Tag: Blackzilians

Kamaru Usman Reflects On UFC Journey: ‘It’s My Time Now’

Will tonight complete the rise of Kamaru Usman?

The post Kamaru Usman Reflects On UFC Journey: ‘It’s My Time Now’ appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

UFC welterweight Kamaru Usman faces the biggest challenge in his MMA career to date as he takes on Demian Maia in the main event of UFC Fight night 129 tonight (Sat., May 19, 2018) in Santiago, Chile.

But “The Nigerian Nightmare” believes that after years of grueling hard work, it’s his time now – regardless of who’s in front of him.

For a wrestler who entered the fight game with no striking experience whatsoever, Usman reflected on his journey in MMA in a recent interview with FanSided’s Spencer E. Kyte, where he sports a 12-1 record overall and remains undefeated in the UFC with seven wins in a row. It wasn’t always easy, however, as he was initially thrown to the wolves at the formerly touted Blakczilians camp in Florida:

“I was thrown into the deep end right away. You’re in a room with Tyrone Spong, ‘Suga’ Rashad Evans, Anthony Johnson, Cosmo Alexandre, Michael Johnson, JZ Cavalcante, Jorge Santiago and you have to survive in that room and I came in as a wrestler, that’s it.

“I had no striking. I had never boxed before, amateur or professional. I came in as strictly as a wrestler and you’re getting beat up and smashed.

Usman credits former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans as his mentor, someone who has helped guide the welterweight and navigate the politics of the fight game.

Evans and Usman met while training at the now-defunct Blackzillians camp, where the two trained together at length. Like Evans, Usman entered the UFC strictly as a wrestler, and has had to develop his striking along the way just like “Suga” Rashad:

“My mentor is ‘Suga’ Rashad Evans and I’ve been on the road with him. I’ve done this whole process with him countless times, including where he’s headlining a pay-per-view and I did his media tour with him, I did the workouts with him, I traveled with him, so I’ve seen it first-hand.

“He’s essentially prepared me for these moments and so how ironic is it that to fly out to get here, he drove me to the airport?”

Usman’s striking has indeed come a long way since making his UFC debut in 2015. Usman scored his first ever one-punch knockout over Sergio Moraes last year, and has shown huge improvements in his stand-up game with every fight:

“But then you get to a point where you’re not getting smashed as much. Then you get to a point where you’re holding your own. And then you get to a point where that round was kind of even and then where I’m winning rounds against these guys and these guys are like, ‘Yo – you’re going to be the best.’”

Usman also said he actually had asked for  submission specialist Demian Maia years ago and called the Brazilian out after defeating Warlley Alves in Maia’s hometown of Sao Paulo:

“I asked for Demian two years ago when he was looked at as unstoppable. I would have liked to have gotten him at that point, but it is what it is.

“Demian Maia is Demian Maia – he’s a legend in the game and he’s been in the game a long time. Nothing but respect for him, but it’s my time to take over and showcase that it’s my time now.”

Usman and Maia will headline the UFC’s first-ever event in Chile at UFC Fight Night 129.

It’s Usman’s first fight with a true top-ranked challenger after several elite welterweights reportedly turned him down, something that has been wearing on the surging wrestler:

“I’ve been disappointed so many times to where I’ve learned and I don’t have expectations anymore. There’s not a name because I don’t want to disappoint myself anymore. I did it with Demian Maia. I did it with (Rafael dos Anjos). I did it with Colby (Covington).

“It makes it challenging because I didn’t get into this to just be a fighter because I can’t get a job anywhere else. I’m educated. I went to college. I can get a job and do something else, but I do this to compete and so when those guys above me are not willing to give me that opportunity to compete and continue to elevate towards that title, it’s extremely frustrating and it kills my buzz for wanting to continue to do this.

“It’s starting to show now that guys are visibly not trying to fight me and it’s been hard to get to this point,” he adds. “I’ve said I want to be champion and I’m not here to fight just anybody – I’m here to fight the best, move up and continue to elevate, so it’s up to the UFC to find that guy to elevate me toward that title because no one has been able to solve the puzzle yet.

But now that he has the big fight with Maia, who recently put together a win streak to earn an unsuccessful title shot against current champion Tyron Woodley, he believes a win over the Brazilian great should earn him the same but isn’t sure it will materialize:

“Demian Maia went on a 7-0 run and got a title shot. (With a victory on Saturday night), I’m going to be on an 8-0 run, so we’ll see what happens.”

At the end of the day, Usman wants to win in dominant fashion no matter how he has to do it in order to send a message to the UFC and the rest of the division:

“If everything goes according to plan, I’m dominating from start to finish. Whether it ends with a submission, by KO, by five-round beating – that’s what I aim to do. I am going to be dominant from start to finish.”

