Shalorus, is currently stuck in a two-fight losing streak after bouts with Khabib Nurmagomedov and Jim Miller, had been undefeated in his MMA career prior to moving from the WEC to the UFC.

As the second Iranian-born fighter to compete with the UFC, Shalorus knows he has plenty of followers back home. His actual decision to begin fighting himself started after training other fighters in England.

“I got exposed to it in Europe (MMA), and when I moved to the U.S., I wanted to compete myself,” said Shalorus, in a recent interview with FindMMAGym. “Wrestling is a great foundation for MMA. It helps to have more control on dictating where the fight will go.”

Shalorus represented Great Britain in an Olympic Qualification tournament, placing 19th, and has competed in the Abu Dhabi Combat Club event, as well.

As for finding a gym as an up-and-coming student, Shalorus says, “Go to a gym with knowledgeable coaches that have your best interest at hand. You don’t want to go anywhere where you learn poor fundamentals or have coaches that are not qualified to be in your corner. Also, train with all pro levels, especially in your weight class.”

Woodley sat down with FindMMAGym.com one afternoon discussing the opening and his wishes to build the American Top Team brand in the Midwest. The dream of opening the gym was one that resulted in a longer process than you would expect.

“I’ve been thinking about it for the last seven years,” said Woodley. “That was when it first came to my mind. In terms of getting it going. That process and finding a location was probably two and a half years.”

Setting up a gym in his own hometown was a great bonus but only a small added positive compared to spreading the message of American Top Team and promoting MMA as a great source of fitness.

“It was just getting people to understand the brand of ATT and the legacy they created for team atmospheres. Everybody in Missouri and St. Louis don’t yet know who American Top Team is yet. They ask, ‘What does (American Top Team) stand for?’ It’s kind of bringing them up to speed on the history behind the academy too.”

“It’s also showing them that MMA is something you can learn for all ages and skills,” the Mizzou Tiger stand-out continued. “Not just for amateur and pro fighters but something kids and adults can learn, and you don’t have to get punched in the face when you’re learning. We have a safe environment – It’s good, it’s clean. Safe for the kids. Safe for the moms and the dads to get in there and come in there and do their thing. That’s what we’ve been trying to brand and get across.”

Regularly, a localized gym might seem an advantageous benefit for a training fighter, but as owner Woodley admits there has been little lifted off his shoulders in that regard.

“I don’t know if it’s a strain off (my shoulders) at all” Woodley playfully responded. “In the beginning it’s really crazy. You’ve got to set the foundation to function whether you’re there or not. If it’s functioning it’s good, but if it’s not, it’s bad because I’m in the gym (training). I’m just trying to do the best I can to showcase my trainers, showcase my programs and what we offer. The facilities, the environment, so people really benefit from the gym itself, and less from me and the idea that ‘Tyron is the teacher.’ We want that to be an added bonus that they can actually be trained by a professional athlete, but we want you to come in because we have good instructors.”

It’s Woodley’s ultimate wish to turn ATT Evolution into the biggest and most effective gym it can be, gathering the strengths of his team and the community. He still believes there is a lot of room for growth in a sports rich city.

“I think overall it hasn’t happened,” Woodley said with regard to a potential “Halo Effect” with MMA in St. Louis. “You have the work ethic and dedication though. The St. Louis MMA community…we’ve got to do a better job of rallying up together, and building each others’ brands. I think once we get the concept…we’re far behind when it comes to Las Vegas or Florida and California and places like that in Mixed Martial Arts…we’ve got to pull together, get each individual athlete with their story out there. Get the fans behind them, do it collectively as a city. We’ll have plenty of opportunities”

Woodley paused for a moment and continued on with his long term wishes for ATT Evolution. “I want to reach capacity. Obviously, when you do something like this, you want to get to the point where you maximize your opportunity and that location,” he began before adding an equally important note. “I just want to increase fitness in the home, and to have families come together and leave together to be a better unit as a family. That’s a goal that I and all my trainers have in mind.”

