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The sport of MMA often witnesses some of the most volatile personalities in the martial arts community come together so as to partake in the savage science.
Now, although respect for one another is an integral part of the sport, when one is to consider the clash of egos as well as the myriad of testosterone-fueled personalities who happen to be involved in the MMA realm, highly-publicized feuds transpiring outside the cage, mustn't come as a surprise.
While the fighters more often than not choose to engage in a considerable amount of trash-talk against their opponent as well as said opponent's team, public fallouts with one's own fight camp aren't exactly unheard of either.
Over the years, longtime loyalists of a given gym have eventually grown apart from their coaching faculty or vice versa--leading to what at times could be a less-than-desirable dispute which witnesses both parties air their proverbial dirty laundry in public.
Today, we take a look at some of the biggest public fallouts on MMA history. These are instances of notable MMA fighters accusing their gyms and coaches and vice versa...
#5 Rashad Evans and the Jackson Wink MMA Academy
Perhaps one of the most well-known fallouts in Mixed Martial Arts history, the story of "Suga" Rashad Evans parting ways with the Jackson Wink MMA Academy served as yet another example of how despite training as part of a fight team, at the end of the day, this is indeed an individual sport. Evans was all set to receive a shot at then-UFC Light-Heavyweight Champion Mauricio "Shogun" Rua at UFC 128.
Nevertheless, Evans happened to suffer a knee injury, and the former UFC Light-Heavyweight titlist was eventually replaced by his Jackson Wink team-mate Jon "Bones" Jones in the UFC 128 title fight against the Shogun Rua.
Jones went on to dominate and defeat Rua by way of TKO--successfully earning the right to be called the youngest UFC Light-Heavyweight Champion in promotional history.
Evans would eventually be booked to face Jones for the latter's UFC 205-pound title--something that was being discussed well before UFC 128, given that many felt Jones could possibly take the belt off the much-smaller Rua.
In light of his training for the fight against Jones, Evans bid adieu to the Jackson Wink MMA Academy, and went on to train at Imperial Athletics in Boca Raton, Florida--a training camp which eventually turned into the Blackzillians gym.
Furthermore, while Evans would eventually lose a 5-round decision to Jones, the former engaged in a highly-publicized war of words not only with Jones but also with his former team at Jackson Wink. "Suga" publicly accused the powers-that-be at the Jackson Wink MMA Academy of engaging in favoritism with the younger fighter Jones, over him.
#4 TJ Dillashaw and Team Alpha Male (TAM)
TJ Dillashaw is the reigning UFC Bantamweight Champion of the world--a title he won against former pound-for-pound great Renan Barao in 2014, defended against Joe Soto in '14 and Barao in a rematch in 2015.
Dillashaw lost the title in a razor-close decision to Dominick Cruz in January of 2016, only to find his way back into title-contention with a couple of wins over Raphael Assuncao and John Lineker. Meanwhile, Cruz dropped the title to Cody Garbrandt in a one-sided decision loss--following which, Dillashaw knocked out Garbrandt at UFC 217 last year.
Dillashaw knocked Garbrandt out once again at UFC 227 earlier this year, however, what's fascinating is that the two bitter rivals were once team-mates. Both fighters trained at Team Alpha Male (TAM)--a gym helmed by UFC Hall of Famer Urijah Faber--only for Faber to ban Dillashaw from the gym in 2015.
Apparently, several heated exchanges on social media as well as confessions on the JRE podcast by both parties have revealed that after Dillashaw and his head coach Duane "Bang" Ludwig parted ways with TAM to train in Colorado, Dillashaw paid little to no heed to his team back at TAM in California.
Furthermore, Faber and Garbrandt alleged that Dillashaw ended the career of TAM fighter and sparring partner Chris Holdsworth by delivering a knee strike to the latter while he was down and not expecting it.
Faber and Garbrandt also claimed that Dillashaw, in general, chose to go unnecessarily hard in sparring sessions--even against relatively inexperienced opponents. Dillashaw, on the other hand, has taken shots at TAM--asserting that fighters from the gym will never evolve in today's MMA landscape.
