Book Review: Becoming the Natural: My life in and out of the cage

By Elias Cepeda

Simply put, “Becoming the Natural” is all the book fans could have hoped for on one of MMA’s most important figures, Randy Couture. The book gets the reader behind the scenes from the hall of famer’s point of view of some heady and fascinating times.

After years of covering the fight world, I’d read just about everything that was written about Couture in the past, and have had the pleasure of interviewing him myself many times. But “Becoming the Natural” revealed to me so much about Couture’s life that I had never known before.

The book’s strengths are its honesty, detailing even many painful and personal moments of Couture’s life, and an impressively woven narrative. When someone has reached a certain level of fame and exposure it can sometimes be difficult to find aspects of their life that shed new light on them.

But by sharing his childhood, family life, personal and professional struggles and success, and the emotions behind them all, “Becoming the Natural” truly brings the reader closer to Couture and understanding him as a man and competitor.

This is no dry interview of an autobiography. In Hunt’s hands it becomes a compelling tale with perfect pacing and “you are there” skillful descriptive writing befitting the stature of its subject. So it is little wonder that the book debuted as a New York Times best seller and has continued to climb the list.

For the long time fans that think you know everything about Randy Couture, you don’t. For those interested in learning more about one of the game’s luminaries, “Becoming the Natural” is a must read for the novice and veteran fan alike.