Issue 111
February 2014
After taking star pupil Johny Hendricks to the brink of UFC championship glory, the Team Takedown head coach and jiu-jitsu aficionado is 100% focused on winning the belt they believe they already earned
There are very few things in the world of mixed martial arts that stay the same. Title-holders change constantly, current stars become a thing of the past and new ones quickly take their place. We’ve even seen entire promotions prosper one year and then disappear without a trace the next. Longevity in MMA is incredibly rare, yet it’s something jiu-jitsu expert Marc Laimon has managed to accomplish.
LEADING MAN
Marc Laimon
Team Takedown head coach
On January 8th 1999, Laimon made his cornering debut at UFC 18, barking instructions to Darrell Gholar and Olympic wrestling silver medalist Townsend Saunders. Although both fighters would lose their fights that night, Laimon, who at the time was a 21-year-old jiu-jitsu phenom, would go on to even greater things.
Finding jiu-jitsu while watching UFC 4, Laimon fell in love with the sport and began searching out as much tape on the martial art as he could, attempting to learn as many skills as possible. Eventually, he began training with Rorion and Royce Gracie in California, but it wasn’t too long before he would start to voice his frustration regarding their teaching methods.
“I felt like I wasn’t being taught all of the techniques that I should have been taught,” he states, without a hint of doubt in his voice. “At first I was told by them that I wasn’t ready for the techniques, and after that I started questioning the crystal clear waters of the Gracies.
“I was one of the first few people to question the Gracies publicly and I didn’t have to hide behind things. I was mainly against Rorion, Royce and their clan. There are a lot of Gracies out there who do good things, but that didn’t include Rorion and Royce.”
From there, the John Lewis black belt would go on to do his own thing, eventually becoming a mainstay in the corners of numerous fighters from the Las Vegas area who would all go to train at his Cobra Kai Jiu-Jitsu gym.
While coaching there was going well, an opportunity soon presented itself that would change his professional and personal lives forever.
He explains: “I started Cobra Kai in Las Vegas and Johny (Hendricks) and the Team Takedown guys were training at Xtreme Couture, but they weren’t getting the training they needed. I had a friend, who is a wrestler, and he told me I needed to work with the guys at Team Takedown. We trained a couple of times and that’s pretty much how we got to where we are today.”
The relationship between Laimon and Hendricks would eventually lead him to move away from Las Vegas to Dallas, Texas, where he’d start training with ‘Bigg Rigg’ full-time, eventually coaching him to a coveted title shot against long-time welterweight king Georges St Pierre. While many spectators were questioning whether Hendricks had what it would take to beat GSP, Laimon and his coaching staff were busy putting together a plan to make sure the wrestler would walk away from UFC 167 with the belt.
“The camp went great, it was definitely the best camp we’ve had,” recalls Laimon. “It’s the most prepared we’ve ever been for a fight. I feel as if that was the best Johny Hendricks we’ve seen so far, but he’s still got a ways to go in terms of getting better as a fighter.
“We had a few new training partners who mimicked GSP really well. Everything went great and we really have no excuses. I think Johny put on a championship performance but unfortunately the judges didn’t see it his way, although I think the general public did.”
Although he’s calm at first regarding what some have even branded the worst decision in UFC history, when asked about a rematch, Laimon, one of the most passionate individuals in the sport, can’t hide his excitement at the idea of preparing Hendricks to tackle St Pierre again one day.
“I think we saw GSP at his absolute peak and we’re seeing a still-developing Johny Hendricks. He’s only been at this game six-and-a-half years and he’s still developing as a fighter. I think the worst thing to happen to GSP was that Johny made it through that fight and now he’s even more confident than before. He feels as if he won the fight,” he says.
“The most common thing that people had a go at Johny about is that has no cardio after round two, but I think he shut up a lot of those people during the GSP fight. And some people even said that Johny couldn’t wrestle, even though he’s a two-time national champion. But then he outwrestled GSP, who some people believe is the best MMA wrestler in the world.”
He adds: “If Johny ever fights GSP again, GSP is dead, but his fight with Robbie Lawler is going to be just as exciting as the his fight with GSP. Prior to the fight I felt Johny was the best 170lb fighter in the world, and I still feel that way, the public feels that way, and I think the UFC brass does too.”
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