Ranking the top MMA training camps isn’t the easiest of exercises at the best of times. Fighters come and go like mercenaries. Others straddle multiple camps, trying to maximise and diversify their training under a variety of coaches.
Still others will wax and wane, producing a roster of champions one year, and then finding themselves devoid of any belts in the next.
Still, there are some trainers, and some camps, that have developed an enduring legacy in the young sport of MMA, camps whose names are today as famous as some of the fighters in under their roofs.
In compiling this latest list, the difficult decision had to be taken to exclude some teams out of the top 10 which would have made a top 15 perhaps or would be in the top 10 next year, should they continue their current trend of producing winners.
These teams include the likes of Serra-Longo Fight Team out in Long Island, N.Y., and home of Chris Weidman, Constantinos Philippou and George Sotiropoulous. Weidman burst onto the frontline earlier this summer with an emphatic win over Mark Munoz and is surely a future champion.
Then there’s Team Rough House over in England, producing the cream of British talent. That might not be saying much at this point, but the likes of Dan Hardy, Paul Daley and Ross Pearson, all call the Nottingham gym their home and are holding the flag for British MMA.
That’s not to mention Golden Glory in the Netherlands, Brazilian Top Team in Brazil or American Top Team in the US.
These all get an honourable mention, but they didn’t make the top 10. Here’s the ones that did…