Shawn Tompkins Wanted to Be a Part of History at UFC 109
One of the men who helped shape Randy Couture into the fighter he is today will be in the corner of the man that Couture is fighting at “UFC 109: Relentless”.
Shawn Tompkins left Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas to make a name for himself outside of Couture’s name with the Tapout Training Center, also in Las Vegas.
Tompkins will be in the corner of Mark Coleman on Saturday night in a bout that features two hall of fame fighters for the first time in UFC history.
Couture contends that he and Tompkins are “still friends” even though Tompkins is on the “other team”, so to speak.
“I was up in the air for a little while. Randy and I have been friends for a long time,” Tompkins told Sherdog. “In the end, it’s the Mandalay Bay, it’s the main event, it’s two hall of famers for the first time. I thought to myself, ‘I’ve got to be a part of this.’”
The striking guru also told Sherdog that although both Couture and Coleman are extremely tough fighters, he felt that Coleman was the “tougher” of the two, citing Coleman’s UFC 93 loss to Mauricio Rua.
“He got the [expletive] kicked out of him, but he didn’t quit,” Tompkins explained.
Either way, it’s definitely an advantage for Coleman to have a man like Tompkins in his corner and it doesn’t hurt that Tompkins was working with Couture for so long either.
