As the sport of MMA grows more popular, just about everything connected with it grows larger. There are more fans watching more UFC events and fights than ever before, and there are more mega-gyms funneling fighters to fill up those spots on fight cards.
Some of those mega-gyms, super-teams, whatever you want to call them, are truly phenomenal. They bring a wealth of resources and connections to a fighter’s career.
The results speak for themselves. A stable like South Florida’s American Top Team is unmatched in terms of the number of people they place in the UFC and other top-tier organizations, and the number of champions they’ve produced.
I’ve got nothing against the mega-gym. But I am a sucker for old-school, one-on-one coaching done in long-term relationships between a trainer and fighter.
Even the mega-gyms’ successes are based on the individual connections and coaching that goes on between fighters and their favorite trainers. Guys like Mike Brown and Din Thomas at ATT are genius, caring, personal old-school teachers, within a huge apparatus.
Still, those individual coaches rarely get the credit that the big machinery does. And, that’s ok.
During a conversation Sunday evening with coach Jason Parillo for the Fansided/Sports Illustrated Extra Rounds podcast I co-host with Mike Dyce, I was reminded of how important the old-school coaches are. Despite working out of a small, private gym in the back of RVCA’s Costa Mesa headquarters in Southern California, Jason has probably worked with more world champions than any other single coach in MMA.
The former boxing pro was with BJ Penn during The Prodigy’s lightweight reign of terror, and still is. Parillo currently coaches middleweight champion Michael Bisping and featherweight world title-holder Cris Cyborg Justino. He’s taken those three to world championships, and also extensively coached the likes of former champs Tito Ortiz and Vitor Belfort.
The gold that has come out of Parillo’s little shop is astounding, and it has to be connected to the old-school way he does business.
Any soothing or booming voice with an Intro to Philosophy book can get inside a fighter’s head and make them feel good. Anyone can point and talk.
Old-school coaches like Parillo are capable of doing as well as talking. We are living in an age of specialists in sport, and that may very well be a good thing.
However, the archetype old-school fight trainer who can teach you to punch, tell you how much to run and what to eat, hand-picks sparring partners and then moves in with you during camp to make sure it is all going down the way it should, is alive and well in people like Jason Parillo. These days, high-priced movement coaches, are all the rage, but old-school coaches like Parillo have been teaching their guys and gals how to move more fluidly and efficiently for generations.
In addition to their skill in teaching, old-school coaches like Parillo foster deep, lasting relationships with their charges. The coaches who can talk in-depth about a fighter’s history and development the way Parillo does are few and far between.
BJ Penn has worked with scores of coaches but few have the years in with him to talk about changes in his psyche, habits, and development the way Parillo can. He’s able to do the same with someone like Tito Ortiz, who turned to Jason to become a better striker, years ago.
When Parillo says on this week’s Extra Rounds podcast that he thinks the Chael Sonnen fight is a good one for Ortiz, now, he does so knowing exactly where his man is, right now, with his health, mentality, and abilities, with the benefit of comparing it to fights and years past.
Like most old-school teachers, Parillo also isn’t afraid to give it, straight. When he has worries for a fighter, he’ll say so, and say why.
That’s because he cares. Parillo cares that Cyborg is once again making a brutal cut down to 140 pounds, and hopes she doesn’t get burned out doing so in order to fight in the UFC which senselessly yet doesn’t have a women’s featherweight division.
Parillo has expressed worry about someone like Penn, with regards to the former two-division world champion’s preparation and attitude. So, he told Penn that he needed the fighter in front of him this time around, as BJ attempts another comeback.
Still, at the end of the day, old-school coaches like Parillo have faith in their fighters and show up for them. Jason doesn’t want Cyborg to have to cut down to 140 pounds, again, but knows that she’ll do it (She’ll cut her arm off if she needs to), and expects her to win.
Parillo knows that an aging lighter-weight legend like Penn doesn’t have an easy task against Ricardo Lamas, but says that, from what he’s seen from BJ the past few weeks, He is where he needs to be. He’s beating quicker, younger guys in the gym.”
If he keeps the right attitude, he’ll win,” says Parillo. “If he wants it, he can compete for a world title, again.
There are reasons old-school coaches are not common. Not many former fighters (and yes, you need to be a fighter to coach fighting, much in the same way one needs to be a piano player to teach piano) have the ability to teach what they know.
Not many coaches have the guts to actually lead. Not many coaches look at their fighters as more than paydays.
A real coach doesn’t cheerlead or blow smoke up a fighter’s ass. A real coach gives it to fighters, straight, because they care and know the stakes.
A real coach has the skill to show what he or she wants a fighter to do. It’s rare.
It’s beautiful.
About the author:
Elias Cepeda has served as a writer and editor covering mixed martial arts and combat sports, as well as public and cultural affairs, since 2005. He began as a staff writer for InsideFighting, and not long thereafter became publisher and editor of the page. Cepeda then went to write for Yahoo! Sports’ boxing and MMA pages, and edited their Cagewriter blog. He was hired away by FOX Sports, but after several years departed over philosophical differences with the executive leadership around important issues of journalism ethics. A student of and sometime competitor in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and MMA since 1999, Elias brings a unique and vibrant presence to reporting, and enjoys trying to highlight shared humanity and connect common experiences from seemingly different worlds.
We are honored that Elias is writing a weekly column for The UnderGround.
