Fighters Only

Issue 121

November 2014

Part 2: 2004-2013

After exploring the histories of the best fight teams from the sport’s first decade in last month’s issue, we discover how the gyms that took their place wrote their own chapters in mixed martial arts history.

As popular as mixed martial arts rapidly became during the ‘90s and early 2000s, fans who had a thirst for MMA knowledge were more likely to spend their cash training at traditional martial arts gyms than sweating alongside the best MMA had to offer.

Many wanted to emulate the likes of Royce Gracie, Mark Coleman, Wanderlei Silva and Pat Miletich, but would have to travel hundreds of miles to get the same quality of training as those they admired. However, when MMA finally left the dark ages and became readily accessible to the mainstream, the sport grew from an event fans would watch on a Saturday night to something they could actually partake in.

The explosion helped generate far more MMA-specific fight teams with legit coaches, creating the next generation of mixed martial arts facilities that fans follow today. This new batch of MMA’s finest learned from their predecessors, taking all the elements that led to success in the world’s biggest promotions, while dismissing everything that stopped them from staying relevant and realizing their maximum potential.

In this second part of our MMA’s Greatest Fight Teams series, FO looks at the modern day gyms that have managed to solidify themselves in the sport – creating champions, dominating promotions and establishing legacies in the process.

Here, key members of American Kickboxing Academy, Blackzilians, Team Alpha Male and Jackson-Wink explain how their groups came together, what their proudest achievements are, and how they plan on continuing to stay atop the game.

Alpha Centauri

California has become the hotbed for MMA training over the past couple of years, with seemingly more fight teams per capita than most other US states. Fight camps are springing up around the region at pace, with one in particular enjoying its belated time at the top presently.

Team Alpha Male founder Urijah Faber is one of the pioneers of the Californian scene and MMA’s lighter weight classes. The former WEC champion originally became a mixed martial artist as a way to try and make ends meet financially, but over time he not only made a very good living from the sport, he also created one of the world’s strongest MMA teams.

He explains: “Team Alpha Male started out in 2003 and I’d just graduated college. At the time I was a wrestling coach at UC Davis and I decided to take a fight as a way to make some extra cash. It wasn’t a lot of money. It was $200 to show and $200 to win, but fighting sounded pretty fun. After I started I began to recruit other college wrestlers. I was looking for people in the area who were doing the same thing and I started to bring some unity to it.

“After my second fight I came up with the name Team Alpha Male because I’d studied Human Development in college. I learned about different cultures, how to study animals and I liked the meaning of the name. From there it kind of took a life of its own. It started out with me going to every single gym in the nearby California area, meeting and learning from people, to Team Alpha Male becoming a destination for fighters around the world.”

TAM has become home to a who’s who of world class fighters, with the likes of TJ Dillashaw, Chad Mendes, Joseph Benavidez, Danny Castillo and Chris Holdsworth flying the flag. Despite the array of smaller fighters, Faber insists that creating a murderer’s row of lighter weight talent was not part of the plan.

“Some of the first guys on Team Alpha Male were guys like Scott Smith, James Irvin and Mark Munoz and they were bigger guys. As I found more success I think the training partners I started recruiting, and guys I had my eye on because I’d wrestled against them or saw them wrestle in college, were lighter weight guys. It just kind of happened organically, it wasn’t a conscious decision.”

Team Alpha Male earned its first UFC title when Dillashaw defeated Renan Barao earlier this year and, sitting alongside Faber’s WEC featherweight belt, ‘The California Kid’ hopes he and his crew can bring more championships to Sacramento in the future.

“I want to have a long tradition of world champions,” Faber adds. “That’s something I wrote down on my goals list and set out to do a long time ago. I want a tradition of champions in all different weight classes and I want Team Alpha Male to continue to be a fun environment for people.

“I believe it can be a place where people not only improve as fighters, but as individuals who have success after their fight career because that’s a big part of what I pride our team on. I want to make sure they are educated on more than just the fight game.”

TEAM ALPHA MALE

Based: Sacramento, California

Founder: Urijah Faber

Key members: Urijah Faber, Chad Mendes, TJ Dillashaw, Joseph Benavidez, Danny Castillo

Brothers in arms

There are two things Albuquerque, New Mexico, is famous for: award-winning TV show Breaking Bad and arguably MMA’s most successful gym, Jackson-Wink, formerly Jackson-Winkeljohn MMA. However, these two entities don’t just have a locale in common.

