Fighters Only

Issue 120

October 2014

MMA’s first decade saw the emergence of some of the sport’s most successful squads – and bitterest gym rivalries.

When people think of sports that require a team to be successful the last thing on their minds would be mixed martial arts. After all, when a fighter steps inside a ring or cage it’s only them, with 4oz gloves, cup and mouthguard for protection, against an opponent glaring back at them with violent intentions in mind.

When the bell rings and the two fighters rush each other, there are no teammates to help block strikes or fend off submission attempts. MMA is a mano-a-mano pursuit, a test of one person’s skill set against another.

And yet mixed martial arts is home to some of the closest nit teams in professional sports, and always has been. Naturally, to prepare to face another human being whose sole purpose is to take you out, fighters need to work with equally-skilled individuals who also have the same desire to defeat whoever is put in front of them. Fight teams are actually fundamental to the sport.

Like-minded mixed martial artists the world over join forces to train with one another and sharpen their skills so they can advance in the various promotions they fight for and ultimately, occasionally, become champions.

And in their individual pursuit of success and glory, it was only natural that certain fight teams would become formidable forces. Teams whose very names would strike fear into the hearts of opposition.

Fighters Only set out to examine the rise and fall of some of the greatest fight teams in the history of MMA, investigating the coaches and fighters who spawned some of the most formidable stables the sport has ever seen, and track their expansions through two decades of combat.

In this, the first of a two-part series, we speak to key members of MMA’s pioneering teams, such as Chute Boxe, Hammer House, Lion’s Den and Brazilian Top Team, to find out how they were able to take over the MMA world and carve out a piece of history for themselves.

BRINGING THE HAMMER DOWN

At UFC 10, the first appearance of eventual UFC heavyweight champion Mark Coleman ushered in the era of ground ‘n’ pound. Using his Olympic-level wrestling skills to take his opponents down before using his fists to smash them in the face, Coleman became somewhat of an unstoppable force.

However, ‘The Hammer’ didn’t join the sport alone. He brought with him a group of like-minded American wrestlers, who he dubbed Team Hammer House, and who also utilized the ground ‘n’ pound technique which would eventually become a key part of the sport.

“There was no real intention of creating a Team Hammer House but when I got accepted to fight in UFC 10 and UFC 11 and won both of them, all of a sudden my phone started ringing with people from other countries,” Coleman explains.

“I got some calls from people in Brazil and Japan who wanted me to be a guest at their show. Everyone was really loving MMA at the time. They asked me if I wanted to be a guest, but at the same time they wanted to know if I had any fighters who wanted to compete too, and I had a bunch of friends from wrestling who I thought might be good.

“The next thing I know, I’ve got Kevin Randleman, Wes Sims, Mark Kerr, Phil Baroni and Nick Nutter fighting all over the world. Those were the names and friends that I

was able to get into the main event without them even proving themselves. I threw a lot of my guys to the wolves, but it wasn’t something I wouldn’t have done to myself because I threw myself to the wolves too.”

He adds: “My friends were offered pretty big-time fights overseas without any real record or anything like that. We walked in there with nothing but confidence and we just believed. The Hammer House did pretty good early on. I did see some of my boys take lumps but none of us ever quit. They fought hard and that’s all I ever really asked of them.”

With two UFC heavyweight titles, numerous tournament wins and a host of other promotional belts to their name, the team grew in stature and began to dominate MMA throughout the late ‘90s and early 2000s. The group even had a legendary brawl with Chute Boxe at Pride 31 and stood their ground against the much-feared Brazilians.

However, as the decade moved forward and more packs emerged in the sport, members of Hammer House became less prominent on the big shows. When asked what the legacy of the group of wrestlers who brought ground ‘n’ pound to the world would be, Coleman decided to leave it up to the fans.

“It’s up to the people in my eyes,” he adds. “I think it was pretty neat the way it came together so fast. I was the number-one fighter in the world at one point, so I’m trying to train myself for fights but at the same time I realized there was an opportunity to build a team and a gym. I started training and coaching some of my guys like Randleman, Eric Smith, Wes Sims and some others. But it was really tearing in to my own fighting career.

“It was very, very difficult to train a guy, especially when I’m not just their trainer but their good friend. It became so time consuming trying to train these guys that I didn’t have time to prepare for my next fight and no matter where it was, whether it was in the UFC or Pride, it was always a big one.

