Source of low Team Alpha Male injury rate identified
Urijah Faber: “A lot of these guys get way out of shape, and then their training camp is them getting back into shape. For us, it’s the opposite.”
Michael Hutchinson did a statistical analysis of fighter injuries in mixed martial arts, by camp.
Camp / fights / injury dropout / percent
1. Roufusport 60 10 16.60%
2. Nova Uniao 75 11 14.60%
3. Blackzilians 56 7 12.00%
4. Team Tri-Star 92 10 10.80%
5. Black House 103 9 8.70%
6. Alliance MMA 97 8 8.20%
7. Greg Jackson 181 15 8.20%
8. American Top Team 148 12 8.10%
9. AKA 73 5 6.80%
10. Team Alpha Male 87 3 3.40%
Total 972 90 9.26%
Many people attributed Team Alpha Male’s admirably low drop out weight to the relatively small size of most of the fighters on the team. However, there are at least two problems with theory. One, Nova Uniao is also stacked with lighter weight fighters, and has one of the highest injury rates among the camps surveyed.
Further, when Hutchinson looked at injury rate by weight division, there was no trend downwards. The three divisions least likely to suffering fight-delaying injuries are lightweight, heavyweight, and middleweight. The three most injury-delayed divisions are women’s bantamweight, and men’s welterweight and light heavyweight.
Ben Fowlkes did an important piece on the important subject, and pointed to a potential source of the success at Team Alpha Male, of potential benefit to the entire sport.
To be honest, part of it is the lifestyle that we lead,” said Urijah Faber. “We don’t stop training throughout the year. It’s basically a type of lifestyle that breeds being in top shape, and that helps with injuries, as well. A lot of these guys get way out of shape, and then their training camp is them getting back into shape. For us, it’s the opposite. We stay in shape year-round and let our bodies heal a little bit closer to the fight.
That sentiment was echoed by Team Alpha Male flyweight Joseph Benavidez. At other gyms, Benavidez said, some fighters view training camps primarily as a means to get in shape and get their weight down. That frantic push to go from couch shape to fighting shape lends itself to injuries.
Most of us, when we hear about a fight, we’re already ready to fight, Benavidez said. We’re in shape. Now we just know when we’re going to fight. That starts with Faber and his mindset. Ever since I’ve been there, that’s been his mindset, that yes, this is a job, but it’s also a lifestyle.
Even Team Alpha Male fighters get hurt sometimes. Just look at UFC bantamweight champ T.J. Dillashaw, who had his next title defense delayed by a broken rib suffered in training.
You can get yourself in peak shape. You can train intelligently and carefully. But, as Team Alpha Male’s Benavidez pointed out, a rib is still just a rib, and it can only take so much.
At the end of the day, we’re fighting, Benavidez said. We’re not playing checkers. We’re wrestling and hitting each other. You’re going to get hurt sometimes.