The definition of the term ‘breaking bad’ is for someone to challenge convention and while in the TV show lead character Walter White challenged authority by selling crystal meth, head coach Greg Jackson changed the game in the ‘90s by starting a martial arts school in one of the most dangerous cities in the US.

“In 1992, I opened a school up for self-defense. I grew up in the South Valley of Albuquerque, New Mexico which had a very macho attitude to it. Fighting was a part of every day life,” Jackson recalls to FO. “I learned how to defend myself in various forms and my friends wanted to hang around when I was doing it. So I opened the school up, mostly to teach them. But I never wanted to be an MMA coach.

“After a little while, the UFC began and my students wanted to compete. I’d never thought much about competition but they wanted to do bare-knuckle bouts and grappling tournaments. I thought, do them, compete for a little bit, do OK and they’d get it out of their system, but they ended up winning everything and wanted to continue doing it.

“Then more people started coming to the gym because we kept on winning and here we are today. I never had aspirations to be a coach. I was just lucky.”

Soon fighters flocked to Jackson-Wink to learn from both Jackson and his coaching partner, former kickboxing champion Mike Winkeljohn, who refers to his fellow coach as his ‘little brother’.

“I was a professional kickboxer and Muay Thai champion and towards the end of my career I started doing something called Draka, which is a Russian combat sport that incorporated kickboxing, takedowns and throws, so I started wrestling with a friend of mine called Chris Luttrell,” recalls Winkeljohn. “Chris introduced me to Greg and they started helping me with my wrestling.

“Greg was this kid who was living in his gym and I had spoken to him about how to make money from it as I had many businesses going at the time. Once I was done fighting, coaching was what I wanted to do, so my schools started to train striking, and grappling and Greg had his own place. We started training fighters together.

“Then in 2007 I closed my school as I was doing really well in the construction industry. I told Greg that all I wanted to do was train fighters at his school. The next day, a sign went up at the front of the building that said Jackson-Winkeljohn. It was his facility but he did that. He’s always been my little brother and we’ve always trained fighters together.”

With a team that has had two UFC light heavyweight champions in Jon Jones and Rashad Evans, plus a plethora of other belt-holders, winning championships has become a common thing for the formidable Albuquerque double act. So when asked what their own personal greatest achievement was, both men had different opinions.

“I’ve taken Holly Holm (ex boxing champ) from what she was to who she’s going to be. I’m really proud of the fact she walked into my gym all those years ago just for conditioning and when she faces Ronda Rousey it’ll be MMA’s equivalent to Ali vs. Frazier,” Winkeljohn says. “And I don’t think I am talking too soon, she’s just that talented.

“I’m also definitely proud of taking Jon Jones from a wrestler with unorthodox striking into someone who people fear due to the variety of his striking techniques. He’s on the verge of becoming Anderson Silva-like with his strikes in terms of putting people out every time.”

For Jackson, ever the strategic technician, he’s most proud of the various tactics he’s created to help make Jackson-Wink the team it is.

He says: “To be a part of not only coaching fighters, but creating protocols that are being used by everyone now makes me proud. Being a part of technical innovation, coming up with new moves and having to figure out moves other people have come up with is what I feel is the coolest part.”

JACKSON-WINK

Based: Albuquerque, New Mexico

Founders: Greg Jackson, Mike Winkeljohn

Key members: Jon Jones, Donald Cerrone, Carlos Condit, Cub swanson, John Dodson

Birth of the Blackzilians

Despite the undeniable success of Jackson-Wink, there have been some controversies that come along with it. Rashad Evans had a messy departure from the team in 2011, when Jones became champ, and although his exit was unpleasant it lead to the creation of one MMA’s fastest rising teams.

The Blackzilians, created by Evans, Jorge Santiago, the Villefort brothers, JZ Cavalcante, Anthony Johnson and Michael Johnson, has established one of the most impressive rosters of fighters in mixed martial arts today, with the likes of Vitor Belfort, Eddie Alvarez and Tyrone Spong also featuring in the formidable line-up.