The post Kamaru Usman Reflects On UFC Journey: ‘It’s My Time Now’ appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Kamaru Usman: ‘The UFC Can Make Anyone a Star if They Believe in You’

It’s no secret that the two top draws in the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA) today are Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey. With Rousey likely moving on, that leaves “Notorious” as the only fighter that can consistently bring in over one million pay-per-view (PPV) buys. Be that as it may, McGregor has recently expressed […]

It’s no secret that the two top draws in the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA) today are Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey. With Rousey likely moving on, that leaves “Notorious” as the only fighter that can consistently bring in over one million pay-per-view (PPV) buys. Be that as it may, McGregor has recently expressed […]

Henri Hooft on Leaving Blackzilians: ‘Sometimes Things Come to an End’

Professional kickboxing instructor Henri Hooft was part of the Blackzilians in Boca Raton, Florida. That is no longer the case as Hooft has had some differences with management. He isn’t the only one out the door as former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) title holder Rashad Evans revealed the team is “fragmented.” Hooft recently appeared on […]

Professional kickboxing instructor Henri Hooft was part of the Blackzilians in Boca Raton, Florida. That is no longer the case as Hooft has had some differences with management. He isn’t the only one out the door as former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) title holder Rashad Evans revealed the team is “fragmented.” Hooft recently appeared on […]

Report: Several Top Stars Leave Blackzilians

Building on a previous report of widespread dissent and drama from former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans, several top fighters from South Florida’s famed Blackzilians gym are leaving the team. According to a source obtained by BloodyElbow.com, high-profile Blackzilians Anthony Johnson, Evans, Stefan Struve, Michael Johnson, Gilbert Burns, Kamaru Usman, and Danny Roberts have all

The post Report: Several Top Stars Leave Blackzilians appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Building on a previous report of widespread dissent and drama from former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans, several top fighters from South Florida’s famed Blackzilians gym are leaving the team.

According to a source obtained by BloodyElbow.com, high-profile Blackzilians Anthony Johnson, Evans, Stefan Struve, Michael Johnson, Gilbert Burns, Kamaru Usman, and Danny Roberts have all begun training at former Blackzilians striking coach Henri Hooft’s Combat Club gym in Boynton Beach, Fla. The report also detailed now-head coach Hooft’s coaching staff, which includes wrestling coach Greg Jones, head performance coach Dr. Corey Peacock, and strength and conditioning coach Jake Bonacci.

The source, who chose to remain unnamed, went into detail about the dramatic split that was focused on Blackzilians owner Glenn Robinson and his management company, Authentic Sports Management:

“A lot of problems trickled down from management. I believe Glenn [Robinson] probably had a lot of issues at the time that were going on and I think it was just for everybody’s best interest to start looking at other options and other opportunities.

“If management could have just managed and stayed out of the gym, and if coaches were allowed to just coach to the best of their ability, without being influenced or told how to do it or what was expected of them, and just allowed fighters to keep doing what they did and let their coaches tell them how to do it, this could have been avoided.”

Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay for USA TODAY Sports

This reported micro-management, coupled with a lack of a proper chain of command in place, clearly made both the staff and fighters uneasy, leading to the seeds of discord being sowed amongst former teammates.

The source tabbed this breach of communication as the main cause for the split, describing an environment where half of the athletes were on the coaches’ side and half were on management’s:

“That stuff starts at the top, and when lack of communication starts trickling down, miscommunication starts trickling down, behind closed doors, people start to become, maybe a little suspicious, maybe a little insecure, or always feeling like they are fighting for a job, looking over their shoulder, and that kind of thing created a relatively hostile environment.”

“The coaches and the fighters always tried to stay on the same page as much as possible. But there are certain alliances, certain fighters who rely more on management and some who rely more on coaches. Certain coaches would rely more on management, certain coaches would rely more on their relationship with fighters. I think that’s where the drama came into play.”

Ultimately, however, it was Robinson’s well-known financial issues that put an end to one of MMA’s most famous gyms. Things never improved after Robinson reportedly lost their once-prominent Jaco Hybrid Training Center base, and now the remaining Blackzilians not training with Hooft, called ‘up-and-comers’ who are not yet UFC level, have abandoned the name while training at a temporary facility.

That’s something the unnamed fighter said he was happy wouldn’t be going on at Hooft’s Combat Club, where the focus is reportedly more fighter-centric:

“Those maybe spilled over to the team a little bit. Everything needed to change from where it was at. It looks like Combat Club will really not be focusing on this team mentality, but rather a facility that has the best services for any fighter who wants to use them.”

The post Report: Several Top Stars Leave Blackzilians appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Rashad Evans: ‘The Blackzilians Team is Splintered & Fragmented’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J-tybQj5Ds&feature=youtu.be&t=2936

Despite some measure of success, the end appears to be near for the Blackzilians. At the very least, the team founded in Boca Raton, Florida is not what it once was.

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) light heavyweight title holder Rashad Evans was a recent guest on MMAFighting.com‘s “The MMA Hour.” On the show, he gave his take on the state of the Blackzilians:

“The truth of the matter is, the team is splintered, the team is fragmented. It just became a very hard thing for Glenn [Robinson] to kind of keep his grasp as far as keeping everyone together. Henri [Hooft] wanted to throw his brand into his own thing and it just wasn’t matching up with where Glenn wanted to go. That’s part of the fragment, but another part of it was that we didn’t have a gym anymore.”

Drama seems to have reared its ugly head on the team as well. “Suga” said he’d be caught in the thick of things trying to play peacemaker.

