Issue 058

January 2010

To become a champion a fighter must go through many trials and hardships, and a lot of pain. He must push himself to breaking point and beyond in order to elevate himself among his peers. 

A champion will obviously possess outstanding fighting ability, but is becoming a champion as simple as winning a series of fights that culminate in being awarded a title belt? Surely there has to be more to it than that. 

The few men who can claim to have become champions each reached their position by very different paths. No two champions are the same, and each have their own secrets to success.  

Using the five UFC champions as examples, we sought out the answers to the question of what makes the champions from the people who know them best – their trainers, coaches, friends and family. Read on to find out what makes these men the best fighters in the world.

BJ PENN

The lightweight champion has always been considered one of the most naturally talented fighters to ever step into the Octagon. There was an aptitude for fighting from day one, but BJ’s considerable abilities have been the result of hard work coupled with unshakeable confidence and self-belief. 

Tom Callos: BJ’s first martial arts coach and the man who introduced him to BJJ

“The champion that BJ is today is not the person he was when I first met him, although the seeds were there. He was just a young man, 16 or 17, but he had a level of commitment to what he was engaged in. He never complained, he showed up for every workout, he had a level of determination that he would take as big a beating as he had to take to learn. I don’t think he’d experienced success in anything in his life, this was the first time he stepped up to something and committed himself. There was something about his ability to apply himself to what he was interested in.  

“There is something special about him physically, his sense of timing, his distancing, those are innate things he brought to the table without training. He had something inside him that set him apart.  

“He’s a better champion than he was when he first won the belt. He handles an amazing amount of stress; the amount of attention he gets, the people coming up to him. He’s getting ready for something paramount to competing in the Olympics, he’s training six hours a day, and in between that he has to manage every person he comes into contact with. He treats every person with respect and he gives everyone time. In the eye of the storm, here he is managing himself better than people realize. That is a mark of a lot of champions. It’s not enough to be champion in the ring, you have to take those skills and apply them in the world.”  

Jason Parillo - BJ’s boxing coach 

“I have worked with champions in the boxing game and what I see in BJ is he’s just a really intelligent guy. It seems to me that the mind really comes into play when everyone equals out on skill. He’s humble and always open to learn.  He’s great with the coaches that he works with.  

“It’s like he can put it together in his head and figure it out. Coordination-wise BJ is by no means the best athlete I’ve ever worked with. He’s not the most athletic fighter, you see him jump out of that pool but a lot of that is flexibility. When we work on stuff he can figure things out and apply it in the ring.  

“Athletically I see improvement as far as running and jumping and lateral movement are concerned. It’s so new with Marv [Marinovich, BJ’s strength and conditioning trainer], we worked with him a couple of months now, his agility has improved, his speed has improved. I think he’s given BJ a different outlook on training.  

“It’s crazy because BJ’s work ethic is 100% in training. When he’s getting ready and in camp he’s dedicated training-wise, diet-wise – people don’t realize what BJ does physically to get ready for a fight. He’s a game-day player, he really is, when the lights are on he’ll apply stuff that, when we were working on it in the gym, we weren’t even sure if it was registering. The passion and the hunger that he has – I think he was born like that.  

“I’ve worked with and gotten real close to a couple of champions in boxing, and he reminds me of them because there is a kind of aura that a champion has. There is a kind confidence, if that makes sense. BJ is one of the kindest guys, everyone loves this guy and there is a confidence there in him because he’s a champion.”  

GSP

Possibly the best athlete MMA has ever seen, Georges St Pierre’s position as the top welterweight in the world is a result of a lot more than just his physical conditioning. His immense focus is what sets him apart from the pack.  

Jonathan Chaimberg - GSP’s strength and conditioning coach

“The number one key characteristic would be his discipline. I mean the guy is the first one in the gym, trains three times a day; he could go out literally the night before, he could not be feeling well, and he never, never misses a practice, he’ll always be there. He trains harder than everyone else, he’s always willing to work and learn; he’s always trying to get better and learn new things. He’s not just training to get in shape for a fight – when he doesn’t have fights he’s training to get better and he’s always evolving.  

“He has a huge team behind him, and he works with a lot of professionals. He might go to New Mexico or he might go to Denver, for Nate [Marquardt], or he might go to Chicago, so he travels a bit and he’ll also bring in guys from France and Thailand, and some great wrestlers. He gets such a wide array of diversity in training partners right now – he works with John Danaher at Renzo Gracie’s so he’s got great training partners in New York, and he’s got Phil Nurse for his Muay Thai. We’ve got the [Canadian] national wrestling team and when he’s in Denver with Nate he gets to train with the Olympic wrestling team there. He has so many different teachers and so many different partners that help him out. It’s just great.  

