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Zakuraba's Guide To MMA Fight Teams/Camps
Recently there's been a lot of talk about the different fight teams/camps in MMA, and how they are splitting up, forming up, who trains with who, etc etc. Just thought I would compile a list together of some of the more recognizeable MMA camps out there and give some information about them to the best of my knowledge. One thing to keep in mind is that while most fighters are affiliated with certain teams, they still go around and train at numerous gyms, academies, training camps, etc. In any case, I'll keep the intro short, here are the teams:
AKA: Jon Fitch, Josh Koscheck, Cung Le, Paul Buentello, Josh Thomson, Mike Swick, Bobby Southworth, Rich Crunkilton, Riki Fukuda, Trevor Prangley, Daniel Puder
AKA is a very solid team with a lot of top flight talent in every division. Between Fitch and Koscheck alone they've got 2 top 10 WW's, with another potential one in Swick.
ATT: JZ Cavalcante, Din Thomas, Marcus Aurelio, Cole Miller, Thiago Alves, Denis Kang, Jeff Monson, Jorge Santiago, Dustin Denes, Wilson Gouveia, Mike Brown, Antonio Silva, Glaison Tibau, Benji Radach, Luigi Fioravanti, Charles McCarthy, Rory Singer, Jorge Masvidal
Pretty much, ATT has quite possibly THE largest stable of top name fighters of ANY fight team out there, even moreso than MFS. At LW, I'd say ATT is completely undisputed with how many top name fighters they've got at 155; JZ, Thomas, Aurelio, Miller, Brown, Tibau, Denes...a lot of top talent.
Greg Jackson's Camp: Georges St. Pierre, Diego Sanchez, Joey Villasenor, Keith Jardine, Rashad Evans, Nate Marquardt, Jason MacDonald, David Loiseau, Dan Christison, Damacio Page
Greg Jackson's Camp virtually pretty much exploded on to the MMA scene when guys like Jardine, Evans, and Sanchez started making names for themselves in the UFC. Honestly, most fans had not even heard of Jackson's camp until perhaps a year ago (myself included), when all of a sudden his fighters were beating top names and making their own. Then GSP started training there, and all of a sudden Jackson's camp looked unstoppable, with Jardine, Evans, Sanchez, Marquardt, GSP, and MacDonald all making huge waves in the UFC. Suddenly however, things for Jackson's Camp took a downward spiral when a LOT of their fighters started to lose. Jardine, MacDonald, Sanchez, GSP, and most recently Villasenor are all coming off disappointing defeats. Recently, at the last UFC, Greg Jackson's camp had a viable chance at making a comeback, with two of their top fighters, Rashad Evans and Nathan Marquardt headlining in big fights against Tito Ortiz and Anderson Silva respectively. It was thought UFC 73 would be th rebound that Greg Jackson's Camp needed after their fall from grace, as both of their fighters, on paper, looked to have very good chances of coming out victorous. Alas, it was not to be, with NEITHER of the Jackson fighters winning, with Marquardt getting pummeled into a TKO by Silva, and Evans' fight resulting in a lacklustre draw, which continued the Jackson win drought. With a total team record of 1-6-1 in their last 8 fights, things are looking too hot for Greg Jackson's fighters. However, with a team with as many top fighters as Jackson's has, they could easily be back in the limelight very soon.
