BY TRENT REINSMITH

The last time we saw Ross Pearson in the Octagon, he was on the receiving end of a technical knockout loss. “The Real Deal” will look to erase that defeat from his memory when he steps into the cage on December 15 to face George Sotiropoulos, a fighter that is also coming off a stoppage loss in his last bout.

The two fighters have been coaching opposite each other on the current season of The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes, and to hear Pearson tell the tale, there was a definite turning point between the two coaches that made the upcoming fight all the more personal.

Pearson took some time to sit down with The Ultimate Show to discuss that turning point as well as his move to Alliance Training, putting his name in the lightweight division mix and his feelings on headlining his first UFC event.

The post UFC on FX 6: Ross Pearson Discusses Upcoming Bout Against George Sotiropoulos *VIDEO* appeared first on Alliance Training Center.

Posted by Chris Leslie
The UFC’s Jon Anik ventured out to San Diego, California to sit down with Swedish sensation Alexander Gustaffson. Anik spoke to “The Mauler” about his emerging popularity as a rising contender in the UFC. Gustaffson will face his biggest test yet as he faces Mauricio “Shogun” Rua next week in Seattle at UFC on Fox 5.

The post UFC on Fox 5: 1 on 1 With Alexander Gustaffson “The Mauler” *VIDEO* appeared first on Alliance Training Center.

By: Bruno

UFC Light heavy weight Phil Davis shows his fellow UFC-partner Alexander Gustafsson how you do a proper half Nelson.

The post Phil Davis Teaching Alexander Gustafsson The Half Nelson *VIDEO* appeared first on Alliance Training Center.

By Dojo.TV

Last week I was once again lurking about down at Alliance MMA in Chula Vista, only on this day, I showed up to find a crew already filming Cruz and Gustafsson in a little pimp session for The Ultimate Insider. (I think… I also saw some Bad Boy branding on the backs of their GoPros, so they could have a hand in it as well). Anyway, Dom had been in and out of the gym since I’d been hanging around, but since he wasn’t one of the guys fighting in December (and he’s still healing), I’ve pretty much left him alone as far as the camera goes.

The post Spoiler alert! Dominick Cruz and Alexander Gustafsson Slap Leather for the Cameras *VIDEO* appeared first on Alliance Training Center.

By Dojo.TV

Ross Pearson will be fighting in Australia on December 15th against George Sotiropoulos at The UFC on FX 6. Ross is the second fighter featured on DOJO.TV out of the Alliance camp who will be fighting in The UFC in December.

The post Interview! – Ross “The Real Deal” Pearson – The second of nine from Alliance – UFC Australia *VIDEO* appeared first on Alliance Training Center.

By MMA Draft Spotlight

MMA Draft’s Frank Trigg sits down with the UFC’s Phil Davis to discuss the benefits of MMA Draft to amateur athletes.

The post *VIDEO* MMA Draft Spotlight with the UFC’s Phil Davis appeared first on Alliance Training Center.

By MMA Junkie

Michael Chandler stops by MMAjunkie.com Radio to discuss his future in Bellator.

The post Bellator Champion Michael Chandler on MMAjunkie.com Radio *VIDEO* appeared first on Alliance Training Center.

Article by UFC

Before Phil Davis takes on Wagner Prado at UFC on Fox 4, UFC cameras caught up with the Penn State alum for their “Unguarded” segment. The video allows a candid look into the mind of Davis as he bounces from topic to topic in an entertaining manner. Be sure to catch Davis in action on the Fuel TV undercard of UFC on Fox 4 on August 4.

The post Phil Davis: Unguarded *VIDEO* appeared first on Alliance Training Center.

Article by Nedu Obi

Here is the promotional video for UFC on FOX 4: Mauricio Rua vs. Brandon Vera, which takes place in seven days’ time.

Rua will attempt to bounce back from defeat following his highly acclaimed clash with Dan “Hendo” Henderson in November of 2011.

The match in question garnered Fight of the Night honors and has also been heralded as one the greatest fights in the history of the Zuffa-based promotion.

At UFC 128, Jon Jones literally ripped the 205-pound championship from his grasp. Five months later, the PRIDE legend avenged a defeat over old foe and former 205-pound titlist Forrest Griffin, winning via first-round knockout.

Vera, a former WEC heavyweight tourney winner, is also on a redemptive mission of sorts having lost fights to Randy Couture, Jones and Thiago Silva (the fight with Silva was later overturned to a no-contest after it was revealed Silva’s urine sample was inconsistent with human urine).

That said, in his last outing, Vera scored a unanimous decision victory over Eliot Marshall.

The video also features co-main-eventers Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida and Ryan “Darth” Bader.

Machida has had a rough time of late and is looking to get back to his winning ways. First he lost his light heavyweight belt to Rua.

Next was a split-decision loss to Quinton Jackson before he turned the tide and defeated former two-division titlist Randy Couture. Nevertheless, in his last bout, he came unstuck against the divisional reigning champ, Jon “Bones” Jones.

With regards to Bader, not so long ago, he was near enough on the hot seat after falling to both Jones and former light heavyweight king Tito Ortiz.

However, two victories (Jason Brilz and “Rampage” Jackson) later, he’s now on course to make it three in a row, which could probably thrust him back into the title mix.

Here’s the show’s full card.

