Issue 087

April 2012

Alliance head coach Del Fierro may have stumbled into coaching, but his roster of young stars is one of the hottest in MMA

LEADING MAN

ERIC DEL FIERRO

Head coach, Alliance Training Center

Eric Del Fierro is living his dream. The head coach at Alliance MMA in California has one of the hottest stables in all of mixed martial arts. His international crop of fighters includes top-10 contenders in practically every weight class and guiding them on their journey has provided him the opportunity to travel the world and visit places he once only read about in books. But this is not the fairytale aspect of his life.

Growing up in San Antonio, Texas, Del Fierro wasn’t really into contact sport, or any sport for that matter. He readily admits that he, “kind of fell into” coaching MMA, and that was only allowed to happen once he achieved his true childhood dream upon joining the US Navy… to become a firefighter.

“Becoming a firefighter was my dream as a kid growing up and I made it a reality,” says the Alliance boss, who has orchestrated the careers of Dominick Cruz, Phil Davis and Brandon Vera to name but a few. “And I am still living that dream every day. I love what I do and I don’t ever see myself just becoming an MMA trainer full-time. I like the combination of the two things. I am passionate about mixed martial arts, of course, but I’m equally passionate about being a firefighter.

“There was a point when mixed martial arts was just a hobby for me, but that has obviously grown into much more of a passion, and I take it far more seriously now. Being the head coach at Alliance, what I have done is focused on bringing some top coaches to help me to do what I do. We are creating a cohesive team that we are building together with the fighters in order to help them achieve their goals. 

“But my main support system right now is still my main job, which is firefighting, and I haven’t really thought about ever leaving that behind to move into MMA full-time.”

It was only after joining the military after high school that Del Fierro fell in love with martial arts – or indeed any kind of sport. But soon he was a familiar face at Ken Shamrock’s Lion’s Den in Chula Vista, California near to where he was stationed.

“Growing up in Texas I wasn’t a physical kid at all. I basically discovered fitness whilst in the military,” he recalls. “I was forced to do boot camp and do exercise, but until that point I didn’t really do any sports whatsoever. I was forced to finally discover what my body could do and from there I just started enjoying training more and more.

“I did kempo karate, I did Japanese jiu-jitsu, I pretty much trained most martial arts at some point, and I guess that’s how I started. I actually got involved in mixed martial arts, like everybody else, back in ’93 watching UFC 1, and then 2 and 3. Seeing Royce Gracie doing whatever he wanted with people, and it was just amazing and really captured me. Especially since I was already practicing kempo karate. 

“Then, just a few years after the UFC started, Ken Shamrock opened up a gym here in Chula Vista, San Diego, so I joined right away. Then, I think within a month or so, Ken’s team actually invited me to come and train with the pro fight team. That’s kind of how I got immersed in it, and enjoyed it. I just did it part-time. It was more of a hobby for me than anything else. I never really had any aspirations to become a fighter, I just loved to train martial arts and it kept me in great shape for my day job.

“Then when the Lion’s Den fell apart here all the pro team guys who were left behind were just supporting one another and somehow I took a leadership role and started taking the practices and helping the guys to get fights and I just kind of fell into coaching that way. Kind of more like default. But I actually pretty soon realized that I was much more suited to being a coach than being a fighter. And I actually enjoyed it a lot more too.”

With a good 15 years of service in the sport it’s no surprise to discover that Del Fierro has worked with some of the very best fighters ever to come out of California. Yet he insists his current roster of talent is the finest he’s ever worked with. “I’ve been lucky enough to work with some great fighters, but this current crop is really great. They’re all doing so well and all I want to do is try my hardest to help them achieve their goals,” says Del Fierro, who boasts the solid foundation of a happy home life that he shares with his partner and her 11-year-old daughter and his 17-year-old son. 

“Phil Davis, I’ve had him for around two and a half years now, he pretty much came to me straight out of college. I think he had, like, two local show fights before he started doing his camps here. It’s really been a race with him, you know, on the job training. He got picked up by the UFC pretty early, after like one year, and it’s been quite a run. Plus, in that time, we’ve had Dominick Cruz defending his belts and everything. He’s defended it like four times now and he’s another great kid. I mean he just never stops working.

“And Alexander Gustaffson is the same, he’s like a light heavyweight version of Cruz. The guy is just a beast. Plus we have Ross Pearson now too, and Mike Easton all these guys have got great futures in the sport.” And as for the future, he adds: “The plan is to just keep winning and keep pushing these guys. The fighters I am working with now are just so fun to watch. I love working with them and everything is working towards these guys getting that win. 

“But we also like to concentrate on putting on a show for the fans too. Being on the inside I get to see a lot of what these guys go through before a fight. I see them picking up injuries and struggling and often fighting not 100% and to watch them do that and come through that is a special thing. Mike (Easton) fought like that on the UFC on FX card in Nashville last time out. He picked up an injury in training and so never got to do much sparring, but he came through strong and got the victory. It’s amazing to see a guy who has had a tough time come through.”

THE HATE ISSUE

Eric Del Fierro on haters

“I have conversations with Dominick (Cruz) all of the time about the fans who complain about his style. The thing about the fans who complain is that they’re a small percentage, albeit a very vocal percentage. You have to look at everything relative to the entire sport. I guess around 70% just love everything about MMA and recognize different fighters operate in different ways. Then you have around 10% of fans that will just complain about everything. The frustrating thing is that most of this 10% are very vocal. These are the ones that will go and hate on Twitter. Hate everything you do. Dominick Cruz could go out there and knock everybody out, but there will still be some that complain. Look at Jon Jones, the guy is a beast and is doing great things, and he still has his haters. But that’s just the way some people are I guess. There is nothing anyone can do about that.”