Randy Couture ‘Very Impressed’ with PFL Challenger Series Talent

“The Natural” has seen a lot of potential in the 2023 PFL Challenger Series contestants.

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight and light heavyweight titleholder Randy Couture believes this year’s Challenger Series graduates can fare pretty well moving forward. After all, last year’s winners like Carlos Leal Miranda and Dilano Taylor dazzled during the Professional Fighters League Regular Season, with Miranda outpointing two-time 170-pound kingpin Ray Cooper III and Taylor going as far as the finals before dropping a decision to Sadibou Sy. While talking with Sherdog, Couture confessed that he’s impressed with what he saw this year, indicating that Brahyan Zurcher as one of the names he’ll watch most closely.

“I've been very impressed. There's a lot of great young talents out there. You start looking at some of these records and some of these guys on paper, you're like, ‘Man, I don't know if they should be competing at this level,’ and every single time they impressed me, they step up. They show that they do deserve to be at this level and compete at this level. We've given out five contracts so far this season already. Obviously, last season with the Challenger Series we saw Carlos Leal come all the way through the Regular Season, and make it to the semi-finals. Dilano Taylor, another Challenger Series fighter last year, made it all the way to the finals. There's a ton of potential and a lot of great fighters out there, and they're getting the nod and they're getting the opportunity to show their wares in the PFL.”

(00:00) Intro
(00:21) Attending the 2023 Arnold Classic
(00:57) Commenting on the 2023 PFL Challenger Series
(02:08) Praising Brahyan Zurcher
(03:15) Week 7 of the PFL Challenger Series
(03:57) The differences with the previous edition
(05:10) His fellow celebrities
(05:57) Commenting on Jon Jones moving up to heavyweight
(06:41) His take on the Jones-Francis Ngannou fight
(07:44) Stating something’s changing in MMA
(09:04) Outro