Issue 187

January 2020

The likes of American Top Team, American Kickboxing Academy, and Jackson Wink MMA are widely regarded as the premier MMA fights teams, but Fortis MMA from Dallas, Texas is hot on their heels following an incredible two years.

Fortis MMA might not be the first name that springs to mind when talking about MMA gym powerhouses, but just three years after being founded, Sayif Saud and his team are more than holding their own against the best in the world.

Based out of a state-of-the-art MMA facility located in Deep Ellum in Dallas, Texas, Fortis MMA is the home for a number of well-known UFC fighters including the likes of Geoff Neal, Diego Ferreira, Abdul Razak Alhassan, Macy Chiasson, Uriah Hall, and many more. At this facility both the professional and amateur teams are trained by some of the best coaches in the world and under the guidance of head coach and gym owner, Saud.

With Fortis MMA winning 18 of their 23 UFC fights in the first eleven months of 2019, their 78.3% win percentage sees them tied with City Kickboxing as the top MMA fight team. After going 16-4 in the UFC as well in 2018, Fortis MMA has put together an impressive two-year stretch and the signs are there is plenty more to come.

At the helm of it all, head coach Saud is proud of his team’s accomplishments in last two years, but all this success comes after a long road of hard work and a lifetime in martial arts. Speaking recently to Fighters Only, Saud explained how his journey in combat sports began at an incredibly young age. 

“I grew up doing martial arts and I was training judo at just three years old,” Saud recalled. “I’ve literally been doing this my whole life so I really am a lifelong martial artist. When I was about five I started competing and won multiple state titles and when I got to eight I even got the attention of the Olympic team. Judo was my sport and my first love. Later on, my Dad opened up a karate school so I obviously started training that and ended up winning the Nationals four times.

“You got to remember that MMA really wasn’t around at that time so when I was growing up so in 1995 when I was the national karate champion, I was like the toughest kid in school,” Saud continued. “I then switched my attention to my academics and I ended up competing in bodybuilding and won a bunch of stuff. I never stopped doing martial arts and training though.”

As a Shorin-Ryu karate black belt, a multi-time national champion, and a passionate martial artist, Saud’s gravitational pull towards combat sports never dwindled during his years studying. After graduating with honors from Indiana University-Bloomington with a degree in Political Science, Saud then attended law school at Indiana University-Indianapolis and it was there he got an opportunity he couldn’t turn down.

“During my second year of law school I got approached to go train MMA,” Saud said. “Because of my background, they thought I had the right pedigree to do well so I said I would do it. I asked where I had to go and they said I had to go to Albuquerque and work with a guy called Greg Jackson.

“This was in 2005 so I was at the old school Jackson gym and Greg and I really hit it off. I stayed there for about three years and went 3-0 as an amateur and then 3-0 as a professional. I had Greg and the likes of Rashad Evans cornering me so they obviously had a lot of faith in me.”

Come 2009 Saud looked like he was destined for a place on the UFC roster, but unfortunately his career as a professional fighter was cut short. Several different injuries kept him on the sidelines and with his finances suffering, Saud took up an offer to coach in Dallas.

“Things were looking great for my fighting career, but then at 27 I tore my bicep twice, then my ACL, and my meniscus,” Saud said. “I needed some money so I went and trained some guys who were sponsoring me in Dallas and ended up training at a gym called Octagon. The guys there had a beautiful gym with a cage, but no one there fought MMA, so when I turned up they asked me to start taking classes. At first, it was unpaid, but they said if I built up a program then they would pay me one class at a time.

“I literally had nothing at the time and needed knee surgery so I did it,” he continued. “I started doing it and before we knew it, the class grew so I started making a little bit of money. Things really changed when a kid called Matt Hobar walked into my class. I knew I could do something with him because of his talent and he was my first fighter. I took him from that class there to the UFC. Ever since then I knew I could do big things and coaching has been my life.”

In 2011 Saud led Octagon MMA to a record of 40-5 and he was awarded the Texas Mixed Martial Arts “People’s Choice” Coach of the Year award. Though achieving success from early on, Saud knew that was just the start of his new journey coaching.

