There are a lot of great places to train in Canada but in terms of results there are only about 4 or 5 that are consistently producing world class guys. By world class I mean Pride or UFC veterans. guys with real international experience.
I'm sure whatever gym you train at has a great atmosphere, but if the best you can offer is jimmy who won the city full contact sparring competition your gym shouldn't be mentioned.
Tompkins,Shah Franco, those Procamp guys, Tri star, Revolution are all contenders the rest are just pretenders. And you know it.
Jason never formally was a part of Arashi-Do martial arts.Although we are very proud of his accomplishments and our friendship with him it wouldn't be fair to coattail ride on his hard work.
I made my school pretty much available to Jaymac and his training partners during the day and occasionally had a workout with him during the few evenings when he could make it in.I even cornered him for a few of his bouts,(very fun like a playing a video game)We haven't seen Jason for a some time and I believe he's got a great training group in Edmonton that he works with.Needless to say we are not surprised by his success, Jason has a huge work ethic and is a rock solid guy on and off the mat.
We do however share the same BJJ coach in Josh Russell, and are rebuilding our mma program and will have athletes competing in shows over the winter.Arashido Red deer was one of the pioneer mma programs in Alberta producing some good mma athletes and with our affiliation with Josh and Kru Chris Bonde for Muay Thai we're hoping to make a splash again.Maybe I'll even get my aging ass back in the cage again.
Just wanted to clarify the Jaymac affiliation with Arashi-Do comment so there is no misunderstanding.
Gary Vig
I hope nobody here is abdicating that if you dont have a UFC or Pride fighter in your camp right now!! that you should just give up and sell vacuums door to door??
If any of you dicks comes to my door to try and sell me a Kirby vaccum cleaner I will kick you right in the nuts!
What does a green screen name mean? ( I am an idiot when it comes to computers and the internet)
A green name means you are a pro fighter. It helps people recognize that you have competed on a professional level and it allows you certain abilities to do things on mma.tv.
It also allows you, most importantly, to access the porno section of mma.tv...or so I hear. I would never do such a rotten thing myself.
nervous laugh
I was wondering why Doerksen and Skipper hung out there a lot...
MasterDebater,
I agree that having fighters in the "Big 3" (UFC, PRIDE, K1), are important considerations, but only a part of the equation. There are lot's of clubs with talented fighters who don't have the connections to get into the premiere events yet, but have soundly beaten UFC or PRIDE veterans.
There are also many smaller gyms in Canada who have gone on to beat fighters of similar experience from "world famous" gyms like Team Quest, AMC, Lion's Den, etc..
I think your list of contenders and pretenders is flawed.