Issue 190

May 2020

The lightweight’s route to the UFC has been tough, but he’s never lost his love for MMA, the gym or his ninjas

You have been associated with Pittsburgh MMA and Fitness for a long time now. You had the opportunity to purchase the gym recently. That had to be a bucket list item. What was it like to make that a reality?

My girl Nicole is the backbone. I’m just the guy who trains people. I have my coaching staff. It was an amazing process. It is the same gym I waked into 12½ years ago, not knowing anything about MMA. I started training there back when it was Fight Club Pittsburgh. I walked in and said I wanted to fight and they all laughed and said ‘Yeah, everybody wants to fight.’ I have been here for 12 years now. After about seven or eight years I started working here. My buddy took the gym over. I was working here as his manager. He couldn’t get here sometimes, so I decided to buy the gym from him. Now I am here. After all of that, then I made it to the UFC. Getting my gym meant more to me than making it to the UFC. I have students. I have people that look up to me. I teach the kids’ classes. I will be teaching the kids’ class at my gym until the day I die. I don’t care how much money I make or how famous I get. I will come in three or four times a week for an hour and I will teach the kids. It keeps me in the right place. There is nothing like teaching a kid. They don’t quite have their own understanding of how their body should be or how technique works. They are just learning technique. It makes me better by seeing them learn. That is the biggest thing that has helped me as a coach. It has made me a better fighter.

You hear that in all sports. As a coach, you are forced to focus on those details when you are teaching young kids. Those are the same details that you may gloss over as you get older. 

Exactly. This is no lie. This was six or seven fights ago. There was a technique I was working on with my students. I was screaming at them to take their time and be proper and not to rush things. Then I was sitting there in the fight with my opponent on my back, in that moment, I remember me screaming at my students, telling them how to do it. That was the reason I got out of the bad position. I went back and told them that. I told them because I was reinforcing the basic fundamentals to them. When I got into a bad situation instead of going all crazy or panicking, I thought about me telling them about the fundamentals. That’s why I love coaching. 

I heard you call those little boys and girls your little ninjas. Is that correct?

Yeah that is my little ninja crew. They don’t see regular people go to their jobs and push and try to get a promotion but if they see their coach is inspired and see their coach push and see him following the path, it can be life-changing for them, not in the martial arts world just in life in general. I can have an impact on them. I like the simple fact that I can do that and make people a better version of themselves. That is my big thing, to make people the best version of themselves.

I was told that at the same time you purchased the gym, you had your fight coming up and the gym actually flooded all while you were expecting your child. How did all of that craziness work out?

Two years ago on June 29th the gym flooded completely. It was covered with at least two inches of water throughout the gym. Some spots had over four inches of water. I was in camp. I fought a month later. My team, my students, my instructors, everyone, just came in and cleaned it up. The whole gym atmosphere, people need that in their lives. So when that happened they were all about getting back to normal and getting back to training. That made me think that if regular moms and dads who have jobs and kids, if they can take time away from them, if they can come in and help me than I can put more than what is asked of me into it. I went out and won the fight. It was a third round knockout. It was a great fight. It was a good morale booster for the gym. It was awesome. None of this would be possible without them. I could have just closed the gym down. It was bad. I wasn’t making any money. I would work at my gym from 12-8. I would go home and see my girl and baby for a little bit then I would leave to go drive Lyft just so I could afford to keep the gym. I wanted to keep the gym. I wanted people to be able to come. I would drive Lyft and do Uber for six hours until the wee hours of the night then I would go home. I did that for six months just so I could keep pushing toward my dream. That’s why all of that emotion poured out after my UFC debut. It was all of that balled up and released. It was a lot to take in.