Most fans don’t know him, or likely haven’t even heard of him before. First name Haim, Last Gozali. Haim – pronounced Chaim – is common in Israel and means ‘Life’ in Hebrew. Gozali, uncommon, is the diminutive of ‘Chick’ – the bird kind. It’s a comically incongruous last name. This Chicky is bald, wide, stubbled, scarred, tattooed, his nose squeezed off-center to the left, his sneer is in fact a smile.

Gozali used to operate a club security group in Tel-Aviv. They stabbed him once – well, once seriously, in 2005 – he still doesn’t know whom, or won’t tell. He started fighting MMA before it was called MMA, at least not in Israel; back when it was just free fight, with open palm strikes and no weight-classes or much in the way of records. In 1998, in his first official fight, he took on and lost to UFC champion-to-be Carlos Newton. In 2006, on two days’ notice, he took on up and coming grappling ace Ronaldo Souza, but got choked within a round. In 2017, at 44, he’s 7-3 in proper MMA, with all fights, W’s and L’s, ending in round 1.

Gozali doesn’t use a nickname – everybody just calls him Gozali – but if he had one, it probably would have been Batman. The superhero is the MMA fighter’s fascination, and lightly-taken alter-ego. Gozali collected enough Batman comics and paraphernalia to fill up a most of a room in his house in Bat-Yam – a southern Tel-Aviv city that used to be a bit of a rough neighborhood. He also has enough Batman tattoos to cover a good part of his skin, with the bat-sign prominently carried across his chest.

Batman quit the nightlife. No longer working security, Haim Gozali now works for Bellator MMA as a promoter in Israel. He also has a contract to fight for them, with one international bout guaranteed. He won his first Bellator match in the opening fight of the organization’s first Tel-Aviv event, with a heel hook against late replacement and pro-MMA debutant Zane Clerk. He then asked Bellator’s chiefs for the biggest venue possible and the biggest name possible.

He got Madison Square Garden, New York City, and the legend Randy Couture. Well, not quite Randy, but his son, Ryan.

Ryan Couture is 10-5 in MMA (2-2 Bellator), and has dropped his last two. But you’ve likely already heard of him before.

Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

“I heard him talk on the MMAjunkie radio show,” Gozali said. “He talks nicely, with respect. What will I say? I’m going to murder him? Get on with it, let him step up to the cage, do whatever he wants.”

Haim Gozali lives about 7 miles away from me, and I run into him once in awhile, here and there. But we are having this conversation by phone. He is presently in Manhattan, getting ready for the fight. I try to prod some trash talk out of him, looking to make an attention grabbing headline out of a prelim matchup. I remind Gozali that Couture recently said his last two fights left a bad taste in his mouth, and he’s eager to get in the cage with Gozali and make these memories fade.

“They might fade because Couture will have a new loss to remember now. I couldn’t care less. A fight’s a fight for me. I win, I win. I lose, I lose – I fought. For me it’s not about fading out old memories, cutting out, who cares really.” But that’s as far as Gozali will go. Soon enough it’s back to, “I respect him. I heard all his interviews, and he didn’t badmouth me once. He spoke with honor, and I can’t badmouth someone who didn’t badmouth me.”

Bellator’s first card in NYC will be headlined by Chael Sonnen vs. Wanderlei Silva and air on PPV; Gozali and Couture will headline the Bellator.com prelims. Ryan, 34, the son of the famous UFC hall-of-famer, has had a more modest career than his father. The younger Couture had a good run in the amateurs and then in Strikeforce, but ended a brief UFC stint with two losses in two fights.

He signed with Bellator and won his first two bouts in the first round. But, 2016 saw Couture getting knocked out by Patricky Freire and armbarred by Goiti Yamauchi, hence the aforementioned bad taste.

“The armbar he got caught with in his last fight is the way I do it, one-to-one,” Gozali said, referring to the Japanese fighter’s winning submission hold from a very high guard.

“I didn’t look at his fights before accepting the match,” he said. “They gave me a list of names, I didn’t know anyone. I saw his name, the only one I knew was his.

“It looked interesting to me, probably on account of his father. Although, I don’t know how similar he and his father fight. They don’t even resemble one another in there. I’m telling you, really, the first time I saw his fights was two weeks ago, when they sent them over from Ego-Total [Bellator’s broadcast channel in Israel, R. G.]. Before that my trainers scouted him and guided me accordingly,” Gozali said. “Normally I won’t watch the other guy’s fights at all. Look, I think we’re pretty much alike, we both do our work on the ground. I also think that’s the reason Couture took the fight, that he believes he won’t get beaten up on the feet.”

Over his career, Haim Gozali has fought at 170 lbs and up. Ryan Couture has never punched-in above 156, and this will be his welterweight debut. Couture told MMAjunkie that he doesn’t think size will be a factor in this fight; and anyway, he walks around at about 178.

“I also don’t believe size will matter,” Gozali said over the phone. In the background someone dropped a set of barbells, people were talking, possibly in Russian. “I walk around at 183, cut 13 pounds – it’s not going to be torture or anything. We’re practically the same weight. But don’t forget that he never fought in this weight, and I’m coming from 220 – I was 212 last summer.”

Ryan Couture also recently admitted that one of his gripes in training is when heavy fighters get top position. But it’s not something Gozali thinks will factor in.

“In our case I don’t think that he’ll have this problem. I can fight from the bottom, from the top, anywhere. I’m letting the fight flow. I have my game-plan, he has his – I don’t know how they’ll fit together. At the end of the day we’re both grapplers. That’s also why he took the fight. At first they said ‘no’ because my weight, but then they obviously saw my fights and that I don’t pose too much of a risk standing up, that he won’t get absolutely knocked out – some submission hold at worst. He counts on it that he’s a better striker than I am, even though I don’t think so so much.”

He does have a crazy reach on him, it says 76 inches on 5’10”.

“I don’t know how accurate these things are,” Gozali said. “Because they also say I’m 6’2”, and I’m 5’11.”