Although they created an MMA super team there were some growing pains in the beginning, as the team suffered a few losses in the bigger promotions. However, according to present head coach Santiago, these setbacks were not a true reflection on the team.

“We were never too frustrated about the losses,” he tells FO. “We are in the sport of MMA and in a split-second something can happen that will change a fighter’s future. Things can go wrong inside of the camp or in their personal life but it has nothing to do with the team. We are here to support the guys so they have great performances in the cage.

“We’re getting to the point that people are coming into the gym and enjoying training and having fun. We had some bad times but more than anything I’d say we were just a little unbalanced. We’re not going to win every fight from now on because anything can happen, but now we’re making sure we give every fighter special attention during every camp.

“If everything is OK and they’re able to fight at 100% then they know they can count on us and they’ll be ready to give 100%. If they lose then they lose like a Blackzilian, by fighting until the end. We’re not going to show up with a poor performance.”

With Belfort lined up for a crack at the UFC middleweight title, Anthony Johnson making waves at 205lb and Michael Johnson marching up UFC’s lightweight ladder, things are certainly looking up for the Boca Raton-based Floridians.

Santiago adds: “We’re trying to build the future of the Blackzilians. However, we work in the present and our present is Anthony Johnson and Vitor Belfort, who is going to be fighting for the UFC middleweight title at the end of the year. We’re all going after the same goal which is to get better inside of the gym and have the mind-set of doing the best we can every day so we can succeed.”

BLACKZILIANS

Based: Boca Raton, Florida

Founders: Glenn Robinson, Jorge Santiago, JZ Cavalcante, Dani Villefort, Yuri Villefort, Rashad Evans

Key members: Rashad Evans, Vitor Belfort, Eddie Alvarez, Michael Johnson, Anthony Johnson

San Jose’S Finest

Consistency within any sport has always been something people strive for. Creating a dynasty is what teams work towards for years and that’s what San Jose’s American Kickboxing Academy has managed to create since the beginning of modern-day MMA.

From Frank Shamrock and BJ Penn, who stepped through the gym doors during the early days, to the likes of Cain Velasquez, Daniel Cormier and Luke Rockhold, who represent the team now, AKA has been atop the sport from its very beginnings.

The gym, originally a taekwondo studio owned by current Bellator CEO Scott Coker, has had immeasurable success. But for AKA head coach Javier Mendez his biggest accomplishment is yet to come.

“We’re even stronger now as a team and that’s probably my biggest accomplishment. However, if something was to happen where Josh Thomson fought for the UFC lightweight title and won, that would be my greatest accomplishment as a coach,” Mendez explains.

“We’ve been with each other for so long, had so many ups and downs, and he’s had a horrible streak of bad luck that it’s almost impossible for us to get to that title fight. That’s the reason why it would be my biggest accomplishment, because we’ve been through so much together.”

Things weren’t always as good as they are now, though. According to AKA co-founder ‘Crazy’ Bob Cook, he and his management partner nearly pulled out of the MMA game during the dark days.

“When MMA wasn’t readily available for people my management partner, DeWayne Zinkin, and I seriously wondered if this sport was actually going to make it. We weren’t sure what was going to happen. When the Fertitta brothers bought the UFC they were still struggling for a bit. The whole turn around for the sport came with The Ultimate Fighter, which had three of our guys on it.”

For Cook, being able to help fighters who have made AKA one of the biggest MMA gyms in the world has been the most satisfactory result from years of hard work. “My greatest success has been that I’ve been able to be in a position where I’ve been able to help some guys who have gone from living on the floor of my house or apartment to having successful careers of their own and being financially successful also. Knowing that makes me happy,” he states.

Much like how the Blackzilians, Team Alpha Male and Jackson-Wink took the reins from the gyms that helped create the sport, the likes of SBG Ireland, Allstars in Sweden, and many more, are not only showing how hungry they are to succeed, they’re also targeting the teams at the top now and trying to make them a distant memory among fans.

Can the gyms that have dominated the sport over the last decade continue adding

to their legacy of success, much the way AKA has survived, by evolving and adapting to the ever-changing MMA landscape? Or will

they fragment and form new teams in the future? After all, this is MMA, and anything

is possible.