Woodley closed by thanking all of the people that helped pull ATT Evolution up into where it is today.

“I want to thank all the people that supported me. Clinch Gear, ATT, my wife. I want to thank everybody that supports me and believes in me, and believes in the vision I have, because it’s been more than just training lately. I’m just really grateful for everything I have going into this fight for sure.”

ATT Evolution is located at:
9751 Manchester Road
Rock Hill, MO 63119
Phone: (314) 716-2186

Visit them online at ATTEvolution.com or follow them on Twitter at @ATTEvolution

Woodley meets Mein on the main card of Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine, and will take place January 7, 2012 at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event will be broadcast live on Showtime in the United States, and Superchannel in Canada.

More FIGHT DAY Video clips!

UFC 141 comes to you live on a rare Friday night from the MGM Grand Garden Arena on December 30, and it’s a big one. Two of the biggest competitors in UFC heavyweight history will step in the Octagon to determine the next challenger for champion Junior dos Santos when former UFC champion Brock Lesnar meets former Strikeforce champion Alistair Overeem. It’s a classic striker vs. grappler battle: can Lesnar get Overeem to the mat before Overeem’s far-superior striking skills finish the fight? UFC 141 also features two exciting top lightweight contenders when the surging Donald Cerrone takes on Stockton bad boy Nate Diaz. Top welterweight contender Jon Fitch also faces tough prospect Johny Hendricks.

In preparation for his Octagon return, Gonzaga will do his training at Team Link and a gym he owns with Marco Alvan. “Napao” believes the gym is a great building ground for not only himself, but those looking to get into MMA.

“I believe it is first a good environment, like everybody in my gym is helpful, respectful and wants to make you learn,” said Gonzaga, in an exclusive interview with FindMMAGym’s website. “If you are a good opponent, you are going to help on the training and that will make you learn too.”

Gonzaga rebounded from a pair of UFC losses to defeat Parker Porter earlier this year. The UFC took notice and signed Gonzaga to replace Rob Broughton for the Rio de Janeiro, Brazil show. As a Brazilian himself, the Oliveira fight will show how Gonzaga has come full-circle in his career.

“I started in judo, but only did it for a month before I moved to Brazilian jiu-jitsu,” Gonzaga said. “After four months, I was a Brazilian jiu-jitsu champion in the nationals and I was addicted.”

Gonzaga’s training has been influenced by Alvan, his muay thai coach, Ibere Reis, and all students at Team Link that are helping him get ready for his next fight.

By: Dan Becks

Maynard is currently working with members of American Kickboxing Academy in California, while also finding new partners and workouts at various gyms. Maynard twice fought Edgar for the UFC title, with the first encounter ending in a draw. The second went to Edgar, as he finished Maynard with a series of strikes.

“Right now, I’m up in Santa Cruz and things are great. They are a few gyms I have been training at. I’ve also spent some time at AKA,” said Maynard, in a recent interview with Heavy.com. “They have a great gym, an awesome team and I’m enjoying my time here. At this point my focus is on broadening my horizons and wherever I feel that can be accomplished is where I will go. There is a huge world out there and so many great camps where I can learn so many things.”

Maynard was one of the first fighters to help Randy Couture open his gym in Las Vegas, building the foundation for the gym alongside Martin Kampmann, Jay Hieron, John Alessio and Mike Pyle.

“The group of guys I started with at Xtreme Couture, those guys are family to me,” Maynard said. “That won’t change just because I’m not doing my training camps there. It isn’t about anything other than it was time to move and me wanting to train anywhere I can.”

As for his future, Maynard isn’t limiting himself to just training in the U.S., saying, “There are so many other camps and so much I can learn, it became something I needed to do. If that means going down to Brazil and training with Jose Aldo, I’d be excited to go. There are a ton of gyms in Holland and to train with Andy Souwer would be something that interests me. There is so much to lean out there and I want to grow.”

