Opportunity knocks for Alliance stars Dominick Cruz and Phil Davis. Head coach Eric Delfierro for an insight into life at the Chula Vista training center.

For the likes of Dominick Cruz, Phil Davis, Alexander Gustafsson and Brandon Vera, fight camp at Alliance Training Center in Chula Vista, San Diego means one thing a break!

Yes, you read that right, a break from training. “Outside of fight camp my guys will train around 14 workout sessions a week. Inside of fight camp they train 10 workout sessions a week,” says head coach Eric Delfierro. “Now that might seem a bit confusing to most coaches, but there is a method to my madness and, so far, it has had good results.”

Not convinced? Look no further than light heavyweight prospect Phil Davis. ‘Mr Wonderful’ has fought five times in little more than a year into his UFC career, beating some serious talent along the way.

A factor Delfierro puts down to a dedication to all year round strength, conditioning and healthy living.

“Phil Davis didn’t start this current fight camp until the second week of June. But even though he wasn’t in camp, he was training every day Monday through Saturday, and three days out of the week he was training three times a day. That’s normal for my guys,” states Delfierro.

Similarly, Cruz headed into camp for his maiden UFC bantamweight title defense with Urijah Faber eight weeks ahead of UFC 132 showdown in Las Vegas already boasting the level of cardio in the tank most fighters can only aspire towards. Yet Delfierro reveals when your pre-fight superstition is to work out for two whole hours in the dressing room prior to a fight you need a special kind of gas tank.

“It may frighten a lot of fighters, and coaches for that matter, but Dominick Cruz actually warms up in the dressing rooms for about two hours first. Yes, you heard me, he warms up for two whole hours prior to his fight. And I don’t mean he warms up two hours before the fight, I mean he literally works out for two hours.

His conditioning is insane and he builds his confidence by knowing he cannot be out paced,” reveals Delfierro, who can usually be found nervously chewing on ice in the locker rooms whenever one of the Alliance team are in action.

He added: “Dominick’s camp has gone great, we’ve had a lot of sparring partners in town for him, like England’s Ross Pearson, who was here for a couple of weeks. Dominick has been looking forward to this fight for a very long time.

He is very motivated to beat Faber, and just looking forward to getting in the Octagon again and performing.

“We have not altered much from previous camp’s, either.

The key to defeating Faber is to out work him. As always, we have a big emphasis on Dominick’s cardio. Other than that we have brought in some top-level grapplers like JT Torres and a few others from Lloyd Irvin’s team in Maryland.

It will be very different from the first time they fought [when Cruz suffered his sole defeat in 18 starts challenging Faber for the WEC featherweight title in his tenth fight back in March 2007].

Dominick’s speed has increased, even since the last time he fought.

He is an evolving athlete and is yet to reach his full potential. 

“Right now we do a lot of kickboxing drills, footwork drills and pad-work to increase his overall power and speed.

While that razor-sharp striker he has become renowned for, he will come to the fore as Dominick peaks around fight time.

That combination of workload and good rest in his camp is what keeps him razor sharp. Plus, we always give him at least one new weapon to use each fight, which helps keep his mind sharp and motivated to implement it. Fans need to look out for that new weapon against Faber.”

With Cruz and Davis both in major career-defining matchups [the unbeaten light heavyweight star takes on number-one contender Rashad Evans at UFC 133 in Philadelphia and Swedish sensation Gustafsson facing Vladimir Matyushenko on that same card, it would be far easier to have all three UFC stars follow the same training schedule. Yet Delfierro reveals that no two camps or opponents are ever the same and he and the rest of the Alliance coaches tailor-make individual eight-week training programs for every fighter.

“We have a schedule we follow, but every camp is built specifically around the fighter that is fighting.

Our fight camps are usually around eight weeks long, and about four weeks out from the fight we focus specifically on the specific opponent.”

What Alliance do benefit from though is having a strong mixture of elite-level MMA stars who boast a widespread skill set, ensuring that development from within the camp stretches beyond just the knowledge and tutelage of the resident coaches.

“A guy like Phil Davis has a wealth of knowledge and has a lot to teach someone like Alexander when it comes to wrestling, just like Alexander has a lot to teach Phil Davis on boxing. So in our evening sessions we focus on wrestling drills, BJJ drills, kickboxing pad work.

This is when other fighters will get together and go over technique to help each other improve in any area that they are lacking.

” Both Gustafsson and Vera have, not surprisingly, been spending an increased amount of time with Davis through these first few weeks of his Rashad fight camp.

The former UFC light heavyweight champion is also a former college wrestling star and, on paper at least, has the experience to match Davis’ revered ground game. Yet Delfierro refuses to give too much away about specific tactics, only adding: “He has been sparring these guys for the past two years, nothing changes. He also spars with Travis Browne, Joey Beltran and even Dominick Cruz.

Even outside of camp, we are always looking to improve every aspect of Phil’s game. We are constantly improving his BJJ, striking and wrestling. In order to stay on top of your game you have to improve every day.”

However, he does admit that the speed of Davis’ rise to being one win away from title contention has come perhaps even more rapidly than anybody could of predicted.

“Phil Davis has progressed very fast. He was working at normal pace last year and we expected to fight three times in that year, which is a normal schedule for a pro fighter in the UFC.

But what ended up happening is he got offered two fights out of camp. One was against Rodney Wallace and the other against Rogero Nogueira.

Rodney was on two-weeks’ notice and ‘Lil’ Nog’ was on three weeks’ notice. Incidentally, those are the only two times that Phil didn’t look his best. A full camp allows us to program Phil for a specific opponent and he performs better that way.

But he, like the rest of my guys, is always in good shape so endurance has never been a factor in any of his fights.

“We knew that after his victory against Lil’ Nog he was going to get offered a bigger fight, we just didn’t know when.

When the Rashad opportunity came up we knew it was a step up again, but it was a group decision to accept the fight. Phil Davis, myself and his management all felt it was a good ranked opponent that provides a challenge to Phil.”

So does that mean Davis is working towards a end-of-year blockbuster with UFC champion Jon Jones?

Delfierro, at least, would be happy to take that fight.

“When Mr Wonderful beats Rashad he probably won’t be calling out anyone.

That is not his style; he is happy to fight anyone. But, I would think that when you beat the number-one contender for the title, you usually become the number-one contender.

So it should be interesting to see how this 205lb division shapes up.”

If all goes to plan in California ,the Alliance fight team, who insist Vietnamese PHO. Served up by a local restaurant situated down the street from the gym, is the secret of the camp’s nutritional success, could well make a late surge for the 2011 MMA Awards’ ‘Gym of the Year’ title.

Although Delfierro accepts there is a long round ahead, regardless of what prizes are currently on offer to his hot crop of fighters.

“Opportunity knocks right now and we have some big fights coming up, but that’s the way we like it.

That’s the way every gym wants to be: busy with big fights.

But we have a great team here at Alliance, along with some very special fighters. We have a lot of strong up and comers and veterans that are consistently fighting and getting better.

As well as our UFC guys we have Rolando Perez, Juan Ramos, Eric Uresk, Danny Martinez, Ty Holder and Jason Soares; guys with great potential also. We have great hopes for the present and the future.”

Fighting Alliance

Alliance Training Centre head coach Eric Delfierro believes in all-year-round hard work and expects his fighters to turn up for the start of an eight-week fight camp already boasting top-level cardio so he can focus on technique and gameplans.