#3 Donald Cerrone and the Jackson Wink MMA Academy
On a recent edition of the JRE podcast, Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone sent shockwaves throughout the Mixed Martial Arts community by revealing his fallout with his longtime camp at the Jackson Wink MMA Academy. Speaking to podcast host and veteran UFC commentator Joe Rogan, Cerrone claimed that Jackson Wink is no longer the same gym anymore.
Cerrone continued that after Mike Winklejohn took over the majority of proceedings at the gym from Greg Jackson, it began going downhill.
Cerrone added that nowadays, any random "bum off the street" is allowed to walk into the gym, spar and train with world-class fighters such as Holly Holm--simply because Winklejohn encourages people to pay a few bucks, allowing them to train with world class fighters, which more often than not disrupts the fighters' training routines.
Winklejohn, on his part, has fired back at Cerrone--alleging that it was the latter who was in fact causing a divide at the Jackson Wink MMA Academy. Here are a few excerpts from Winklejohn's statements regarding the same (*courtesy--MMAJunkie)--
"Cowboy is not loyal to anybody in the gym. He’s on his own. He does his own thing. He has not, from what I can remember in the last 10 years, ever helped anybody out with their own camp. He’s as narcissistic as they come.”
Cerrone's separation from the gym is said to have been caused after Winklejohn and the other coaches at Jackson Wink, decided to corner Mike Perry for the latter's fight against Cerrone this November.
Apparently, Cowboy took offence to the fact that despite him being loyal to the gym for the past several years, they chose to corner the newly-acquired trainee Perry, instead of siding with Cerrone for the fight.
#2 Robbie Lawler and American Top Team
Robbie Lawler will probably go down as one of the most exciting fighters to have ever laced up a pair of MMA gloves. Lawler won the UFC Welterweight title in a 5-round war against Johny Hendricks at UFC 181 which was a rematch of their previous 5-round slug-fest at UFC 171.
Following UFC 181, Lawler went on to successfully defend the title against the likes of Rory Macdonald and Carlos Condit, before dropping the title via first round KO to current UFC 170-pound kingpin Tyron Woodley in mid-2016. While Lawler's late career resurgence was credited by many for his work at ATT (American Top Team), the aftermath of his one-sided loss to fellow ATT member Woodley saw him abruptly part ways with the gym.
What's interesting is that at several media scrums, Lawler has simply stated that his departure from ATT was because it was time for him to move on from the gym.
However, Din Thomas--the man who helped coach Woodley at ATT for the latter's fight against Lawler--revealed to Matt Serra on Serra's podcast (UFC Unfiltered with Jim Norton and Matt Serra) that him training T-Wood led to the souring of Thomas' relationship with Lawler.
Furthermore, Thomas explained that Lawler leaving ATT didn't surprise him at all--considering that they weren't exactly "tight" with one another even before the Woodley fight. While Woodley continues to train at ATT as well as Roufusport under Duke Roufus, Lawler now trains with famed Dutch kickboxing coach Henri Hooft.
#1 Angela Magana and Alliance MMA
Perhaps one of the ugliest fallouts between an MMA fighter and a gym in recent years is that of Angela Magana and Alliance MMA. It was last year that Magana was involved in an altercation with current UFC Women's Featherweight Champion Cris Cyborg at the UFC Athlete Retreat in Las Vegas, Nevada--one wherein Cyborg allegedly decked Magana with a punch to the face after confronting the latter.
Brandon Vera--one of the powers-that-be at Alliance MMA--subsequently took to social media in the aftermath of the incident, and absolutely trashed Magana. Vera noted that the reason no one stood up for Magana is because she'd been cyber-bullying Cyborg for a quite a long time before they finally met at the UFC Athlete Retreat. Below is a brief excerpt from Vera's Facebook post against Magana--
“I was gonna leave this alone....,but this trifling C**t is still at it. She kinda embodies what's wrong with the world today... super entitled, whines n Cries about everything, IG a** famous, and no other skills whatsoever, pretty worthless. B***h you got your card pulled..... for "cyber bullying" someone you thought you'd never run into. Super drama Queen........Do me a favor and keep your a** away from my Alliance MMA.”
