Issue 171

October 2018

The newly-crowned Coach of the Year on the highs, lows, wins and losses of a glittering career in MMA.

In July at the 10th Annual Fighters Only World MMA Awards you were named Coach of the Year. What are your thoughts on the ceremony and the award itself?

The ceremony was great. I actually had nothing written down to say. I just showed up because I was nominated.

I wasn’t expecting to win. I was honored to be nominated, let alone to be voted as the winner. It was a great honor.

Although the speech wasn’t written, it was very well received. Was it just something that came to you as you went up to accept the award?

It’s funny because it just kind of all came together when I got up on the stage.

I believe it was just after the 2nd Awards show and Greg Jackson was the Coach of the Year two years in a row. I had a split in my team and I was just starting over.

I remember I was painting my new facility, which was Grudge back then, and I remember repeating over and over to myself that I was the best coach in the world and that no one was better.

I pictured one day getting up on stage and wanting to talk about (Shawn) Tompkins. He was a great friend of mine. To have him pass away was sad. It’s cool to have him be on that trophy. I wanted to speak about him and I just led off with that.

I stepped away from running a team. I only coach three fighters right now. I was never expecting to even be nominated, to be honest with you.

Coaching is now a hobby for me, when it used to be a job. I was going into the event wondering why they even chose me, I was downplaying even being nominated.

Running a team and coaching for 22 years, it kind of clicks when you focus on a few athletes. You can really be great at what you do. It gets watered down.

That’s why I stepped away from coaching a team. I remember doing an interview about an Alvin Robertson fight. They asked me about his opponent and I thought that guy was fighting one of my other 155ers. I realized I was wearing way too many hats. That was the moment when I chose to coach people who I love to coach.

I want to coach people who want to be coached in life, not just fighting. I feel like Rose (Namajunas) and Justin (Gaethje) fit that bill completely.

You once had nine fighters on the same card. What was that night like?

Yeah I think that was in New Jersey. That was a busy night! It was kind of a blur.

That was the peak of my career as far as running a team. I had a lot of top athletes.

I remember going though that situation with Nate (Marquardt) and the TRT incident when the UFC cut him loose. I was doing an interview where I was pissed off that the UFC let him go due to the TRT issue.

That was such a grey area then. You can do TRT, but how much are you doing? You can’t know exactly how much you are doing that day.

I know it really messed his career up. Nate is one of those guys, he is so coachable. He will do anything his coach or his doctor says. I thought it was wrong and I did an interview about it. When I did it, they only put some of the things I said in there and it hurt my relationship with Nate. I haven’t done many interviews since then.

My team separated from me. I pretty much lost everybody. I was looking to do other things. I reached every goal as a coach you can reach. Again, I reached my goals, so what else can I do? I decided to dig into the equipment world and change this industry that has changed my life.

There has been a lot of talk recently about coaches not protecting their fighters sufficiently. A video recently resurfaced of you stopping Nate’s fight at UFC 188. What do you remember from that night?

When it was happening I tried to stop the fight in between rounds. They wouldn’t let me. They said only the doctor or referee can stop the fight.

So, I got back down and started coaching him. I saw his body punching a certain way. It was showing me weird signs. When he came to the corner I asked him if he got hit with a body shot. He said no. Then he told me he had nothing left. Right as he said that, I told him he was done. I turned around and told Big John that we were done.

We were stopping the fight. For me, it was scary. I have had every one of my fighters tell me to never stop the fight. But if you show me you are not in the fight there is no reason to take more damage.

I don’t want to break someone’s mental spirit. I stopped one of my boxer’s fights and we haven’t spoken since. It’s hard. That was the first fight back with Nate after all of the stuff we had been through. That was really hard for me.

I wondered if stopping the fight was going to hurt our relationship again. I knew I couldn’t lose a friend again but I was like, fuck it, at least he lives to fight another day.

As a coach, what’s the proudest you’ve ever been of one of your fighters?

My proudest moment, the one that really stands out to me was when Rose gave her speech after her first fight with Joanna.

One thing that I have noticed about fighters is that when they become champions they change. Win or lose, it’s an experience. They become something different when they get that piece of metal around their waist. Whether they become arrogant, overconfident or something else.

I tell my athletes that this is a short time in your life, a short window. Don’t become a different person because of what is happening to you in this moment. Make sure that you stay true to yourself and true to purpose and true to who you are. I am really big into purpose and what you are doing to help this world.

It was very good to see the look on her face and her true emotion. She is so scared to fight all the time. She is very true with her feelings. The pressure that she had going into that fight, for her to go out there and perform and take it back and stay true and not become arrogant in that moment, that was special.

I was more proud of her speech than I was of her performance. For her to keep herself under control was a very proud moment.

Also, the way Gaethje has handled himself after the outcome of the recent fights that he has lost. He was proud of his performances and he stays true to self.

Anything we do, we want to help people, inspire others and help them overcome. There are so many moments and those are just the recent times.

We have spoken a lot about inspiring others. Who inspires you?

It’s my fighters. The way they go out there and fight. I go out there with a huge smile just because I get to go out there and watch them perform. For them to go out there and face their fears, trust me, that’s inspirational.

Every fighter out there who gets in the cage, gets in a ring, and chases themselves. That’s inspirational and I have love for every fighter out there.