After winning a $65,000 “Fight of the Night” bonus in a loss to Evan Dunham in January, Nick Lentz took the money, and started afresh at American Top Team in Florida.
It led the 28-year-old former NCAA Division I wrestler to what was arguably his most impressive big-show win to date, which came at this past weekend’s UFC 150 event, when he dropped from lightweight to featherweight and dismantled Japanese veteran Eiji Mitsuoka in a four-minute TKO beatdown.
“I ended choosing ATT just because I think it’s the best gym in the country, the world actually,” said Lentz. “I got Mike Dolce. I also got a new strength and conditioning trainer because I was missing some explosiveness.”
So he made the decision to leave the Minnesota Martial Arts Academy for ATT. He still lives in Minnesota and trains at the academy between fights, and he and his old teammates get along just fine. But with the training staff, he decided to bite the bullet.
“Any time you indrectly or directly tell someone they’re not getting job done, there are some hard feelings,” said Lentz. “But I made a choice, and if I want to continue being a fighter and get the goals I want to get to, you can’t worry about stuff like that. I just kind of put that behind him.
“Anyone who’s actually that selfish and would be mad at me because of it, they don’t need to be in my life anyway.”
Nick Lentz on move to ATT from MMMAA
After winning a $65,000 “Fight of the Night” bonus in a loss to Evan Dunham in January, Nick Lentz took the money, and started afresh at American Top Team in Florida. It led the 28-year-old former NCAA Division I wrestler to what was arguably his most impressive big-show win to date, which came at this…
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