterrez, Jessica Rakoczy, Latasha Marzolla, Catia Vitoria, Gabriella Lakosky, and I have 4 more moving here for the gym. It's awesome! I went from never having a lot of girlfriends in my life and never having any women to work with in the gym to now finding all of these other girls that have all been in the same boat and have a lot in common. It's been such a learning experience for all of us and we have really grown tight and have a really strong bond now. We're all single moms and we get the kids together and support each other and it's just really important and enlightening to see strong women, all in that same situation, come together and we're putting together a really amazing project over here and we're excited to share it with everyone else.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]