For a long time, many have argued over which gym in MMA was truly the best gym in MMA, but which gym can truly claim that honor when the landscape is always changing in every division in the sport?
Is it The Blackzillians, which currently holds a bevy of fighters that includes UFC 145 headliner and former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion “Suga” Rashad Evans and former Dengoku Middleweight Champion Jorge Santiago?
Is it the AMA Fight Club that has Dan and Jim Miller, as well as newcomer Khabib Nurmagomedov and established UFC Welterweight Charlie Brenneman?
Maybe it’s the often-overlooked Nova Uniao Jiu-Jitsu Academy, which holds former Sengoku Featherweight Champion Marlon Sandro, as well as UFC Featherweight Champion Jose “Scarface” Aldo and prospects such as Diego Nunes, Renan Barao, Johnny Eduardo, and top Flyweight sensation Jussier “Formiga” da Silva.
Then again, it could Xtreme Couture, which lost Gray Maynard but got the Bellator Lightweight Championship with a Michael Chandler win over Eddie Alvarez in 2011, as well as “The Demoltiion Man” Alistair Overeem in 2011. And for that matter, it could be Golden Glory, which is home to Marloes Coenen and Siyar Bahadurzada.
At the end of the day, though, two come to mind as far as the gyms that can be considered the best.
One of those two is Team Jackson-Winkeljohn, the collection of Greg Jackson-mentored talent that is connected to UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre, BAMMA Middleweight Champion Tom “Kong” Watson, UFC Interim Welterweight Champion Carlos Condit, and UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones.
The other gym?
Call them Black House MMA, Call them Team Nogueira, or call them some combination of the two names, but call them the gym with Anderson Silva, Junior Dos Santos, Lyoto Machida, Antonio Silva, The Nogueira brothers, and the “Pitbull Freire” brothers, among others in the camp.
Truthfully, though, the answer to “Who is the best gym in MMA?” depends much on one’s criteria as far as what qualifies a team to be the best.
Is a gym considered the best if they currently run the gauntlet of champions, or do they just have to get results in the cage?
Does the team have to pack talent in one division like Team Alpha Male, which contains the current Strikeforce Women’s Bantamweight Champion as well as a former WEC Featherweight Champion, the formely undefeated Chad Mendes, and UFC Flyweight title hopeful Joseph “The Beefcake” Benavidez, or do they bring a reputation from one organization to the UFC, like the Cesar Gracie camp?
Maybe they’re a camp that comes out of nowhere and shocks the system like Kid Yamamoto’s “Krazy Bee” team, but is it also possible to be the best when you’re a part of a camp like Alliance MMA, which holds prospects Phil Davis and Mike Easton, as well as UFC Bantamweight Champion Dominick Cruz. Or maybe Matt Hume’s AMC Pankration, which officially called DREAM Bantamweight Champion Bibiano Fernandes their own champion and very well could call Demetrious Johnson another of their home-grown champions if Johnson wins the Flyweight title in a few weeks?
It’s possible, but then again, the American Kickboxing Academy could qualify, as they hold the former UFC Heavvyweight Champion Cain Velasquez, the former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion Cung Le, and a potential future Daniel Cormier.
Also, Wanderlei Silva is proving to be a title threat without even fighting that much these days, as the PRIDE legend’s tutelage has led Demian Maia to a UFC Middleweight title shot in 2010 and also led Vitor Vianna to a spot in Bellator’s Season 5 Middleweight final, all despite going 1-1 in his own run at the mill in 2011.
If you ask me, I might say the gyms that collectively are known as “Black House,” even though Dos Santos is no longer managed by Ed Soares, despite training with Team Nogueira, and Nova Uniao’s head honcho Andre Pederneiras manages and trains the UFC Featherweight Champion Aldo. But aside from showing a consistent amount of success in the cage (mostly through Silva’s fights), I also carry a notorious bias for Black House and any camp affiliated with them.
In all honesty, so many gyms might be the best in the sport of MMA, but it’s hard to know who is the true “best” when camps are coming out of nowhere and taking the MMA world by storm every year.
So you tell me, MMA world: Who do YOU think is the best camp in Mixed Martial Arts and why?
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com