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I’ve been watching old-school MMA again recently. It is a subject I
dearly love and a subject about which I’ve written many articles.
In viewing UFC 19 and UFC 20 back-to-back, I noticed an incredible
contrast. On the one hand, there was the Lion’s Den, the first
major team in mixed martial arts.
I’ve addressed the camp previously and touched on how it ruined the
careers of countless talents who should have been remembered as
legends. So bad was the Lion’s Den that when one of its less
talented charges,
Frank
Shamrock, left the gym and got some decent training, he went
from a failure—he was told by adoptive older brother Ken to retire
and stick to managing his gyms—
to
the greatest fighter of all-time in two years.
Then there was the first major team in MMA that was actually good:
Miletich Fighting Systems. I’m not exaggerating when I say it was
the exact opposite of the Lion’s Den in every way. The contrast was
so stark that I realized one could make a hilarious good coach-bad
coach argument comparing the actions of
Pat Miletich
to those of
Ken Shamrock.
Let’s begin …
HANDLING THE SPOTLIGHT
Bad Coach: When Shamrock was interviewed at UFC 19 about pupil
Pete
Williams’ victory over
Jason Godsey,
he reacted similarly to when he was interviewed at SuperBrawl 3,
where Williams had won the heavyweight tournament. Namely, he
lapped up the attention and made it all about himself. Williams
didn’t win because he was a talented fighter but because of what
the great
Ken Shamrock
had taught him at the Lion’s Den. Williams was just applying what a
brilliant coach taught him, nothing more. Shamrock then rambled on
about how amazing the Lion’s Den was and how he teaches his guys
everything they need to know. Williams was an afterthought, and
Shamrock was the real king.
Good Coach: After
LaVerne
Clark quickly stopped Fabiono Iha at UFC 20 and improved to 3-0
inside the Octagon, Miletich, the promotion’s welterweight champion
at the time, was asked about his charge. Miletich laughed and
demurred, stating that “Fists of Fury” had trained him as much as
he had trained Clark. Miletich further stated that his student’s
knockout was no surprise to him, because when they sparred
together, Clark had beaten him up, too. Miletich then praised Clark
even more, as he talked about his excellent standup, raved about
his athleticism and beamed about how he considered him a natural
fighter. There was nothing said about Miletich or his training
methods. All credit and focus was given to the fighter.
CONDITIONING
Bad Coach: Shamrock’s fighters were notorious for gassing. There
are so many fights in which
Guy Mezger,
Tra
Telligman and even Shamrock himself were dominating early, only
to gas out and get stopped. Mezger was utterly destroying
Chuck
Liddell in
Pride Fighting Championships before
his cardio betrayed him. Telligman was beating up
Pedro Rizzo in
their rematch at UFC 43 before he tired and got taken down and
pounded out. Shamrock looked the best he ever had while abusing
Kazuyuki
Fujita on the feet at Pride 10 before having to call it quits
due to what he thought was a heart attack; in truth, it was just a
horrible shortness of breath. If
Mikey
Burnett had slightly better cardio, he would have more clearly
beaten Miletich for the inaugural 170-pound championship, which
would have changed his life.
Good Coach: Miletich’s fighters were famous for having excellent
cardio and finishing fights strong.
Matt Hughes
and
Jens
Pulver were cardio machines. Pulver talks about a hill that was
located close to their gym in Iowa and how they had developed a
training system for running up and down it for endurance. Miletich
was so good at training cardio that he could even take guys with
poor conditioning and vastly improve them. A perfect example:
Mark
Coleman, the first heavyweight champion in UFC history. Coleman
had lost two fights in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship—
the
biggest upset in MMA history to
Maurice
Smith and a head kick knockout to the recurring Williams—due to
lack of cardio, as he was easily winning both fights before fading
late. However, Coleman joined Miletich prior to 2000 Pride
Openweight Grand Prix and show huge improvement in that area.
Despite Pride’s brutal 10-minute first round, Coleman stayed strong
and battered his opponents late with his legendary
ground-and-pound, beating the great
Igor
Vovchanchyn in the final to resurrect his career.
ADVICE IN THE HEAT OF BATTLE
Bad Coach: The UFC 19 main event was a rematch between Mezger and
Tito
Ortiz. It ended with the famous video of Shamrock yelling and
pointing at Ortiz from the Octagon cage. Shamrock had wise words
for Mezger, of course. He would continually exclaim “Fight smart,
Guy!” at the top of his lungs, no matter the situation. Brilliant
stuff, and I have no idea why it didn’t help Mezger in the fight.
Mezger also kept going for, with Shamrock’s encouragement, a kimura
from his back, with Ortiz in his closed full guard. While this move
can admittedly work with tremendous physical strength—as was the
case when Mikhail Iluokhine submitted
Randy
Couture with it in Rings—it’s a low-percentage submission that
was certainly not going to work with Ortiz’s short, powerful arms
and Mezger’s longer limbs, which were also more exhausted at that
point in the contest. The kimura from the back would be used as a
transition and sweep for years to come, but that was not how
Shamrock wanted Mezger to use it. Instead, the closed full guard
kept Mezger on his back.
Good Coach: Miletich was always calm and gave clear, helpful advice
to his fighters. He told them exactly what to do in either the
grappling or striking phase. He also made sure they were
well-prepared. For instance, against Iha, Miletich made sure to
tell Clark to take advantage when the Brazilian would throw kicks,
which he used to land several big punches that opened up a massive
cut. He also had Clark drill his submission defense against heel
hooks, which Iha went for before the fight was stopped. Obviously,
Miletich was not perfect, especially as the sport continued to
evolve and improve. However, he was certainly good at his job and
the best for that era of MMA.
OVERACHIEVING VS. UNDERACHIEVING
Bad Coach: As I said, I’ve written entire articles about the talent
that Shamrock ruined.
Jerry
Bohlander should have been a great early light heavyweight
instead of a fighter who flamed out quickly before taking a normal
civilian job as a police officer. Mezger should be remembered as
one of the greatest light heavyweights of all-time, someone who had
a real chance to surpass Ortiz, Liddell and maybe even
Wanderlei
Silva. Burnett, in my opinion, could have gone down as the
greatest fighter ever, with a
Georges St.
Pierre-type career. He had an insane amount of talent and skill
for that era of MMA. Instead, he was just another early
burnout.
Good Coach: It says a lot when champions like Pulver, Hughes and
Tim
Sylvia proclaim they owe everything to Miletich and put forth
their belief that their careers wouldn’t have been remotely as
successful otherwise. From my own observations, while all three
were certainly talented, they also possessed clear flaws that
Miletich was able to mask or partially improve. All three legends
are examples of overachievers in the sport of MMA for me. That is
really the most any fighter can hope for.
Hopefully, I’ve made the difference between Shamrock/Lion’s Den and
Miletich/Miletich Fighting Systems crystal clear. One did
everything a coach is supposed to do, and the other was a poor
excuse for the title who damaged and ruined what should have been
all-time great careers. There is truly no understating the
difference that a good coach can make.