Sherdog’s Top 10: Training Camps

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7. Team Alpha Male

Aside from his outstanding performances as a fighter and work on the clothing-sponsorship side of the business, Urijah Faber’s great contribution to MMA is his training camp: Team Alpha Male. Originally more of a co-op formed by a group of collegiate wrestlers-turned-fighters, it has now grown into one of the premier camps in all of MMA and perhaps the best for the lighter weight classes. The addition of full-time head coaches, first Duane Ludwig and now Martin Kampmann, has given structure to what was once a fairly loose though highly professional organization.

Team Alpha Male’s roster is absolutely stacked with talent. Two-time flyweight title challenger Joseph Benavidez calls the camp home, along with champion T.J. Dillashaw and Faber himself at bantamweight, while contenders Chad Mendes, Lance Palmer and Andre Fili fill out the roster at featherweight. Women’s strawweight sensation Paige VanZant is a recent addition to the team, as is rising bantamweight Cody Garbrandt.

The team has a long history of taking talented fighters and molding them from the very beginning of their careers, while the addition of Ludwig and Kampmann has drastically improved their striking repertoires. Wrestling is a given, but Team Alpha Male fighters have been real innovators in terms of the transitional game, switching quickly between wrestling positions and their trademark guillotine or strikes and takedown attempts.

Despite its substantial body of work, Team Alpha Male shows no signs of slowing down. If anything, it is still improving and helping to drive the general evolution of MMA.

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