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Couture digests loss, contemplates next move

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Former UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture went into Saturday night's fight with new champ Brock Lesnar believing that he could handle his opponent's size and abilities and win that fight.

Couture was TKO'd in the second round.

Lesnar landed a mammoth right hand that sent the champ crashing to the canvas then quickly followed with a cacophony of hammer fists that caused the stoppage.

Couture emerged from that disappointing defeat at UFC 91 still believing that he could handle his opponent's size and abilities and win against Lesnar.

"I didn't have any trouble with his size. The reach was a little surprising, but overall, I didn't feel overpowered. I didn't think that was an issue, I just got caught with a shot," the former champ told MMAWeekly.com. "That's the fight game. That happens. I was doing the things that I felt like I trained to do and I just got caught with one."

Although Couture's strategy coming into the fight was to stay light on his feet and move in and out on Lesnar, wearing the big man down, he got stuck in the clinch early on. That didn't really seem to faze Couture though, as he handled the size well from the clinch.

"I didn't instigate the clinch, he did," Couture said. "But I felt like I controlled a lot of those positions. I felt comfortable there. He was throwing some knees; I was throwing some knees. I never feel bad in that position.

In Couture's mind, the more significant factor was Lesnar's "Go-Go Gadget arms."

"It's one thing to fight guys that are big and heavy, but it's another thing to fight guys with 85-inch reach," Couture said. "I slipped [him], but just not quite enough."

At the end of the day, Couture handled the loss with aplomb, not rushing to believe age had caught up with "the old man" or that he couldn't deal with the puzzle of the size and athleticism of today's heavyweight division.

"I don't know where I'm gonna go from here, but we'll figure it out," Couture professed. "Think we'll come back and fight some more. I've got some more acting things on the horizon. So we'll sort it out for sure."