“We still remain tight as a team, but most of us don’t see each other anymore. To be honest, if you put me, Phil Baroni, Kevin Randleman, Nick Nutter, Brandon Lee Hinkle in the same room it’s not going to last long because probably some bad things will happen (laughs). I think we all love each other but it’s best that we keep it at a distance.”

He finished: “I was fortunate enough to be in the corner of all those guys. Being in their corner was the closest thing I could get to being in there. I lived and died with their fights. I thank all of them for getting in there. I don’t think I had any quitters in my time, that’s all I know. We didn’t win them all but the Hammer House was always known to put up a hell of a fight. The Hammer House isn’t dead. Hopefully I can get myself together, start up a gym with somebody and start training some fighters.“

HAMMER HOUSE

Based: Fremont, Ohio, USA

Founder: Mark Coleman

Key members: Mark Coleman, Phil Baroni, Kevin Randleman, Mark Kerr, Wes Sims

BRAZILIAN TOP TEAM vs. CHUTE BOXE

Brazil is the spiritual home of mixed martial arts. Also, as the birthplace of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, the days of vale tudo fights on the beaches of Rio de Janiero have become almost mythical events among fans.

So once MMA became big business and fighters could earn serious money in promotions such as Pride and the UFC, more fight teams quickly began to emerge. However, despite the plethora of academies within the country, only two of them truly became internationally famous and feared – Brazilian Top Team (BTT) and Chute Boxe.

Both came from different fighting philosophies. The Chute Boxe camp, consisting of the likes of Wanderlei Silva, Anderson Silva, Rafael Cordeiro and the Rua brothers, represented Muay Thai. While BTT, home to Ricardo Liborio, the Nogueira brothers, Ricardo Arona and Murilo Bustamante among others, focused more on jiu-jitsu.

And yet it was actually a broken relationship from the jiu-jitsu mats that led to the formation of Brazilian Top Team. If it wasn’t for Carlson Gracie, according to team co-founder Ricardo Liborio, BTT would never have existed.

“When the whole situation with Carlson happened I was in Japan with Murilo (Bustamante). That’s when we found out that we’d been kicked out of Carlson’s academy. When this happened there was a lot of confusion. It was a big mess,” he explains.

“Me and Murilo went to Carlson and tried to speak to him about the situation, we went there three times to try and fix this whole thing, but it didn’t work. He was too deep into his thoughts as to what was right and what was wrong. So when we got kicked out we knew that we had to go somewhere.

“I used to work at the Bank of Brazil and so I had great connections there. There was a social club called the Athletic Association Bank of Brazil and they got me this wonderful place in a good neighborhood of Rio, a 10,000sq ft facility, for me to open a gym. And that’s how we started Brazilian Top Team.”

He adds: “I never really wanted to leave Carlson’s academy. I still feel sad about the whole situation. But if it had never happened then neither Brazilian Top Team nor American Top Team would exist.”

When members of Chute Boxe and BTT began to rise up the ranks of Pride, it became inevitable they would end up colliding along the way. But their rivalry would create such a schism that it remains arguably the most famous in the history of MMA, and is still discussed to this day by fans.

And, as Liborio reveals, one of the biggest fractures in their rivalry actually happened in a hotel dining room, far away from the bright lights of the Pride ring. He reveals: “Ricardo Arona and I were having breakfast in the Hilton in Japan. While we were having breakfast Wanderlei came into the room and as he passed us, Arona extended his hand out but Wanderlei turned away.

“Arona was pretty offended by this and asked Silva why he wouldn’t shake hands with him. Wanderlei told him not to talk to him and you could see it on the faces of the Chute Boxe guys that it was about to go down right there at the breakfast.

“You had guys like Anderson Silva, ‘Shogun’ Rua, Jose Landi-Jons, Rudimar Fedrigo and Rafael Cordeiro – all the big Chute Boxe guys – were sitting eating together at another table.

“Meanwhile, Arona, Luis Alves, who was our Muay Thai coach at the time, and myself were sitting at our table in the back. Mario Sperry came in to join us too, but as we started to leave we heard all this hissing and there were some face-offs. I really couldn’t understand what was happening.

“Finally, Mario went and spoke to Rudimar and got to the bottom of it all. Our manager at the time had spoken with Mario to ask him about a Japanese guy, who was fighting Assuerio Silva (Chute Boxe fighter), and whether he could come and train with us in Japan. But Mario forgot to tell us that he had invited the Japanese guy to train with us. None of us knew anything about it, but it was a big deal for the Chute Boxe guys.