“My plan was always to open a gym,” Saud recalled. “If I’m totally honest I wanted to get to the UFC, win one fight, prove I could do it and then retire. I didn’t get to do that because of my injuries but it just got me started down the coaching road sooner. I had a dream and a goal to open a gym ever since I was 15 years old. It’s what I loved to do so I knew I wanted to figure out a way to make a living from doing martial arts every day. That’s everybody’s dream, right? To do what you love to do and do it every day of your life. I was always most comfortable on the mat than anywhere else.”

After achieving success with Octagon MMA, Saud took a big step and launched Fortis MMA in 2015. Three-time NBA All-Star Deron Williams partnered Saud taking a 10-per cent stake in the business, but that was only after Saud embraced the grind, doing ten private lessons a day to raise enough capital to buy a building to renovate in Deep Ellum. 

“After a few years the team was really growing and we just needed more space,” Saud recalled. “I got the opportunity to buy the place in 2015 and that’s when we started doing it up. It took almost a year and a half to get ready and at the time I was coaching Deron Williams. We were literally almost finished and the gym was almost done, but he wanted to be involved and be a partner.

“I busted my a** to get the money together to, but I love Deron man,” he continued. “I didn’t need a partner, but in the end, he convinced me for a few reasons. For starters, he’s a great athlete and he’s well respected. Secondly, trust me, if this guy was a fighter he would be incredible. He truly loves martial arts so in the end I let him join me in the venture and he’s a 10-percent partner. This gym was truly built of blood, sweat, and tears. I’m really proud of it and it was definitely the right move.”

As a lifetime martial artist and having worked with some of the best coaches in the business, Saud believed he had an understanding of the qualities required to run a successful fight team. With all the knowledge he garnered from his own fighting career in his back pocket, from the very start Saud set a code of conduct that all of his students have had to abide by.

“We run ourselves like a professional organization and a professional team,” Saud said. “Everyone will be on time. Everybody will be there one week after their fight and right back in the gym for their teammates. Everybody will be prepared for practice. Look at the [New England] Patriots. They don’t have a star player but they win every single year. It’s the system that wins and we’ve built a system that is having a lot of success.

“There aren’t many who can rival my experience and it’s helped me build this system that is founded upon the basis that there are no break and no bulls***. I don’t give a s*** if you’re Uriah Hall or an amateur taking your first fight. You come to every single practice, do every single thing that I ask of you, be a good teammate, and have a good character. That’s it. If you can’t be like that we don’t want you. We’ve turned plenty of people away. We want to create our own talent and we will stick by them no matter what.”

Having grown up with coaches who only accepted the best from their students, Saud asks for nothing less from his students at Fortis. He openly accepts that the system isn’t the right one for all fighters, but believes that at the highest level, a degree of tough love is required for anyone to be successful.  

“I think I’m a culmination of all my coaches,” Saud said. “My Dad was my first coach, sensei, and mentor. I owe so much to him. He was a great man and it was a blessing to have him as my coach. Greg [Jackson] has a fantastic mind which I also took a lot from. I honestly do think I took the best of what I learned from all of my coaches and now I’m using it myself.

“Our team isn’t for everyone though and I don’t take s***,” he continued. “If you’re fighting s***, I’ll tell you that you’re fighting s***. If you’re fighting with your hands down then I’ll tell you that you’re fighting with your hands down. This isn’t a sport where you have time to lie to one another and one millisecond can change the whole outcome of a career. I take cornering very seriously and that’s something I learned very quickly from all the guys that worked with me as I was learning my craft. It’s been a very natural process.”

In a very short space of time, Fortis MMA was beating some of the best teams in the world. Saud places their success down to his students acting like true professionals with each of them pulling in the same direction from the very start.

