Randy Couture is a veteran of the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division and the UFC. Since his first fight in 1997, Randy Couture has won 6 UFC Championship Titles. To this day he is the only UFC competitor to hold titles in both the Heavyweight and Light-Heavyweight divisions. Randy Couture has shifted his focus from fighting to help other Veterans and retired athletes by founding the Las Vegas Chapter of Merging Vets and Players (MVP).
Local 872 has joined Randy Couture and MVP supporting a “program designed to address challenges that many combat veterans and professional athletes face when transitioning their service/professional life towards a new mission in their civilian life.” Local 872 and community partners support creating such a place for veterans and athletes. Xtreme Couture MMA located on 4055 W Sunset Rd opens to Veterans free of charge every Thursday to train and help each other continue to build fulfilling lives of service and strength.
MVP’s program is geared around Veteran’s and athlete’s shared strengths and experiences.
Former Combat Veterans and former professional athletes are matched for “weekly physical fitness and peer-to-peer support sessions … The goal of this is to give them a new team to tackle the transition together.” Randy Couture also thanked the members of Local 872 for their constant support of Veterans issues. While attending the February Monthly Meeting at the Local 872 Training Center, Couture said twenty to thirty Veterans a week benefit from having MVP in Las Vegas. “Getting them working out again breaks down some walls [and] gets them feeling a little better about themselves” according to Couture who has led MVP programs in Las Vegas for the past year.
Creating a place that plays to the strengths of Veterans helps reintroduce them to civilian life. When recognizing the Local 872 Executive Board Randy Couture said Veterans “are not broken, [but] are special, [and] telling them they are broke is not the way to get through to them.” The Executive Board of Local 872 has branched out into many Veterans programs ranging from MVP to Veteren’s Village and Local 872’s own Helmets to Hardhats initiative.
