Part Two with Grudge's Trevor Wittman: The Gym, Gameplanning and the Fighter/Coach Relationship

Click here to catch part one of the interview, in which Wittman addresses the commotion surrounding Rashad Evans and Jon Jones -- teammates at Jackson's -- potentially fighting each other. It's juicy, and well worth a read.

Last week, I made the trek up to Wheat Ridge, Colorado, to interview Trevor Wittman at the Grudge Training Center. The former head trainer at T's KO in Denver, Wittman was offered the top spot at Grudge (an affiliate of Greg Jackson's MMA gym) in September 2009. The gym is coated with memorabilia from those times, with several MT shorts worn by Duane "Bang" Ludwig adorning the walls.

"I told them hey, if I'm going to be hired here, let me bring my pictures into the office," Wittman said when I sat down in that office for almost an hour of talking with him.  

Since then, numerous MMA stars have come through the nondescript strip mall location, among them Shane Carwin, Nate Marquardt, Duane Ludwig and Rashad Evans. Trevor was first introduced to the casual fan while still with his former gym, as one of Rashad Evans's coaches on TUF 10 opposite Rampage Jackson. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall when he and Roy Nelson were arguing over strategy and training. Brendan Schaub, a Colorado native on Rashad's team during the show, is currently training at Grudge in preparation for his bout with Mirko Cro Cop at UFC 128, as is Eliot Marshall for his UFC return bout against Luis Cane.

Rather than give you loyal (read: fickle) readers a standard Q and A format, we decided to simply have a conversation and let the quotes speak for themselves.

I suppose Melvin Guillard's comments about being a robot, with his coaches holding the joystick, were on my mind, as I asked Trevor how much control he and his staff have over their fighters once they're in the cage. How much of a mixed martial artist's in-cage motions are in response to the corner's directives/pre-fight strategy, and how much of them are choices based on what's going on?

"It's a team. I mean, the fighter might say to a guy, 'Hey man, every time I move to the left, he's hitting me with the right hand.'  And the guy's going, 'Step left, step left, trust me!'  He might go, 'Hey -- not gonna do it. I keep getting hit.'"

When I asked if he gets mad when a fighter does that, Wittman replied: "At times... but I always say it's easier said than done.  And coming from the fight game, I've had people tell me things that... You're like, 'Yeah, you weren't in there.'"

After the jump, some specific game plans for which Wittman takes the credit (and blame).

Shane Carwin and Nate Marquardt are two of the most successful fighters to come primarily out of Wittman's gym. Carwin had risen to championship contention by amassing an undefeated record (punctuated by first round finishes in every fight) before Brock Lesnar's bout of diverticulitis, which then necessitated an interim title bout against former champ Frank Mir. Carwin had melted Gabriel Gonzaga with a short arm punch in his previous bout, but Mir represented a significant step up in competition. Trevor smiled when he remembered this.

After conceding that the game plan sometimes goes out the window if your opponent doesn't play ball (namely the Jon Fitch/BJ Penn match, after which Fitch claimed to have drilled zero defensive wrestling his entire camp), Wittman claimed that gameplanning was the "secret to our success."

"We do the pro's and con's. What are the pro's and con's of a Frank Mir?. What are his strengths, what are his weaknesses going into the fight for a Shane Carwin to beat him?"

"Our gameplan was, OK, his wrestling's weak.  OK?  So, he's going to go, 'Alright, let me work on my defensive wrestling and get my size up for Brock' - so he's slightly overlooking us.... So are we going to go in and shoot a double leg takedown?  Heck no!  He's thinking that, so we're going to trick him a little bit. We're going to shoot a double leg, let him get his under hooks in, and run him to the fence and pin him. Why do we run him to the fence and pin him? So we can get an under hook and he can't pull guard. We get him to the ground... that's a great dimension for Mir. World class Jiu Jitsu. So we double leg, a lot of people thought we couldn't take him down -- 'Oh, Shane can't take Frank Mir down' -- (snaps fingers) great!  Now we got people thinking the right thing!"

Wittman also told me that Shane Carwin is back in the gym and healthy after his back surgery, weighing in at a svelte 255 at last check.  Apparently, the UFC has promised Carwin a spot on the JDS/Lesnar card, but no opponent has been announced as of yet. It will be Carwin's first bout since losing to Brock Lesnar at UFC 116, the first blemish on his record.

While I appreciated (and appreciate) the time Grudge gave me, I couldn't just lob softballs. As Nate Marquardt was in the training center, hidden behind a wall that separates the cage/heavy bags from the front desk/mirrored mats area, I had to ask about Nate's recent struggles in #1 contender's bouts. Since losing to Anderson Silva, Nate has routinely been "in the mix" for a potential rematch, but was unable to convert against Chael Sonnen and Yushin Okami.  I asked Trevor about both, and it turned out that the first bout had a direct effect on the game plan for the second.

"I thought we outwrestled Okami," Wittman began, and FightMetric backs him up, with Nate going 3-for-4 on take down attempts and Okami going a flailing 1-for-9. "I think [Nate's] wrestling is underrated. I felt that we fought Chael wrong. Too many power punches -- instead of pick-and-pull and making him reach, and then throw power as he falls in reaching. His thing -- everything he threw, power right hands, gets taken down. Pops back up, throws a power knee, [Chael] eats a power knee, gets taken down."

"I thought the game plan was what lost him that fight. I also thought the game plan was what lost him the Okami fight. I drilled nothing but counter punches and not finishing combinations. So I feel completely at blame for Nate losing that fight. I felt if we had -- as you heard me say during the fight, 'Believe in your feet,' and what I mean, step and punch, don't step, step step and punch."  When I said it sounded like an overcorrection, Wittman responded, "Exactly -- an overcorrection where he's moving too much, instead of step one time, hit... don't step step step as he's short-stepping you to the cage."

It was refreshing to hear a trainer actually take some responsibility for his fighter's performance instead of blaming the fighter.

(Note: the interview was done before the tragic events in Japan forced Nate's original opponent, Yoshihiro Akiyama, to withdraw from their upcoming bout. I will attempt to get an update from Trevor as to what the new opponent -- Dan Miller -- means for the rest of Nate's camp.) 

Stay tuned to Head Kick Legend for part 3 of the Wittman interview.

SBN coverage of UFC 128: Shogun vs. Jones