By: Dan Beck

Though not a professional Mixed Martial Artist, decorated grappler Kyra Gracie is extremely familiar with what it takes to be a high-level competitor after winning multiple BJJ world titles and being born into royalty where the art-form is concerned.

Recently Gracie spent some time in Singapore teaching a series of seminars at Evolve MMA, one of the most respected gyms in the region and the latest in a series of training centers from one of the biggest players where instruction is concerned.

Of the experience, Gracie explained, “I was really happy to see how Jiu-Jitsu is going all over the world and to be here in the biggest Jiu-Jitsu and US MMA academy in the whole of Asia. It’s a pleasure for me to be here. I had a lot of fun.”

“I’m very impressed by the level here – that in a short period of time they’ve gotten so good. They’ve only been three years and they already have so many good students. They got everything very quick so I think the sky is the limit…the future is gonna be good,” the 26-year old continued on the topic.

In fact, the only BJJ blackbelt in the famed Gracie family even has plans to return to Singapore to improve some of her stand-up skills in anticipation of a potential MMA debut on the horizon.

“I love the environment (at Evolve MMA). I want to come here to train – to have a training camp here – so I can learn some Muay Thai,” she concluded.

You can check out the full interview with Gracie below:

One of the longest tenured fighters in the UFC, original Ultimate Fighter finalist Kenny Florian has not only called the Octagon home for more than six years but is still competing at an extremely high-level. The 14-5 145er has racked up wins in his career over a number of top lightweights including Takanori Gomi, Joe Lauzon, Roger Huerta, and Clay Guida, and will challenge Jose Aldo for the UFC featherweight title next month in Houston at UFC 136.

So how did “KenFlo” go from kicking soccer balls in college to kicking ass in the Octagon?

In the beginning, as FindMMAGym.com learned in an exclusive conversation with Florian, it involved a technique most of you at home could start today if you were so inclined.

“I guess it was learning from tapes,” the 35-year old said about his introduction to MMA. “For a couple of weeks me and my brother just drilled. We wore out a rug in the house just from drilling and sparring and rolling and things like that.”

Florian’s brother, Keith, is now a key part of the Florian Martial Arts Center in Brookline, Massachusetts.

After getting a taste of training through his VCR and his sibling, Florian decided to give something more substantial a shot.

“My first real experience was with Royce Gracie. We saved up money and went to New York and did a seminar with (him),” Florian began before explaining that his love of BJJ was immediate. “The first time I learned a jiu-jitsu technique I was hooked. It was like a drug that I knew I’d be taking forever. I was obsessed. From when I went to sleep to when I woke up, that’s all I wanted to do. My brain didn’t want to do anything else. I was obsessed and still am.”

While a legend like Gracie may not necessarily be available as he was when Florian first started his journey in Mixed Martial Arts, the sport’s growth in popularity has certainly inspired more top fighters to travel around the nation teaching classes. With that in mind, the UFC veteran also made it clear good training can still be found in most areas if you know what to look for.

“The gym needs to offer the ability to grow, learn, and evolve in the various disciplines. People need to find a place that has an open mind and that is willing to grow and that will cater to the fighter and his unique abilities.”

Florian’s love of BJJ has certainly shown in his career with nine of his wins coming via submission. Among the names on that list, in addition to Clay Guida, Takanori Gomi, and Joe Lauzon, are also past victories over Joe Stevenson and Sam Stout.

Coming into the third season of The Ultimate Fighter, Ed Herman was already a well-respected competitor who had battled his way from obscurity on the regional circuit to the pinnacle of mixed martial arts in the UFC. Before setting foot inside the Octagon, Herman had notched victories over notables in Brian Ebersole, Glover Teixeira, Nick Thompson, and former world champion Dave Menne.

“Short Fuse” has since become a contender in the middleweight class when after a near two-year hiatus from the sport due to injury, he’s gone on to stop both Tim Credeur and Kyle Noke inside of the first-round.

These accolades all exist after a humble start into the world of MMA began when a few friends of Herman’s coaxed the former high school wrestler into taking up jiu-jitsu and it all snowballed from there.