“Champions need the determination to wake up every morning and train and be disciplined because there’s a lot of talented guys who don’t have that drive who can’t push through when the going gets tough. So they need to have, I would say it’s almost like an ego – they need to have an ego and a drive and that basically keeps them unstoppable. If Georges misses a hurdle jump in my gym, it will give him nightmares. He won’t be able to leave my gym until he hits a perfect jump so you can imagine that he carries that over into everything he does – he needs to be perfect in everything he does.”  

Greg Jackson - MMA coach 

“The thing with Georges is his intelligence and work ethic. He’s very strong, but there are a lot of people who are very strong. I think that with Georges he comes to training in a very, very intelligent manner. It’s a combination of his personality, his intelligence, the way in which he lives his life and the way he trains that is the real secret to his success.  

“It can be trained, but it has to be about what you as a person value and what you’ve been taught. You can definitely train it, you can attain that but it’s nice if it’s built in with you already. I think he’s very focused and he loves the life he has with martial arts. He has that old-school work ethic and respect, I think coming up in a traditional martial arts background has helped him immensely. Even though the techniques may not be as relevant as they were, the lessons in life they give you are very relevant. The discipline, trying to be a good person and all that stuff has had a major impact on him.  

“He is a pleasure to work with, he never questions, always does what you ask, which is great and rare in fighters, so he’s a guy that is always willing to do what it takes to win. He’s got a lot of great coaches, he’s got Firas [Zahabi], Phil Nurse, Jon Chaimberg, Viktor the wrestling coach – it’s a real talent that he has to be so coachable, and he has a lot of incredible training partners for sure.” 

ANDERSON SILVA

If Georges St Pierre is the most athletic champion in the UFC, then Anderson Silva is the most technical. A virtuoso striker who is able to KO opponents with his fists, feet, knees and elbows, his mastery of the striking arts makes him almost unbeatable. Silva’s Muay Thai skills have been the downfall of many of his opponents, with very few escaping unscathed from the damage he inflicts with his long limbs.  

Silva’s time fighting around the world before he joined the UFC saw him rack up valuable experience against a wide variety of opponents. Now in his thirties, Silva’s career seems to have hit an all-time high. Undefeated in the UFC, no other fighters can hold a candle to his impeccable striking ability. 

Giorge Martins - best friend and secretary

“Me and Anderson we were friends since childhood. What impressed me the most about him is that he never changed his personality, he is the same humble man I met 20 years ago. Also his sense of humor is unbelievable. If he were not a fighter he would be a great comedian. He is able to imitate anyone. But he only makes fun when the training stops, during training he is very serious and professional.”   

Silvio Behring - jiu-jitsu master

“Anderson is such a genius that he adapts movements that he brings from video games into a stand-up fight. In jiu-jitsu he is really good; besides learning fast, he has excellent skills.” 

Junior Cigano - training partner

“He helped me a lot in this fight against Mirko and I could see that he has a different vision of MMA to anybody else. He is technically above everybody.”  

Chris Wilson - UFC fighter and Minotauro team member 

“My background is Muay Thai; I feel really comfortable standing up. I’ve already trained with real top guys in many different places, but I can tell Anderson is different. I’ve never trained jiu-jitsu with Rickson, but people say he is really special in the gi. I believe that Anderson Silva is like the Rickson Gracie of a stand-up. He is really special, he hits you in certain points that you are not used to, after that he doesn’t need to hit you so much because you get worried, so he just makes some movements. Besides using his range very well, he also flows very well in the ring, you never know what he will do and he makes you lost all the time. He is totally unpredictable.”   

Lyoto Machida 

“I’ve trained with Anderson and I can tell you he is a fantastic fighter. Besides being very experienced and intelligent, he is dangerous from everywhere, even from the bottom, where he hurts you badly with his elbows and punches. Anderson normally weighs 98kg; if Fedor fights him weighing 100kg I believe Silva would win. Besides being very tactical, Anderson is way superior technically and I truly believe he has good tools to put Fedor in trouble.” 

LYOTO MACHIDA

Each of the UFC champions has their own particular strengths. Lyoto Machida’s strongest asset would be his unpredictable and effective use of the traditional art of karate. A clever, strategic fighter with impeccable timing and control of distance, he frustrates his opponents with his in-and-out movement and presents a very hard target to hit. 

Machida’s style is a result of his life-long study of the martial arts, a love affair that is so deep he cannot go on a holiday with his wife without seeking out some kind of training. With the support of his father and brothers, Lyoto combines his family karate with modern MMA techniques into an unbeatable package.  

