Greg Jackson’s camp in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is considered by many to be the premier academy in the sport.

Jackson is among the elite MMA trainers and fight strategists in the game. Under his tutelage there have been multiple world champions, Ultimate Fighter winners, and several top-10 ranked fighters.

The most recent success from the camp came last Saturday night at WEC 48 where Jackson had two fighters earning victories. Most notably, Leonard “Bad Boy” Garcia was victorious in a fight that some consider to be the most exciting in the history of the sport. Garcia and his opponent, Chan Sung Jung, stood toe to toe for the duration of the fight and in doing so the two earned fight of the night honors.

The Jackson-trained Garcia is known for his never say die attitude and relentless fighting style which led Coach Jackson to believing that the fight could end up playing out the way it did.

“I thought it might play out that way just because the two of them are such similar styles. It was just an amazingly exciting fight and I was really happy to be a part of it but safely on the outside of the cage.”

In 2009, Jackson was awarded with Coach and Gym of the Year honors at the Fighters Only World Mixed Martial Arts Awards for his outstanding achievements in the sport. After receiving the highest award for his craft, Jackson gave credit to his entire coaching staff and the fighters that they trained together.

“For myself it was very meaningful and I’m glad my fighters are doing well because if my fighters weren’t doing well then we wouldn’t get the award. I didn’t really feel that it was really anything that I did, I felt that I was a representative of the coaching staff and there’s a lot of us,” Jackson explained.

“I felt that it was a testament to the fighters and I think our fighters were doing really well overall and because of that fact people like myself and outside of that got recognized. That’s nice because I know my boys and girls are kicking butt and that was a nice feeling.”

Fighters train and compete to be the best in their respected divisions and to be world champions. But what exactly drives a coach and gives him the most enjoyment in what he does on a day to day basis.

“I think the key is watching people change their lives and to fulfill their dreams. Watching people get better and just watching how it can change your life and how it can better your life. Just being part of that process of helping so many people have a better life I think is really the addiction I have to it.”

Helping people change their lives is exactly what the 2009 Coach of the Year does. He has been widely recognized for turning fighters into the most mentally strong athletes in the world.

“We really have a good balance of the technical and mental. We’re constantly pushing both of those and we’re doing pretty good so far. I think it’s the whole atmosphere and there’s definitely things that we try to install,” Jackson explained.

“The mental toughness, the ability to accept suffering, and to accept the battle. We actually enjoy that where other people are getting worried, afraid, and getting tired. We definitely try to install that mental toughness and having that positive atmosphere behind it so you’re suffering with a purpose. That’s really important and I think that’s one of the keys to the fighters’ success.”

The balance the camp has between the technical and mental aspects of the sport has played a huge part in the success the camp has enjoyed. Place strategy in the mix and a fighter’s game plan could be the key to putting the odds in his favor.

“I really think it helps a lot and sometimes things change in the fight, you have to have the ability to adjust to that. The strategy of being prepared is the best strategy for fighting. Part of that preparation is physical, part of that is mental, and part of that is technical. Just having a plan and I feel if you have those things covered then it is like you said, “putting the odds in your favor.” It’s maximum ability to maximum effect.”

In maximizing the aforementioned aspects of the sport, Jackson, along with his coaching staff, have helped produced arguably the best fighter in the sport.

UFC welterweight champion and top pound-for-pound fighter, Georges “Rush” St. Pierre has seemed unstoppable with his dominant wrestling and well-rounded game since joining the ranks of the Albuquerque based gym.

“The nice thing about that is we have such a great team of coaches all working together. That’s really where you see that kind of stuff shine. People like Phil Nurse, Jon Chaimberg, Jon Danaher, and Firas Zahabi. All those guys are working alongside me with these great ideas and these great goals for George. We all work together as a well-oiled machine to improve him and make him the best fighter he can be. The goal of our team is definitely to maximize the potential of the fighters.”

If you have ever been fortunate enough to spend time around Jackson or any of his fighters you can sense that the whole group operates much like a large family. The question remains, what makes Jackson’s MMA like a big family.

“I really think the key is the fighters themselves. I think it’s more than the coaches, and I think it’s the fighters helping each other, always going the extra mile for each other. They travel a lot and are sacrificing a lot of family time to help each other with their camps. You really have people that care about you, care about whether you win or lose, and genuinely care about you and want to see you do well. That’s a great positive place to come from.”

Thus far into 2010, Jackson’s mixed martial arts is following up on the success that made them the 2009 camp of the year and the camaraderie they share is second to none.

To follow Greg Jackson and the fighters who are under his tutelage follow: http://www.jacksons.tv/  

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When Mauricio “Shogun” Rua was first signed by the UFC, many hardcore fans predicted that he would quickly take over the light heavyweight division. That didn’t happen.

Such thoughts were hardly unwarranted since he’d already previously put a massive shellacking down on UFC champion Quinton Jackson.

Fans were shocked then, when Forrest Griffin put a whipping on the Pride FC star, spoiling his UFC debut.

Since then, Rua has put on two impressive performances that have got some people saying that the old Shogun from the Pride FC days is back. After watching some of his old fights in preparation for UFC 113, I’ve come to some different conclusions.

Before I get into my analysis, let’s do a brief overview on the career of Rua.

Shogun In Pride FC

When Shogun fought in Pride, he was flashy, wild, and relentless.