“I mean, at the end of the day, I got so sick and tired of going into the gym and having to put out these fires, and there was so much drama, and everybody jockeying and pushing for position. I was just like, yo, I just want to train, man. And there’s a lot of other guys that just want to train, and that’s what the team was made for. So we could have a great training environment. But you start bringing everything else into it and all the drama, it just got exhausting.”

While the team itself looks to be on its last legs, Evans said the bulk of the members are still together.

“Now, the state of the Blackzilians…I guess there really is no Blackzilians. It’s all in the namesake, but for the most part everybody — or most of the people who were training with the Blackzilians — we’re still training together.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J-tybQj5Ds&feature=youtu.be&t=2936

Despite some measure of success, the end appears to be near for the Blackzilians. At the very least, the team founded in Boca Raton, Florida is not what it once was.

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) light heavyweight title holder Rashad Evans was a recent guest on MMAFighting.com‘s “The MMA Hour.” On the show, he gave his take on the state of the Blackzilians:

“The truth of the matter is, the team is splintered, the team is fragmented. It just became a very hard thing for Glenn [Robinson] to kind of keep his grasp as far as keeping everyone together. Henri [Hooft] wanted to throw his brand into his own thing and it just wasn’t matching up with where Glenn wanted to go. That’s part of the fragment, but another part of it was that we didn’t have a gym anymore.”

Drama seems to have reared its ugly head on the team as well. “Suga” said he’d be caught in the thick of things trying to play peacemaker.

“I mean, at the end of the day, I got so sick and tired of going into the gym and having to put out these fires, and there was so much drama, and everybody jockeying and pushing for position. I was just like, yo, I just want to train, man. And there’s a lot of other guys that just want to train, and that’s what the team was made for. So we could have a great training environment. But you start bringing everything else into it and all the drama, it just got exhausting.”

While the team itself looks to be on its last legs, Evans said the bulk of the members are still together.

“Now, the state of the Blackzilians…I guess there really is no Blackzilians. It’s all in the namesake, but for the most part everybody — or most of the people who were training with the Blackzilians — we’re still training together.”

Rashad Evans: The Blackzilians Aren’t What They Used To Be

The Blackzilians, a mixed martial arts team that was based out of Boca-Raton, Florida, was once one of the top teams in the sport, but according to former UFC light heavyweight champion “Suga” Rashad Evans, who was one of the camp’s original members, the team has since folded. Appearing on today’s (Jan. 16, 2016) edition

The post Rashad Evans: The Blackzilians Aren’t What They Used To Be appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

The Blackzilians, a mixed martial arts team that was based out of Boca-Raton, Florida, was once one of the top teams in the sport, but according to former UFC light heavyweight champion “Suga” Rashad Evans, who was one of the camp’s original members, the team has since folded.

Appearing on today’s (Jan. 16, 2016) edition of The MMA Hour, Evans said that part of the issue was that owner Glenn Robinson and trainer Henri Hooft had different ideas that simply didn’t match up, but he also said that issues with the team’s gym played a factor as well:

“The truth of the matter is, the team is splintered, the team is fragmented,” he said. “It just became a very hard thing for Glenn to kind of keep his grasp as far as keeping everyone together. Henri [Hooft] wanted to throw his brand into his own thing and it just wasn’t matching up with where Glenn wanted to go. That’s part of the fragment, but another part of it was that we didn’t have a gym anymore.

“Our gym was sold, and Glenn was supposed to build another gym and I guess they moved into a temporary gym. There was some kind of falling out with the temporary gym, so then part of the team stayed at the temporary gym and more than half of the team went with Henri. I was one of those guys that went with Henri.”

While Evans said that he still trains with most of his teammates, he said that the ‘drama’ surrounding the Blackzilians got ‘exhausting’:

“I mean, at the end of the day, I got so sick and tired of going into the gym and having to put out these fires, and there was so much drama, and everybody jockeying and pushing for position,” he said. “I was just like, yo, I just want to train, man. And there’s a lot of other guys that just want to train, and that’s what the team was made for. So we could have a great training environment. But you start bringing everything else into it and all the drama, it just got exhausting.

“Now, the state of the Blackzilians…I guess there really is no Blackzilians. It’s all in the namesake, but for the most part everybody — or most of the people who was training with the Blackzilians — we’re still training together.”

The ex-champion then backtracked on that statement a bit, but he did confirm that that team is certainly not what it was:

“I don’t want to say it’s not a thing anymore,” he said. “I don’t want to put the stamp on it to say it’s not a thing anymore. But, I mean, it’s definitely not what it used to be. That’s for sure. And some of the other guys, they started their own team.”?

After Evans’ comments were heard, Hooft also took to his official Instagram account to announce that he had left the Blackzilians:

“After 6 years working with a great team the blackzilians I am going my own way I had a great time met some cool people and learned a lot,” he wrote. “Now it’s time for #hkickboxing and new challenges that come my way………NOTHING IS FOREVER BUT DREAMS AND GOALS.”

What do you make of this news?

The post Rashad Evans: The Blackzilians Aren’t What They Used To Be appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.