LAS VEGAS, April 15 If Saturday night Chuck Liddell resembles anything close to Team Quest kickboxing coach Dave Hagen, those betting on the underdog light heavyweight contender to beat UFC champion Randy Couture wont have to bother standing on line at the MGM Grand Sports Book after the fight.
Because Nate Quarry demanded it of him, Hagen, mimicking Liddell, also attempted to regain his feet; but for the long-legged trainer it invariably led to a Couture cross-face or the discomfort that comes with a knee jammed in your belly.
With the hardships of training camp behind him, Couture has moved into maintenance mode, downshifting to what seemed except to Hagen like 70 percent during Wednesday evenings three rounds of mitt work.
For the men whose goal it is to make Couture victorious, however, there is no such tapering.
After a quick blow out of his lungs, irritated this week by allergy-wielding pollens made worse by an abnormally wet winter, Couture headed back to the MGM Grand for an adjustment from his chiropractor/nutritionist, Ryan Parsons.
Its a team effort, keeping this champion at the top.
Hagen, Quarry and Parsons are just three of the men who helped prepare Couture in the champions Gresham, Oregon gym for Saturdays rematch with Liddell. Chief among them is Robert Follis, a lanky 35-year-old former mixed martial arts junkie who, beginning with Coutures stoppage of Kevin Randleman in November 2000, seconds The Natural.
They met eight years ago while Follis ran Portlands Straight Blast Gym the only place, said Couture, where he could find a decent sparring partner.
When Couture and fellow wrestler-turned-fighter Dan Henderson offered Follis a chance to run their Performance Quest gym primarily a fitness center with a small martial arts area in the back he declined, opting instead to remain where he was.
A year later, Performance Quest was done. Henderson had moved back to California. And Couture, now partners with Olympic silver medalist Matt Lindland, opened Team Quest, which was located in the back of the car lot Lindland bought after returning home from Sydney.
For Couture, Lindland and a handful of others the lot was simply a place to workout, ill suited, it seemed, for the general public. Wed been kind of running it as an open gym and not really making money, Couture remembered. It wasnt a business.
Frustrated with his financial situation, Follis approached Couture about the possibility of partnering up in Team Quest. Within weeks of coming to an agreement, public classes had been upped from two to 12.
He, of course, had the sense to run a membership, do all the things that needed to be done to make it run like a business, Couture said of Follis. And thats when things really turned around.
And thus, a business and a major force in mixed martial arts was born.
Today, the gym holds nearly 300 members. Plus, as it turned out, Follis ability to run a facility wasnt his only attribute. I wanted to be the coach, he told Sherdog.com after the workout room quieted Wednesday. I wanted to be the guy that wasnt in the limelight. I wanted people to recognize me over somebodys shoulder.
A long-time basketball fan, Follis consulted books by the sports best motivators John Wooden, Phil Jackson, Pat Riley and listened to the words of people like Anthony Robbins. He watched others teach and analyzed tapes of fights he cornered, critiquing himself each step of the way.
While he had only studied Brazilian jiu-jitsu for a year and half when he began working with Couture and Henderson, Follis offered them the closest thing to a jiu-jitsu coach they could find. Meanwhile, the fighters helped him shape a teaching style by filtering out the things that didnt make sense.
As time moved on it fell more into where I felt like I was the coach, he said. Its been kind of a gradual process until I was kinda that main guy. I was the guy that was getting turned to to work the corner.
Out of those experiences, his training style bloomed.
A lot of guys get caught up in watching someone elses fight that they develop a plan on how to fight in that guys style and I think thats a big mistake, Follis said. Or they try and be reactive to that style rather than saying, Were going to look to put that guy out of his game plan and into our style. Thats something that weve worked real hard not just myself but as a whole in the gym with that kind of philosophy.
Hes a great trainer, Couture said. Hes a great technical coach. He reads people real well and hes real good with people not that I need a lot of that but it still makes a difference.