“Fortunately, Nobuyuki Sakakibara, who was the president of Pride, spoke to everybody and things calmed down. It was all because the opponent of Assuerio Silva was supposed to be training with us.”

Liborio, who since went on to found American Top Team (ATT) in Coconut Creek, Florida, adds: “In hindsight, it was kind of good for the sport. The rivalry between Chute Boxe and Brazilian Top Team became huge. It generated a lot of publicity and helped drive a lot of events too. It was pretty messy at the time but it turned out to be pretty cool.”

Despite neither Chute Boxe or BTT having the same level of success they once had in MMA today, the teams are still represented by their former members who have created teams such as ATT, Nova Uniao, Kings MMA and Team Nogueira, meaning the lineage will never be forgotten.

BRAZILIAN TOP TEAM

Based: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Founders: Ricardo Liborio, Murilo Bustamante, Mario Sperry, Luis Duarte

Key members: Ricardo Arona, Murilo Bustamante, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Vitor Belfort

CHUTE BOX

Based: Curitiba, Brazil

Founder: Rudimar Fedrigo

Key members: Wanderlei Silva, ‘Shogun’ Rua, Anderson Silva, Murilo Rua, Rafael Cordeiro, Jose Landi-Jons

MILETICH’S MONSTERS

Many American teams can stake a claim to having the ‘best gym to ever compete in MMA’. Plenty are home to fighters who have achieved astronomical success in the sport. However, no gym has perhaps managed to be quite as dominant in as many weight classes as the crew that emerged from under Iowa’s Miletich Fighting Systems (MFS) banner.

For eight years, the UFC’s welterweight strap belonged to the MFS team, with Pat Miletich becoming the first titleholder before his protégé, Matt Hughes, regained the belt from Carlos Newton in 2001, the man who defeated Miletich earlier that year.

Alongside them, Jens Pulver and Dave Menne became the UFC’s first lightweight and middleweight champions, Tim Sylvia held the UFC heavyweight strap on two separate occasions, while a young, fearless Robbie Lawler won championship gold in EliteXC. The members gravitated towards Miletich, who had shown a wide variety of skills yet to be shown inside of the Octagon.

Yet despite their successes as a team, the members slowly drifted away to create their own gyms around the midwest, following in the footsteps of the man who taught them everything they knew.

“Guys moving on is a natural progression,” Miletich told AXS TV. “Some of those guys now are going through seasons in life that I was going through then and they’re understanding where I was at and the need to take care of my family.”

MILETICH FIGHTING SYSTEMS

Based : Bettendorf, Iowa, USA

Founder: Pat Miletich

Key members: Jens Pulver, Matt Hughes, Tim Sylvia, Robbie Lawler, Pat Miletich, Jeremy Horn, Dave Menne

ENTER THE LION’S DEN

While many look at UFC 1 as the beginning of both MMA and Brazilian jiu-jitsu’s introduction to the world, after Royce Gracie defeated all of his opponents using his slick submission skills, the promotion’s inaugural event also helped create America’s first fight team.

After being submitted by Gracie in the semi-finals of the UFC 1 tournament, a keen-to-improve Ken Shamrock created the Lion’s Den, a team of fighters who would help push each other to the upper echelons of the sport.

With the likes of, two-time UFC tournament winner Jerry Bohlander, former UFC heavyweight champ Maurice Smith, and former UFC light heavyweight champion and Ken’s adopted brother Frank Shamrock a part of the team, they were set for great things.

“I came along right in the middle of the team building process,” explains Frank. “Ken had done professional wrestling for years and had branched out into Japan and submission wrestling. Then when Pancrase came along he was one of the leaders in Japan for all of that.”

Despite the Lion’s Den creating some of the rugged champions in the sport, to actually join the gym fighters had to complete a test that would have many so-called tough guys running towards the door in fear.

“It was a combination of old Japanese conditioning tests. You would have to do stuff like 500 squats and 200 push ups. Then we’d have you spar with someone of your size and calibre. If you didn’t die or quit then you passed, meaning you were automatically on the team,” confesses Shamrock.

So what caused one of the most feared teams ever to split up? “One of the reasons why I left was because the training techniques got old. I don’t think Ken had a bigger vision of mixed martial arts developing past a tough guy who wrestled who could get people down and beat them up.”

Despite none of the great teams of old retaining their relevancy, no one can diminish all they did during their time. After all, if it wasn’t for them showing many of MMA’s modern gyms the blueprint of how to create a group of fighters, they wouldn’t be here today.