Former UFC champion Randy Couture suffered severe burns and other injuries Tuesday when he crashed the car he was driving during practice rides at a racetrack near Kansas City, Mo.
The 62-year-old retired fighter and former Army drill sergeant was airlifted to a burn center and remained there as of Wednesday morning. He is expected to recover.
“If you know anything about Randy — he’s a freak of nature and will survive this like everything else,” Couture’s longtime manager and attorney Samuel Spira said in an email Wednesday afternoon.
No further updates on Couture’s condition will be issued until Thursday, Spira said.
TMZ was the first to report about Couture’s crash and his injuries, which include first- and second-degree burns, trauma injuries and smoke inhalation. The car he was driving was completely wrecked, TMZ reported, and it is unclear what caused the accident.
A state champion wrestler at Lynnwood High School in Washington state, Couture continued in the sport while in the Army in 1982-88 and at Oklahoma State, finishing second in the NCAA Division I championships in 1991 and 1992. He was an alternate for the U.S. Olympic team three times (1988, 1992 and 1996) and a semifinalist at the 2000 Olympic Trials.
Couture went on to become a mixed martial arts superstar, becoming a six-time UFC champion in the heavyweight and light heavyweight divisions and was inducted into the organization’s Hall of Fame in 2006.
More recently, Couture has become involved with hot rod racing. Scag Racing announced in April that Couture would drive for the team in the NHRA’s Pro Mod program starting later this year.
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