5 great MMA fighters who are brutal to train with

Most MMA fighters find themselves having to train all day every day to master their sport. Not only do they have to be exceptional in a variety of martial arts, they must also display top notch cardio, mobility and strength if they are to be the best they can be.

To tick all these boxes, a lot of fighters will spend hours striking, grappling, running, weightlifting and sparring in a single day, stopping only to refuel before going back at it.

To master so many physical disciplines at once, MMA fighters have been known to employ unconventional methods. Some take up a curious fitness hobby such as Georges St-Pierre with gymnastics or Conor McGregor with movement. Others simply ramp up the brutality of their sparring and conditioning work. While it can be a fruitful approach, the increased aggression of such hard-hitting training can land MMA fighters in hot water with their peers.

Getting a reputation for being difficult to train with is not something any MMA fighter wants if they need sparring partners in the future. From outright cruelty to recklessness and overtraining, there are plenty of reasons behind such notoriety.

Here are five great MMA fighters who, over the years, have proven to be notoriously tough to train with:

#5. Former UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier

The freestyle wrestler turned MMA superstar had a bad run of luck on the injury front in 2016. Cormier was forced to pull out of UFC 197 on account of a training camp injury, putting his long-awaited rematch with Jon Jones on hold. He was then forced to do the same thing near the end of the year at UFC 206, canceling his rematch with Anthony Johnson.

Cormier’s string of physical setbacks led to a lot of questions about the American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) and their rigorous approach to training. Cormier himself was infamous for the extensive full-on fighting he’d do in his training camps. While such an extreme level of sparring has its benefits, it is also far too hard on the body to safely perform most days of the week without incident.

DC’s wear and tear from training was just the tip of the iceberg at the AKA with fellow MMA warriors Khabib Nurmagomedov, Cain Velasquez, Jon Fitch, Luke Rockhold and Todd Duffee also succumbing to injury. With his immense size and strength, grappling with Cormier was a tough task for any and all AKA gym members to take on. Even 'The Eagle' recently acknowledged the difficulty of training with Cormier.

#4. MMA pioneer and professional wrestler Minoru Suzuki

Suzuki (left) in a time where he sported a sensible haircut

The MMA veteran, Pancrase co-founder and current New Japan Pro Wrestling star’s real-life attitude is apparently very similar to what he plays on screen. An elite level wrestler, Suzuki’s MMA career left many calling him a glass cannon. While his grappling and submissions were often insurmountable, a few well-placed shots to the Suzukigun leader could end the fight before it had even really begun.

When it came to training others, Suzuki was a big believer in throwing his pupils into the deep end. When a young Ken Shamrock first trained with Suzuki in a Pancrase dojo, he had this to say:

“He choked me out, he heel hooked me, he beat the crap out of me for 30 minutes.”

Not so much training as it was straight-up brutalizing, the force with which Suzuki would wrench on students’ limbs was nightmare-worthy. The grappler quickly garnered a poor reputation among his fighting peers for his sadistic love of punishing sparring partners.

#3. Former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez

What is it with the AKA camp?

Cain Velasquez, one of the most outstanding heavyweight fighters in MMA history, frequently found himself derailed by severe injury. As previously mentioned, the AKA’s high-intensity approach to training, in which MMA fighters essentially went into all-out war against one another day-to-day, has a lot to answer for.

For Velasquez, the complications didn’t end there however. Footage of Cardio Cain engaging in reckless strength training with poor form has become notorious over the years. Exercises included absurdly heavy kettlebell swings destined to throw his lower back out and an overload of knee-wrecking leg extensions. Needless to say, Velasquez’s strength and conditioning was not joint-health friendly at all.

As brutal as he was on himself, Velasquez’s sparring prowess is the stuff of legend. With cardio for days, Velasquez would pick exhausted sparring partners apart with ease. As impressive as these displays were, the lack of breaks, safety and recovery time ultimately sabotaged both Velasquez and many of the people he trained with.

#2. Former UFC superfight champion Ken Shamrock

Shamrock (left) doing battle in the cage

The Lion’s Den, a notorious MMA training ground, more than lived up to its name back in the day. Founded by the legendary Ken Shamrock, the Lion’s Den turned out a host of exceptional fighters in the ‘90s including Frank Shamrock, Guy Mezger, Jerry Bohlander and Vernon White.

According to those who trained under Shamrock, his approach to MMA tutelage was hellish. Before one even began learning MMA, a grueling tryout had to be completed. Shamrock himself likened it to a particularly extreme marine boot camp, comparing the world of fighting to being at war.

The tryouts included performing 500 squats, 200 push-ups, 200 sit-ups, long-distance running, stair runs, bear crawls, weighted carries and one set of pull-ups done to failure.

For the painfully few who made it through all of that, the actual MMA training then began. New recruits were reportedly made to be on guard at all times as veteran fighters could slap a rear-naked choke on them at any given moment. Those caught sleeping would also get menaced by Shamrock himself. 'The World's Most Dangerous Man' was known to threaten pitiless violence on those running low on energy during the day.

Regardless of how vicious his approach was, one can’t deny that Shamrock’s training strategies got results in the long run.

#1. MMA veteran Alistair Overeem

Where does one start with the MMA and kickboxing superstar? Not even Jon Jones was safe from the ruthless might of ‘The Demolition Man’. The former Strikeforce heavyweight champ infamously injured ‘Bones’ during his training camp for the UFC 178 fight with Daniel Cormier.

Jones wasn’t the only major fighter to incur the reckless wrath of the Dutchman either. Speaking on the Jones injury, former UFC heavyweight champ Andrei Arlovski revealed that a round of sparring with Overeem left him high-tailing it to the emergency room:

“Couple of days ago I sparred with Overeem and learned such outcome by my own experience. Usually sparring partners don’t try to inflict a real damage to each other. But Overeem at one moment kneed me really hard in the stomach. In a real fight I could have been KO’ed after that. I rushed to a hospital to make sure that my ribs are not broken.”

Overeem himself has admitted more than once to frequently injuring sparring partners during his training camps. It appears the big man is as dangerous preparing for a fight as he is when the bell finally rings.

Edited by John Cunningham