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Report: UFC Legend Randy Couture to Undergo Surgery After Injury in ATV Accident

Timothy Rapp@@TRappaRTX.com LogoFeatured ColumnistSeptember 8, 2020

Randy Couture is seen broadcasting during a mixed martial arts bout at PFL 1, Thursday, June 7, 2018, at Madison Square Garden in New York. (AP Photo/Gregory Payan)
Gregory Payan/Associated Press

UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture reportedly has to undergo surgery Tuesday after getting into an ATV accident with his girlfriend Mindy Robinson, according to TMZ Sports

Per that report, "The 57-year-old former UFC heavyweight champion was driving around on a private road on his ranch in Flagstaff, AZ with Mindy as a passenger when the accident occurred. We're told Randy was banged up pretty badly while Mindy escaped mostly unscathed. She sustained minor injuries."

Couture was treated for shoulder and rib injuries after being admitted to the hospital following the accident. 

The UFC legend, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2006, has had his share of medical scares in the past year. He suffered a heart attack in Oct. 2019, though he didn't realize it was happening. After a workout, he felt nauseous and threw up, and when he went home and his discomfort didn't go away, he walked himself to a hospital. 

When doctors gave him an ECG, they discovered the heart attack, as he told ESPN in November: 

"They're like, 'Dude, you're having a heart attack. They rushed me right upstairs to the cath lab. (They) went in through my wrist. My thick blood had created a giant clot in my main artery—the 'widowmaker,' of course. I had a plaque rupture, and the blood goes like it would with any wound to heal that wound. My blood is so thick it created a clot that occluded the whole artery."

Had Couture waited longer to seek medical help, the result could have been different: 

"I was lucky I came in when I came in. If I had waited another 30 or 40 minutes, it would've been a different outcome. … Any time something like that happens, it certainly gets your attention.

"… To have a heart attack was strange. It just chips away at your identity a little bit. Who you are. Who you thought you were. I'm certainly happy to be back, up, and running. I'm feeling a lot more normal. A lot more like myself."