Issue 119

September 2014

Striking coach Steven Wright reveals how a chance visit to a Muay Thai gym sparked a life-long love for martial arts and helped him mold Johny Hendricks into a UFC champion

Steven Wright, Team Takedown Striking Coach

If MMA fans were asked to name cities or provinces best known for producing top mixed martial artists, places like Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Rio de Janeiro would most likely be the first to leap off the tongue. However, one place that’s so often, and wrongly, overlooked is the state of Minnesota.

Sure, it doesn’t have the bright lights of Sin City, nor the chilled out atmosphere of California, but when it comes to producing champion fighters and knowledgable coaches the midwestern locale has been home to more than its fair share.

Inhabitants of the North Star state such as Brock Lesnar, Sean Sherk and coach Greg Nelson have all had significant success in MMA – and now you can add Team Takedown stand-up trainer Steven Wright to that list.

Although not quite as famous as his fellow Minnesotans, Wright is one of the key men behind the success of recently crowned UFC welterweight champion Johny Hendricks. And while some may think of him as the new kid on the block, if you were to ask him, he’d tell you his journey to being one of MMA’s top striking coaches has taken a lifetime.

“As a kid I really liked movies like Kickboxer and Bloodsport, and TV shows like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers,” Wright explains in an exclusive interview with FO. “My friends were into aggressive inline skating and were always looking for places to skate and not get in trouble. 

“One day they found a place right next to a Muay Thai camp, and when they saw the gym they asked me to go and check it out with them. Strangely enough, everyone stopped going to the gym after three months except for me. I didn’t know anything about K-1 or any of the promotions at that time, all I knew was that I enjoyed Muay Thai.”

After discovering kickboxing stars such as Bob Sapp and Mirko ‘Cro Cop,’ Wright’s love of Muay Thai became less of a fascination and more of an obsession. He would eventually work with ex UFC lightweight Roger Huerta and former UFC middleweight champion and fellow Minnesotan Dave Menne.

While training in Muay Thai in America was fun, Wright’s thirst for travel and adventure led him to Thailand and The Netherlands to sharpen his skills. And it was in Europe where he met the man who would eventually help him become the acclaimed coach he is today.

“I met ‘King Mo’ Lawal out in Holland when he was training with Tyrone Spong. We started training together and he was impressed that I knew so much about kickboxing, especially European kickboxing. He told me I was going to be his guy when I went back to America.

“I didn’t think much of it at the time but when I came back home I lost my job like a lot of Americans during the economic crisis. After that I decided to go into fighting full-time. I was meant to go out to San Jose to help him get ready for his fight with Roger Gracie, but, the fight got canceled. It was then that Team Takedown invited Mo to go and train at their facility.”

He adds: “He’d only been there for about two weeks when Marc Laimon asked him if there was anyone he knew who’d be willing to go and act as a striking coach here because everyone else was in Las Vegas at the time. Mo told him about me and I ended up going there for a week’s trial. But after just two days Marc had made his mind up and they asked me to move to Texas. The first fight I coached with them was Johny Hendricks vs. Mike Pierce (UFC 133, August 2011).”

Since joining Team Takedown, Wright has helped Hendricks achieve a 6-1 record in the UFC, gaining the welterweight title along the way. Although many have seen the difference in Hendricks’ striking since Wright joined the team, Wright is quick to give props to his student, especially ‘Bigg Rigg’s determination to improve.

He explains: “I realized how good Johny was going into the Jon Fitch fight (UFC 144, December 2011). When I first got down there I was getting to know all of the guys and the first thing I noticed about Johny was that after we finished class he’d keep his gloves on, stand in front of me and bob back-and-forth and wait for me to go and get my mitts.

“I noticed he was a little bit different, always willing to put in the extra hours in the gym, and that’s how we built our rapport. It’s what every coach looks for in an athlete. 

“We also added a boxing coach, Tony Cabello, last year who has definitely helped us in terms of winning rounds. He’s definitely got Johny throwing more punches. It’s been six years of work.”

Now with Hendricks being king of the welterweight division, Wright knows there’ll be plenty of challengers stepping up to take a shot at his charge’s crown, but it’s something he and his Team Takedown colleagues look forward to.

He explains: “Now that we’ve created a champion we want to do what Georges (St Pierre) did. If I was to look at a ranking that said ‘All-Time MMA Welterweights’ I want to see Johny at the top. The first goal was to win the title and the second is to defend it. The extra step is to go to 185lb and win that title because we want to do something that puts us in the history books.

“Winning the title after Georges was, of course, an accomplishment. We’ll be in the history books because of that. However, more importantly, we want to be the first great champion in the current golden age of the UFC.”