Issue 083

December 2011

Mike Winkeljohn has long been touted as the secret weapon of the world-beating and award-winning Jackson’s MMA down in New Mexico. Who is the man behind all the post-fight interview shout-outs? 

LEADING MAN

MIKE WINKELJOHN

Stand-up coach, Jackson’s MMA

Jackson’s MMA boasts one of the most impressive success rates in mixed martial arts, claiming a consistent 80% win ratio inside the Octagon. And while, quite rightly, the man whose name features across the top of the door has grown used to all the widespread acclaim, it takes a lot more than just one individual to build one of the strongest fight teams in sports. 

Greg Jackson knows more than anyone the importance of the role filled by coach Mike Winkeljohn, as the two have built the most unlikely MMA super-gym in the US, but those outside of New Mexico perhaps don’t know enough about the work put in by the former kickboxing champion. 

“When he was fighting, he was the most intense kickboxer in the world, and he brings that intensity over to being a coach, for certain,” states Jackson, who insists that those in the gym in Albuquerque know first hand that Winkeljohn is second to none.

The pair first met more than 15 years ago and Jackson reveals that he was struck by Winkeljohn’s kindness, loyalty and toughness. And, as much as anything, his fight intensity. Although, such intensity is not really on display on the Wednesday night Fighters Only visits with Winkeljohn. The 49-year-old father has finally gotten his 20-month-old daughter to sleep for the night and, despite having held pads for fighters for nearly eight hours earlier in the day – a workrate that Jackson describes as “crazy” – putting the baby down is the only thing that seems to have been able to wear out the coach.

“I’m telling you, she can be impossible to get down for the night,” he says. It’s supposed to be a complaint, but he’s beaming from ear to ear.

Winkeljohn still lives in Albuquerque, the city he grew up in, but he’s worlds away from where he started out. To those not familiar with the south west of the United States, it may sound strange to refer to the “mean streets of Albuquerque,” but there is undoubtedly something in the sparse desert water there. Long before mixed martial arts, the New Mexico city produced a disproportionate amount of champions.

There are no major sports teams in the state and an economy that never quite took off in the 20th century has fostered generations of angst-filled young men with high energy and not much else to do other than fight. Winkeljohn was one of them.

“I started training for all the wrong reasons,” he remembers. “I wanted to beat up this tough kid and I wanted to be the baddest dude in town.” But, like so many others, Winkeljohn started to learn respect as he trained. And though his brashness faded, his ferociousness did not. It was largely because of that competitive meanness that he found success despite his relatively late start, at 18.

On his way to earning regional, national and world titles, Winkeljohn managed to beat Americans and Thai fighters that had been training since near infancy. They had a jump start on him, but he reveals that he had New Mexico (“There’s something about this town, people just grow up fighting here. It’s what we do.”) and, maybe, a touch of genius.

“He’s stayed in the background because he’s a quiet guy and just wants it to be about the training, but there is no doubt that he is a striking genius,” Jackson says of Winkeljohn, his self-described ‘uncle.’

When Winkeljohn and Jackson became business partners a few years ago, the kickboxing expert became exhausted from both running a gym and coaching. “I did contracting but also had a couple martial arts and kickboxing schools that I ran for years. Working on that, putting so much into each student, traveling to competitions, it takes a lot out of you. Honestly, I was a little burned out.”

For that reason, Winkeljohn told Jackson he’d partner with him, but only if he got to stay in the gym and in the background, not out being a road warrior. Although, it now looks like their success is getting in the way of that plan.

More and more, Winkeljohn is finding himself getting interviewed and cornering fighters again. He still does contracting work, but it has taken a back seat as he’s jumped back in fully to coaching. Recently he was thrust into the limelight when one of his students, Carlos Condit, challenged welterweight champion Georges St Pierre, who has been coached by Jackson for years. Jackson himself stepped back from the situation to avoid a conflict of interest, so most of the coaching questions from the MMA media fell on Winkeljohn, for the first time in his career.

He’s also been at the center of the year’s biggest MMA soap opera, the feud between former light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans and current champ Jon Jones. Evans worked under Winkeljohn’s tutelage since winning The Ultimate Fighter, and became the UFC champ. Jon Jones came over to the team while Evans was champion and when he had the chance, took his shot at the title and expressed a willingness to fight Evans if necessary. They have yet to get it on but the conflict caused a schism in the camp, with Evans leaving the team publicly and acrimoniously. Now, Winkeljohn has coached Jones to the UFC belt and faces the prospect of training the young champion to take on his former prized student.

Winkeljohn insists that he’s not been fazed by the sudden influx of media attention. But when asked how difficult it has been to lose Evans as a student, he’s not so quick to brush it off. The question brings the first long pause from Winkeljohn in our conversation.

“It’s been hard, there’s no denying it,” he says, sounding deflated. “Rashad was with me since right after The Ultimate Fighter. I’m as proud of working with him as anything I’ve done in my career. He improved so much and became a world champion, that’s a special thing. It’s something I’ll always remember, they were good times.”

It sounds heartfelt, but it’s all Winkeljohn will allow. He coaches Jones now and if ‘Bones’ can get past Lyoto Machida, he and Winkeljohn will likely have to prepare to master Evans next year.

“I don’t think I have any more insight into Rashad than anyone who watches tape,” he states. But as he continues to discuss the match-up, the intensity returns. “I worked with Rashad, he improved himself so much and he became a champion. Now I’ve been working with Jon Jones and he’s become a champion because he’s so talented. Jon is doing the work he needs to destroy Rashad.”

It’s surprisingly aggressive language to describe a former protégé, but that’s the fight game. “This is just a profession, like other professions. It’s not life or death in there. These guys will fight, someone will win, and everyone will go on,” he says.

Jackson says he hopes that his partner will continue to get more attention for his work. “I want us to both do this for as long as we have fun, and I don’t imagine that will ever stop being the case,” reflects the two-time World MMA Awards ‘Coach of the Year.’

Winkeljohn says much of the same. “I’m just enjoying each day.” Although he does admit that he never even imagined being a coach. “Not in my wildest dreams.”

‘Wink,’ as his fighters affectionately call him, says that he’s a much better coach than he ever was as a fighter, despite all his accomplishments. “By far. I was not a smart fighter. I could have maybe done more, lasted longer if I had listened to my coaches more,” he says. “That’s why I tell my guys, ‘Be smarter, take less punches.’ I don’t want these guys having problems later in life.”

He’s a coach and he’s tough. But, once more, the proud father in Mike Winkeljohn is there for all to see.