With a traditional martial arts mindset, devotion to developing himself as a fighter and an almost obsessive need to train, Machida has elevated himself to the very highest level. It is this unwavering commitment to the martial arts that sets Machida apart, as the following explain. 

Eduardo Bastos - physical trainer 

“Lyoto is such a special athlete, he is fast like a middleweight and strong like a heavyweight. My biggest problem when I started to work with him, right after his fight against Tito Ortiz, was convincing him that he didn’t have to train every day. He looked like a tiger in a cage, but I finally convinced him that to reach his best he also should concern himself about recovering his body to reach his peak on the day of the fight and not over-train.”  

Fabyola Machida - wife 

“Lyoto loves to train so much that after he won the belt we went to Natal [a beach area of Brazil] to take a vacation and the first thing he did when we arrived in the hotel was call his trainer to get a workout in the hotel gym. We stayed there one week and Lyoto didn’t go to the beach.”  

Chinzo Machida - brother 

“Me and Lyoto, we grew up training together, so we are like a mirror. I know exactly what he is going to do. People don’t feel that but when I’m in his corner it’s like two fighting against one.”  

Yoshizo Machida - father

“Lyoto is developing his aggressiveness and speed. I always fight with Lyoto, tell him not to give points to the opponents, but to finish the fight as soon as possible. He has developed his defensive side, which has been very important in MMA – it is not for nothing that Lyoto never gets hit.”  

 Royce Gracie - MMA legend

“Lyoto is one of the few guys that knows how to use strategy, besides his karate and his ground game. He knows how to use a strategy and that’s what puts him at the top. I saw his victory over Rashad. He wasn’t punched one single time in the whole fight and that’s it, you don’t have to go there and be afraid of being hit.”  

BROCK LESNAR

In terms of experience, Lesnar is the youngest champion of the five. He has become the undisputed heavyweight champion with only four fights to his name. Much of his success comes from having the resources to create an environment where world-class training is possible. 

Greg Nelson - Brock Lesnar’s principal MMA coach 

“Brock is a phenomenal athlete that has a very eager nature to learn, and excel at whatever he does. You’ve seen that in his collegiate wrestling where he was an NCAA national champion, also in WWE where he became their number one guy. After four fights in the UFC he was the champion. Most important of all, he has a real passion in wanting to be a champion, to do the absolute best he can do in the time that he is in the UFC and the MMA world.  

“He has a very regimented training session. He likes to know exactly what’s going to be done, how we’re going to train, how we’re going to get ready for this fight. We have every week planned out from eleven to eight weeks out, what we’re going to be doing each day, who we’re going to bring in to help out. He knows exactly how much he has to push himself. He knows what’s going to happen so he can push himself 100% for the time that we’re in our training, both mentally and physically.  

“The other thing that he does is he knows exactly when he needs to slow it down a bit. A lot of guys get injured or push themselves too hard, whereas he is very in tune with his body. That’s something that is very unique. One thing is unusual that none of my other guys do is he’ll take these ice baths – literally, water that has been sitting there for 20 minutes with ice in it. He’ll make sure that he is doing what he needs to do so the next day he can perform at a very high level. A lot of athletes get to a point where they start to fizzle out, and physically they may have wear and tear on their body. But he’s one of those guys who has been relatively concerned about his recovery, what he’s doing to his body, how much time he needs to rest.  

“One of the biggest things that has helped him is that he has the means to be able to have his own facility, having made a good living in the WWE. He has his own facility that is for him and him alone, so he brings in exactly who he needs, he pays them, puts them up in a house, and because they are now professional sparring partners, there is a certain obligation they have to get ready for this fight. They’re there because he’s paying them to be there. He treats them and the people around him very well. He truly believes in taking care of the people that take care of you.  

“One of the most helpful things in his development is he brings in people like myself. Marty Morgan was his wrestling coach at the University of Minnesota, and has been a coach with him for the last 17 years. Brock said, ‘Hey, I’ll hire you to be my full-time coach.’ Marty has a very good understanding of how to bring athletes up to a high level in the wrestling world, and we just plug in the wrestling, the striking and the Brazilian jiu-jitsu into that program.  

“Brock can bring in some of the best people in the world; he brought in Comprido, who is a seven-time BJJ world champion. He is the jiu-jitsu consultant who comes in. Erik Paulson is instrumental, he comes in two weeks at a time and helps train Brock at that time. There is never a stale camp, there is always fresh information coming in, but it is always information that is tailored to the opponent we are fighting.”