Our friends at RawVegas.tv caught up with “The Coach”, Shawn Tompkins before he left on a plane to Ontario to finish up his training camp for UFC 129 number one Featherweight contender, Mark Hominick who will face the champion, Jose Aldo this April 30th in Toronto. Host, Steve Cofield of Cagewriter.com asked for Tompkins’ […]
Our friends at RawVegas.tv caught up with “The Coach”, Shawn Tompkins before he left on a plane to Ontario to finish up his training camp for UFC 129 number one Featherweight contender, Mark Hominick who will face the champion, Jose Aldo this April 30th in Toronto. Host, Steve Cofield of Cagewriter.com asked for Tompkins’ take on the Greg Jackson/Rashad Evans/Jon Jones threesome gone way wrong and his thoughts on a Vitor Belfort/Wanderlei Silva matchup, having trained both fighters in the past. Tompkins also tells us “never again” will he train Belfort, in fact he may never train another already well-known fighter. He is more interested in building fighters from the ground up. Watch the video below:
("Tell me again what it was like hanging out on the set with Hocky Balboa.")
When a story emerged last week that less than a month prior to the bout Vitor Belfort had jumped ship from training with Shawn Tompkins at TapouT Training Centre i…
("Tell me again what it was like hanging out on the set with Hocky Balboa.")
When a story emerged last week that less than a month prior to the bout Vitor Belfort had jumped ship from training with Shawn Tompkins at TapouT Training Centre in Las Vegas in favor of holding his camp for his February 5 UFC 126 showdown with UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva at Xtreme Couture, the Internet exploded with theories about the obvious fragile mental state of "The Phenom" and fans and pundits quickly began writing off the former UFC heavyweight champ’s chances in the fight.
According to Belfort, the truth is, although he returned to working under the tutelage of Tompkins for this camp, he never really actually stopped training at the Randy Couture-helmed gym.
In a recent Twitter post Vitor (who incidentally trained almost exclusively with the Xtreme Couture coaches he’s working with now like Gil Martinez and Ray Sefo for his planned UFC 122 fight with Yushin Okami that was scrapped in favor of the Belfort-Silva bout next month) wrote that Tompkins was way off in his assessment of the situation.
"I dont think I have anything nice to say other than just ignoring it all. I have the right to choose who to train with. I have loyalty and respect and that is why I didn’t hide[the fact that I was also training at Xtreme Couture] from him," Belfort tweeted. "He tooks this more personally. I made my choice and this is just his opinion of it and nothing more."
Filed under: UFC, NewsVitor Belfort has worked with striking coach Shawn Tompkins since mid-2008, when Belfort first walked into the gym of longtime rival Randy Couture in hopes of training with him.
The union between coach and fighter has been produc…
Vitor Belfort has worked with striking coach Shawn Tompkins since mid-2008, when Belfort first walked into the gym of longtime rival Randy Couture in hopes of training with him.
The union between coach and fighter has been productive. Belfort earned three knockouts in three fights while under Tompkins’ watch. But with Belfort in the midst of preparation for the biggest match of his career — a UFC 126 title shot against champ Anderson Silva — the partnership is apparently over.
(“I’m telling you man, we’ll get our own place. I’m thinking bunk beds, bean bag chairs, black light posters and all the soda we can drink. Whaddaya say?” PicProps: Flickr)
Well, we can’t see how this could possibly…
(“I’m telling you man, we’ll get our own place. I’m thinking bunk beds, bean bag chairs, black light posters and all the soda we can drink. Whaddaya say?” PicProps: Flickr)
Tompkins sounds a little peeved about the split and we gotta believe the differences were pretty irreconcilable to prompt “The Phenom” (who, let’s face it, has always seemed a little flighty) to decamp so close to his scheduled middleweight title fight against Anderson Silva on Feb. 5. After the jump, a short-ish transcript of Ranallo’s and Tompkins’ talk, courtesy Fight Opinion …
Shawn “The Coach” Tompkins who heads up Team Tompkins out of TapouT Training Facility in Las Vegas recently disclosed on The Fight Show with Mauro Ranallo that UFC 126 Middleweight Champion Contender, Vitor Belfort had parted ways with Tompkins as he prepares for his February 5th Main Event bout against Middleweight Champion, Anderson Silva. […]
Shawn “The Coach” Tompkins who heads up Team Tompkins out of TapouT Training Facility in Las Vegas recently disclosed on The Fight Show with Mauro Ranallo that UFC 126 Middleweight Champion Contender, Vitor Belfort had parted ways with Tompkins as he prepares for his February 5th Main Event bout against Middleweight Champion, Anderson Silva. Tompkins said:
“Well, you know, Vitor’s done this before. Vitor sometimes, he gets a little clouded in his head. It’s not that he brought in Mike Tyson or anything like that. Vitor just wanders, you know, and he goes where what’s happening, what’s famous, what’s popular and he’ll go over there. Mike Tyson isn’t teaching him anything. Neither is the other eight gyms that he’s training at. Just because he’s over at Couture’s and not with me doesn’t mean he’s with Couture. Vitor isn’t loyal to anybody. We’ve seen it before.”
Belfort’s decision to leave Tompkins just weeks before his fight seems a bizarre and unfair decision to Shawn Tompkins who has trained Belfort since 2008. Tompkins goes on to say:
“I hope for the best for him, but you know, for a guy who told me about respect, loyalty, and God and all this stuff for so many years, he sure did prove the opposite, so, we’ll see. Best of luck to him. Best of luck to Anderson, as well.”
Find out if our expert panelists believe Belfort’s departure from Shawn Tompkins could negatively affect his upcoming title-shot, when we discuss UFC 126 BETTING ODDS. Stay tuned.
With the WEC/UFC merger in place, former UFC Lightweight, George Roop is back in the promotion fighting at the 145 division. Roop who is coming off a KO of the Night win over Chan Sung Jung with a high kick at WEC 51 that some are saying is a Knock Out of the Year […]
With the WEC/UFC merger in place, former UFC Lightweight, George Roop is back in the promotion fighting at the 145 division. Roop who is coming off a KO of the Night win over Chan Sung Jung with a high kick at WEC 51 that some are saying is a Knock Out of the Year contender, has agreed to fight Team Tompkins teammate Mark Hominick at UFC Fight Night 23: Fight for the Troops 2 on January 22nd.
MMAFix asked George Roop why he decided to fight his teammate, Hominick, and though he says, “nobody likes fighting a friend or teammate; hey this is the business,” Roop also adds that the winner of this fight should be the next contender at the Featherweight title. He admits “The Coach” Shawn Tompkins was not happy about the match up. But Roop has been fighting since 2006 and understands this is a necessary step toward becoming the Featherweight Champion, as is his ultimate goal. Because both Roop and Hominick can obviously not train together for this bout, Roop plans to primarily train atApex MMA in his hometown of Tucson, Arizona.
George Roop also notes that since news has broken about his match up with Hominick that forums are already flooded with comments that he is sure to lose this fight. Roop’s response to the forum critics: “Well, of course he’s gonna beat me, just like Leonard Garcia and just like Jung. I’m good at playing the underdog.”