“To go from opening the gym in 2017 to being the number one-ranked gym in just two years, it’s a dream come true,” Saud said. “We’ve done it our way and it’s all rooted in one word: accountability. We have a different culture to everybody else. Everybody here treats training like it’s a job. They don’t miss practice. They do their tape study. They turn up on time. They respect one another. They really just act like professional athletes. I think it’s important to have leaders who you believe in so I’m very careful to make sure they keep their word and that I keep mine.

“We’ve beaten all the top teams out there,” he added. “We’ve beaten ATT, we’ve beaten Jackson Wink, we’ve beaten Roufus, and that’s just this year. Our losses have just come to the smaller teams. Those bigger teams have yet to beat us. I get it though and I know people want to see champions and it’s titles and belts that get you the recognition.”

The statistics show that Fortis MMA has been the fight team with the highest win percentage in the UFC in the past two years, but Saud knows that widespread recognition across the MMA community will only come when they have a champion amongst their ranks.

With 14 active fighters on the UFC roster, Saud believes it’s just a matter of time before one of his students lands a title and that Fortis MMA has plenty of opportunities to produce a champion across a lot of weight classes. 

“Geoff Neal, who is fighting Mike Perry in December – I seriously can’t tell you how good this kid is,” Saud said. “He has the best hands at 170 pounds and I’m not lying. He has a great chance of being a champion. Ryan Spann at 205 pounds; he has great hands and great wrestling and I know he can hold a world title one day.

“Macy Chiasson, she’s recently had a stumble, but I truly believe that will be a good stumble for her,” he continued. “She’s a monster that can be a bantamweight champion. Carlos Diego Ferreira is also on a five-fight win streak and he’s about to get a huge fight. He’s just beat Taisumov and he’s right in the mix as well at 155 pounds. That’s just a few of the guys and girls we have right now. We will have a champion sooner rather than later.”

One of the biggest names recently to find a home at Fortis MMA is the UFC middleweight, Uriah Hall. Prior to joining Fortis, Hall had lost four of his previous six fights (three via TKO), but he picked up a big win against Antonio Carlos Junior in September in what was his first fight with the new team.

Saud believes that the former The Ultimate Fighter finalist has all the potential in the world to be a UFC champion and that he’s now found the right environment to live up to his potential.

“Uriah Hall, where do I start with this kid?” Saud said. “Uriah has the best jab at 185 pounds. Everyone knows the jab is the most important strike in the game. Did you see him hit Paulo Costa with that jab over and over again? That was him unprepared. I’ve had him for one fight, against Antonio Carlos and he looked the best he’s ever looked.

“Everybody thinks he doesn’t have it mentally, but he looked damn good to me. He’s flourishing in our system. He’s got tons of f***ing talent and everybody wants to see it. If he doesn’t become a champion it’s going to be a massive shame. I’ve never seen someone faster. That’s a huge statement to make but it’s true. He’s so much talent and we’re going to do everything we can to get the best out of him. He’s got an amazing chance to be a champion.”

The present is bright for Fortis MMA, but the future could produce a whole lot more. Having recently invested in a further upgrade to the facilities in Dallas, Saud can only see his team going on to bigger things and having a UFC champion amongst their ranks sooner rather than later. Nothing is ever guaranteed in MMA, but it’s evident that Fortis is moving in the right direction and that they are going to be a force to be reckoned for a long while.

“In five or ten years we are going to have champions,” Saud said. “Last year and this year, no team has gone in 18-5 in the UFC. We’ve done that in ten months in 2019 and that’s crazy. Look at the people we fought as well, they weren’t exactly low-level competition and easy fights. They were hard fights and we came out on top and our guys are coming out on top. If we keep this momentum up then the sky is the limit and we’re going to have champions.

“Six months ago we just bought a bunch of apartments and we’re building another facility to basically build a performance institute of our own,” he continued. “We will have a rehabilitation centre, cryotherapy, a meal provider partner; we are getting everything all under our roof. Everything is just 0.7 miles away from the gym. I don’t look at this as a business though. Everything we’re doing is for the benefit for all the fighters we have. We love to win and we’re dedicated to winning. You will see champions at Fortis MMA soon. You can count on that.”