Here’s some wild aggressive muay thai and soccer kicks (allowed in Pride).

Here’s Rua charging forward on Akira Shoji like a crazy maniac and then following with a head stomp (allowed in Pride).

Here’s a nice flying kick combination against Jackson.

Here are some crazy tornado kicks.

These are some flashy and spectacular attacks.

Aside from having an arsenal full of flashy strikes, Rua also had an excellent ground game that included good passes, sweeps, transitions, submissions, and ground-and-pound.

More than just having an excellent arsenal, Rua was also able to keep up a relentless attack that would wear down his opponents and allow him to beat them into submission.

When Pride FC disbanded, Rua was considered by many to be the top light-heavyweight fighter in the world.

Shogun In The UFC

When Rua was matched up against Forrest Griffin, many fans, myself included, thought that Griffin was going to get badly overwhelmed.

Instead, the fight was extremely competitive, and ended with Griffin submitting Rua in the final seconds after pulling ahead in the second half of the fight.

This clip has since been used heavily in forums by Lyoto Machida fans, to go along with sentences like, “Machida would NEVER lose to Forrest Griffin.”

Injuries would sideline Rua for more than a year, and when he returned against Mark Coleman, things weren’t much better.

Here he is getting controlled by the 45 year old.

Here he escapes and stumbles away.

Then he gets jabbed in the face by Coleman here.

And gets jabbed in the face again here.

Shogun won the fight, but it was far from pretty.

Then after that he looks much better against Liddell.

Here he shows much quicker footwork and head movement as he retreats, and then he blasts Liddell in the side with a kick.

Here he shows off his some nice quickness on his takedown and a transition from back control to a leglock sweep attempt.

Finally, he finishes it all of with a beautiful lunging punch here.

And then of course, there is the fight with Machida where Rua uses his leg and body kicks to great effect, wearing down the champ over five rounds, yet losing a controversial decision.

So now that we’ve got that recap out of the way, we can start looking into the question that I think is most important, and most misunderstood.

The Question

How does a guy who convincingly destroyed Rampage Jackson get finished by this guy (the losing one):

and then jabbed in the face and severely tested by this guy:

but come back to beat Chuck Liddell and provide the stiffest of test possible for undefeated UFC champion Evans Lyoto.

The Popular Answer

The common answer, and the one that is used by the UFC commentators, is that Rua was struggling with knee injuries and ring rust that severely hampered him in his fights with Griffin and Coleman.

Then, according to this script, once Rua got over his injuries and shook off the ring rust, he was back to his old, dominating self.

This above interpretation is not necessarily accurate, in my opinion, but it will take a bit of explaining.

The Real Answer

I have no doubt that ring rust and injuries played a part in Rua’s performances against Griffin and Coleman, but those explanations only tell a part of the tale.

What I have to say can be best divided into negative and positive thoughts on Rua’s recent performances. Since I like to end on a high note, I’ll start with the negative.

The Bad Side

Rua gassed out badly against both Griffin and Coleman, but I think it’s silly to attribute that completely to injuries and ring rust.

The truth is that Rua gassing has a lot to do with the way the fights went down.

The fight with Griffin was fought at a frenetic and relentless pace. Griffin and Rua traded strikes, takedowns, submission attempts, and sweeps in what I thought was one of the greatest fights of the year.

Certainly Shogun fans were shocked that Rua lost, but it really wasn’t that bad of a performance if we’re thinking about it objectively and not in relation to our previous expectations.

Unfortunately, nobody ever seems to give Griffin any credit, and so when he actually does something really good, like the way he was able to neutralize Rua’s ground game, people tend to write it off as something the other guy was doing wrong.

The truth of the matter is that Griffin fought a great fight, and because he’s a cardio machine, he was able to wear down Rua with relentless pace.

The fight with Coleman was a bit different, but again, I think the actual way the fight went is overlooked.

Rua spent a fair amount of that fight working his guard game underneath Coleman. Coleman isn’t exactly the quickest of fighters, so the fight wasn’t really that fast-paced, but when Coleman is in top position, he can still force his opponents to expend a lot of energy.

Rua may have looked a half step faster in the Liddell fight, but even then, the fight was so short that Rua’s conditioning was never really tested, so we never got to see what he would have looked like if he was dragged into the deep water.

All things considered, it’s my opinion that in the Griffin and Coleman fights we were already seeing pretty much the same Shogun from Pride FC

He may have been a half step slow, and a bit out of shape, but it took a gutsy performance from Griffin to finally make Shogun lose, whereas he might have still won against a lot of other opponents.

The Good Side

When Rua fought Machida last year at UFC 104, UFC commentator Mike Goldberg was saying that we were finally seeing the old Shogun from the Pride days.

That’s nonsense.

The Rua that fought against Machida was a whole new animal.

I’ve never seen Rua execute a gameplan as well as he did against Machida. Prior to the bout, I expected Rua to push the action and get knocked out when his hand combinations got countered.

Instead, what we saw was Rua executing a conservative strategy that involved picking away at Machida’s stance from distance, as well as a number of smaller more specific wrinkles that helped him nearly dethrone the champ.

Of course, it’s possible that Rua might have been able to execute this kind of strategy earlier in his career if he fought a guy like Machida, but we’d never seen it before, so the fact that he was capable of executing such a gameplan impressed me.

My Final Conclusion

Forget the old “Shogun” Rua, the new one might be better.

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