ChuteBoxe: Wanderlei Silva, Mauricio Shogun Rua, Murilo Ninja Rua, Evangelista Cyborg Santos, Luiz Azeredo, Thiago Silva, Daniel Acacio, Jean Silva, Jorge Oliviera, Cristiano Marcello, Jadson Costa, Helio Dipp, Antonio Schembri, Nelson De Castro, Jorge Patino, Fabio Silva
MFS: Matt Hughes, Tim Sylvia, Jens Pulver, Jeremy Horn, Spencer Fisher, Robbie Lawler, Jason Black, Tony Fryklund, Drew McFedries, Josh Neer, Ben Rothwell, Bart Palazewski, Rory Markham, Ryan McGivern, Sam Hoger, Mike Ciesnolevicz, Laverne Clark
BTT: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (pending), Antonio Rogerio Noguiera, Murilo Bustamante, Paulo Filho, Ricardo Arona, Mario Sperry, Luis Buscape Firminho, Roan Carniero, Milton Vieira, Carlos Barreto, David Bielkheden, Fabio Mello
BTT is in what could be called its twilight right now, as there are rumors abound of internal turmoil, fighters leaving, and possibly a team dissolvement. It is well documented that BTT's HW standout, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, is rumored to be leaving due to contract/monetary disputes with either headmasters Mario Sperry or Murilo Bustamante. There has also been noise of an team division between the two aforementoned headmasters, causing many of the fighters to have to pick sides. Big Nog has also been seen lately to be around Anderson Silva, who is supposedly a part of the mysterious new Black House fight team that is springing up. Big Nog has recently started his own fight team, Team Nogueira, so it is unsure as of right now if he is representing BTT, his own team, or Black House. It has been stated by Paulo Filho himself, however, that he is remaining with BTT after renewing his contract with the team.
Red Devil: Fedor Emelianenko, Roman Zentsov, Amar Suloev, Vladimir Zenin, Sergei Bytchkov, Ibragim Magomedov (strange, since his last fight was against stablemate Zentsov, in which he was KOed) and formerly Aleksander Emelianenko and Andrei Semenov (not sure about Andrei).
Team Quest: Dan Henderson, Matt Lindland, Ramieu Thierry Sokoudjou, Ed Herman, Matt Horwich, Josh Burkman, Chael Sonnen, Josh Haynes, Art Santore, Chris Wilson, Ryan Schultz, Heath Sims, and formerly Chris Leben and Nate Quarry
Cesar Graci Jiu-Jitsu: Jake Shields, Nick Diaz, Nate Diaz, David Terrell, Gilbert Melendez, Gil Castillo, Nick Ertl, Steve Heath
There are also smaller teams/gyms that have a few big name fighters, such as:
Capital City Fighting Alliance: James Irvin (who apparently is a frequent training partner of Rampage's), Scott Smith, Urijah Faber, Tyrone Glover
The Armory: Hermes Franca, Kurt Pellegrino
Team Tompkins: Sam Stout, Mark Hominick, Chris Horodecki, Krzysztof Soszynski, Rob MacDonald
City Boxing: Dean Lister, Brandon Vera (who is now gone, I believe), KJ Noons
Black House: A new MMA stable that is rumored to have Anderson Silva, Assuerio Silva, Vitor Belfort, Ryoto Machida, and possibly Big Nog
Hammer House: Mark Coleman, Kevin Randleman, Phil Baroni (who hops around a lot), Wes Sims
An interesting thing to note, is that there are some gyms that seem like teams, but aren't officially fight teams. Like Randy Couture's Xtreme Couture gym for example. Guys like Mike Pyle, Jay Hieron, Tyson Griffin, etc, are ALWAYS seen together (at fighting events, Pyle and Hieron are on the same team in the IFL, etc), but aren't listed under an affiliated fight team. However, if you go to the Xtreme Couture website, under instructors, Mike Pyle, Tyson Griffin, Jay Hieron, John Alessio, Martin Kampmann, Gray Manard, and Gina Carano are all listed. So technically they aren't a fight team, but they sure as hell train together. It was recently reported from UFCjunkie.com that Stephan Bonnar is going to start training at Xtreme Couture, where his arch-nemesis Forrest Griffin also happens to train.
Then there's Team Punishment, which doesn't seem to be a full-time fight team, but rather a training camp that a group of fighters go to. The old Team Punishment back in the day had a solid core team of Tito Ortiz, Quinton Rampage Jackson, Ricco Rodriguez, Tiki Ghosn, Rob McCullough, but nowadays other fighters that seem to train there/are loosely affiliated also are Soloman Hutcherson, Kendall Grove, Jason Mayhem Miller (although I believe he is at Team Quest now with Hendo), Joe Stevenson (who is officially affiliated with Marc Laimon's Cobra Kai), Melvin Guillard, Josh Barnett
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