“I had been watching the UFC’s with a lot of my friends and stuff and we had talked about wanting to train”, recanted Ed.

“A couple of my friends started doing jiu-jitsu at this little gym and it sounded like fun, so I went in and trained a little bit. What I do remember most about my career is shortly after that, Team Quest opened.”

The gym housed living legends such as Randy Couture, Dan Henderson, and future world champion Evan Tanner—so when those same two friends nonchalantly mentioned that they’ve enrolled in said academy, Herman was willing to call their bluff.

“Some friends of mine went out there and signed up. The same two guys who got me doing jiu-jitsu, they had left that gym and went to Team Quest”, said Herman, with a recalled sense of doubt in his voice.

“I was like ‘Yo, you can’t just go up there and sign up and train—no way’ because Randy was there, Evan, all those guys were already there. I was like ‘Yeah right,’ and they were like ‘Yeah dude, we signed up!’”.

It was never a specific goal of Herman’s to become a mixed martial artist, but his admiration for the sport eventually turned into a calling. It was a matter of the right place at the right time.

“I was like 21. I was like ‘sweet’, so I cruised down there in a light rail and that arrival class, that’s what changed my life. I was walking through the door and meeting with Robert Follis and getting the chance to train with him and Couture and all those guys was pretty amazing to do that right off the bat.”

By: BLB

“The name says it all, but I think we’re not just the best team in America – we’re the best team in the world,” explained UFC lightweight Cole Miller in a recent conversation with Inside MMA.

“We eat, sleep, and breathe MMA, continued former WEC featherweight champ Mike Brown. “We have so many world class fighters, so many world class training partners, and then we have a lot of great coaches… many of them all give you little bits and pieces. I think my game is like a mosaic – you take a little piece from here, a little piece from there, and a little piece from there and you put it all together, then you have a painting.”

Brown’s sentiments were echoed by a number of his peers who also fly the famous ATT flag including heavyweight Jeff Monson and lightweight Jorge Masvidal.

“We have 40 or 50 blackbelts here that I train with. Every week there’s someone new coming here from Brazil or someone else who wants to join the team. They come in here and kick my butt. I grapple with them and I’m like, ‘I’ve never heard of this guy and he’s submitting me,” said Monson who knows a thing or two about tapping people out himself given his credentials and success on the mat.

Meanwhile, Masvidal, who is next in line to challenge for the Strikeforce lightweight belt, agreed in principle, stating, “One thing you can’t get anywhere else, at any other gym unless you go to Brazil, is the amount of blackbelts we have here.”

The group’s greatness starts at the top with Ricardo Liborio, a BJJ blackbelt under Carlson Gracie for nearly twenty years with a decorated career as a grappler including memorable showings in ADCC and Brazil’s famous Mundials.

“He always has something positive to add, something good to say to you. He just wants you to do well,” revealed hard-hitting UFC welterweight Thiago Alves.

“He’s our leader. American Top Team goes as Liborio goes,” said Monson on ATT’s keystone, with Miller adding, “He’s very much a father figure and mentor, not just with me but with the whole team.”

ATT’s ridiculously talented roster can be found on display at nearly every major event regardless of promotion. Other members of the team include Thiago Silva, Brian Bowles, Tyron Woodley, Mark Bocek, Ben Saunders, Hector Lombard, and many more.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOwgOQh_YPU

According to sources, the 6′6″ 290-pounder is in the process of opening an MMA training facility in Tampa called Gracie Fighter Jiu Jitsu — and if the name Gracie sounds familiar … it’s because the Gracie family is credited with establishing modern day MMA.

The gym is currently only open to close martial artist friends … but Batista and his partner Cesar Gracie — who trains several top fighters on the West coast — plan to open it to the public next week.

As we previously reported, Batista was all set to sign with Strikeforce before they were bought out by UFC — but once the dust settled post-takeover, Batista’s deal was dead in the water.