SUGAR FREE Success

Behind every good man is his woman kickin' ass and takin' names. That's never been more true than with Kim "SugarFree" Couture, the wife of UFC legend Randy Couture and an accomplished MMA fighter in her own right. A few years back Kim was working as an executive casino host for The Wynn in Las Vegas, the thought of fighting in the Octagon always at the back of her mind.After meeting and marrying Randy, Kim left her casino days behind her but brought that knowledge and experience with her into the MMA world to build the Xtreme Couture brand. "I had plenty of practice," she notes, "it's just a different line of work now." It started with the birth of Xtreme Couture Mixed Martial Arts Training Center. The Couture's mission for Xtreme was to develop a safe haven for fighters to come train. "Guys were bouncing all over town to meet their training needs. We realized we had to do a gym with everything under one roof."From there Xtreme Couture put on their first major fight card dubbed "Night of Combat" where Kim herself was one of the featured bouts. "It was the ultimate test," she says. "Someone is going to hit you and try and take your head off. They can teach you all sorts of things but once it starts all the fancy stuff goes out the window. It's just basics and muscle memory."Night of Combat II came in October 2008 and this time Kim stayed behind the scenes as the event promoter, but she approached that role with as much vigor and tenacity as any of her previous fights. "Everyone jumps in and tries to do a show and they don't know what goes into it so they forget something at the last minute. I want to give these fighters an opportunity. If I say there's gonna be a show, there's gonna be a show."Kim's hard work is paying off getting Xtreme recognized with more shows set up for the future. Within that success they've given back with charitable organizations like the Xtreme GI Foundation which provides opportunities for GI's with prosthetic limbs who are still trying to make a difference. "It's inspiring because those guys don't give up," Kim says. "It puts things in perspective."Recently she attained her first professional win vs. Lina Kvokov at StrikeForce. “I felt very confident going into the fight, my footwork and boxing have greatly improved since I’ve been working with Gil Martinez our boxing coach here at Xtreme Couture. I’ve also spent the last 6 weeks working on my Muay Thai with Master Chan and Ray Seffo and my ground game with the help of Robert Drysdale.”Kim isn’t looking to slow down anytime soon. “I really love MMA and I want to continue to fight at least 3 to 4 times a year. Last year I fought four times, Febuarary, April, June and November. Before I fight again I want to get back to the business side of things and work on my promotion company. We have a lot of fighters at Xtreme Couture that I want to get some work.”

Source: Fightergirls.com

Fall off the Wagon?

Did the holidays do you in? Did you find yourself eating more and exercising less because of the old holiday excuse? I know I did. But I'm ready, willing, and able now to get back on track cuz for me when my fitness level is progressively moving forward I can spring board everything else in life off of it.So if you're like me and let the sweets and good eats (not to mention the booze!) slap on a couple extra pounds...even if its just water weight...then when would now be a good time to get it in gear?I've decided what I need is a new goal, something different to focus on in the weight room. For 5 years now I've built a level of fitness around my competition (www.womenstrifitness.com)There were very specific skill sets that had to be developed for that with minimum variation.Now that I'm taking a break from competing I found at first I really had no desire to train at all...I needed that new goal. So invent one for yourself.Myself, I'm going back to my roots and developing my martial arts stronger. But I also have body specific goals in mind too. I noticed that when I leaned out for my shows I got very lean but my muscle mass wasn't where I wanted it to be. I'm a pretty small girl, at 5'2 so its going to be hard to pack on some good muscle to my small frame however that is another goal and I'm determined to reach it.Let's face it, you have to have something to shoot for...even if it's just looking good naked ;)That's all for now but in the words of the immortal Arnold: "I'll be back"
-Cyn