"I don’t think there’s an issue," said Couture, who turns 47 in June. "I think Herschel’s always been an amazing athlete. How many guys are going to make the bobsled team and then compete in the Olympics? Then, obviously, there’s the storied career at Georgia and in professional football. He's a tremendous athlete; he’s been involved not only as a fan, but also a competitor in martial arts for a long time and now wants to test his skills and see how he’s going to do in mixed martial arts."

"I think he’s going to be explosive," said Couture, who faces Mark Coleman in the main event at UFC 109 on Feb. 6 in Las Vegas. "He may not be a top-rated fighter right now, but we’ll get a chance to see how he competes and what kind of athlete he is and see how far he can go with it."