How many fighters that you heard of or know were self trained? I was watching an old MMA fight from a few years back. One of the guys was described as sort of self trained. The announcer stated that he can only get to his MMA school on certain occasions (weekends/sporadically), and that he does “Clubber Lang” type training like running, jumping rope, and hitting the bag! The guy was a beast!
Basically guys that may or
Evan Tanner.
Paul harris grew up in a jungle
I think Jeremy Horn. A lot of the early guys just got tapes and trained in their garage.
I know a group of dudes who train in Lynwood, CA (South Central L.A.). Known their coach DJ for 8 years, but he was just a new Blue Belt when he stopped formally training and just switched to garage training with his guys. We kept in contact and he would drop by, irregularly, at whatever school I was teaching at. His guys are kinda rag-tag, but very tough and in shape. Far as I know, none of these guys have anything to do with established MMA & BJJ gym in SoCal. Most have no money. Their coach is now 12-1 in amateur MMA and several of the other guys have fights too (don’t know how many). A few started training once a week with me and, I have to say, it’s impressive what this kind of completely free “ghetto” training can produce, but at the same time, in terms of grappling skill, a certain level of technique IS notably absent.
Thanks for the replies! Great insight! Keep em coming! There was a guy that was a top MMA prospect years ago(Rad Martinez). He wrestled at Clarion with Frankie Edgar.
His father was severely impaired. At his MMA peak i heard he was mainly training at home, while taking care of his dad!