Preliminary Card
(FUEL TV 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT)
John Moraga vs. Ulysses Gomez
Michihiro Omigawa vs. Manny Gamburyan
Oli Thompson vs. Phil De Fries
Josh Grispi vs. Rani Yahya
Phil Davis vs. Wagner Prado
Nam Phan vs. Cole Miller

Main Card
(FOX 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT)
Mike Swick vs. DaMarques Johnson
Joe Lauzon vs. Jamie Varner
Lyoto Machida vs. Ryan Bader
Mauricio Rua vs. Brandon Vera

UFC on Fox: Shogun vs. Vera is scheduled to take place on August 4, 2012 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Calif.

The post UFC on FOX 4: Brandon ‘The Truth’ Vera vs. Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua Promo *VIDEO* appeared first on Alliance Training Center.

Article from BJPenn.com

Sprite execs say the new campaign and tagline are meant to be broader than just basketball, allowing Sprite to hit on other teen “passion points,” such as music, skateboarding and film. In the second half of the year, the brand will be promoting a contest for film students.

“We’re trying to link all of these different passion points in a way that has consistency in it,” said Mr. Keith. “Sprite has a very specific teen target, so we’re looking for a crisp articulation.”

“In the last two years, we’ve been fine-tuning against the same strategy,” added Rafael Acevedo, Sprite brand director. “This campaign is based on the same fundamental truth we have for Sprite — unique, intense excitement.”

- Source: adage.com

The post Phil ‘Mr. Wonderful’ Davis Stars In Latest Sprite Commercial *VIDEO* appeared first on Alliance Training Center.

Joe Rogan has been Octagon-side for the biggest fights in UFC® history, and that includes calling every Ultimate Fighter Finale from the very beginning back in 2005. Now he shares his favorite TUF moments. Watch this and other features on UFC® Ultimate Insider, hosted by commentator Jon Anik, Tuesdays at 10:30PM/7:30PM on FUEL TV. Available Internationally on YouTube.

The post Rogan Riffs: The Best TUF Moments Ever *VIDEO* appeared first on Alliance Training Center.

Music Credit: Survivor – The Eye of The Tiger

Alliance MMA & Team Lloyd Irvin Training BJJ at Drysdale Jiu-Jitsu in Las Vegas, Nevada

The post Alliance MMA & Team Lloyd Irvin Training BJJ at Drysdale Jiu-Jitsu in Las Vegas, Nevada appeared first on Alliance Training Center.

Dekkers was born in Breda, North Brabant (a province of the Netherlands). He began learning martial arts at age 12, studying Judo for a few months. He then started boxing for a year. After that, Dekkers started practicing Muay Thai under Cor Hemmers. He was awarded his first title at age 18, when he won the Dutch National Championship on 15 November 1987.

“He fought them all, in their homeland under their rules… and he beat them.” First foreign fighter to get the “Fighter of the year” award in Thailand.

Click Here To Try Out Our Muay Thai Training For 30 DAYS FREE!!!

Dekkers got involved in the martial arts around 1986. He visited a gym in Breda where he first witnessed Thai boxing. He started training at the Breda gym. Dekkers’ future stepdad was the gym’s trainer who later became Dekkers’ coach. Dekkers trained for about 3 months – his mother dropped him off every day, brought him to the gym, and picked him up after training. Cor saw that Dekkers had the potential to be a good fighter. Dekkers was 16 years old. Hemmers had been building a team and had no real fights by that time. Before Dekkers’ first muay thai fight, Cor discussed it with Dekkers and his mother. During Dekkers’ training, Cor became more and more involved with his mother, and the two eventually married.

Click Here To Try Out Our Muay Thai Training For 30 DAYS FREE!!!

On Sunday 18 March 2001, Dekkers fought his farewell fight against Marino Deflorin in Rotterdam. The Netherlands’ “Golden Glory” team took on the rest of the world. The fight ended in the 4th round with Dekkers knocking a game Deflorin out with a left hook. Throughout the bout, Dekkers controlled the fight, displaying the style and aggression.[citation needed] After the fight, Dekkers joined the “Golden Glory” team members center stage for a finale, Rob Kaman came down the rampart, Golden Glory torch in hand, presenting it to Dekkers, who in turn passed it to each team member, as video clips of his victories were shown on the display screens.

Click Here To Try Out Our Muay Thai Training For 30 DAYS FREE!!!

The post Introducing Muay Thai Legend Ramon “The Diamond” Dekkers *VIDEO* appeared first on Alliance Training Center.

Articl by Coach Doug Balzarini

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit the American Council on Exercise (ACE) headquarters and participate in a video shoot detailing exercises for MMA athletes.

Increase the intensity of your workouts by training like a mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter. Doug Balzarini shows you his top five favorite exercises that he uses when training elite athletes. With upper-body pushing and pulling, lower-body and rotational core movements, these exercises will make you sweat.

The post DBStrength: Train Like an MMA Athlete (ACE shoot) *VIDEO* appeared first on Alliance Training Center.

Just a few moments of the recent strength & conditioning workshop held at Alliance Training Center in Chula Vista. Good times were had!

The post Strength & Conditioning Workshop Highlights – Coach Doug Balzarini *VIDEO* appeared first on Alliance Training Center.

Happy Early Birthday To Dominick Cruz & Congratulations To Alliance’s Athlete Of The Month Monika!

Winning Alliance’s February Athlete of the Month, Monika gets a FREE VIP Parking Spot!!! That is reserve for her ONLY for the whole month of March!

The post Happy Early Birthday To Dominick Cruz & Congratulations To Alliance’s ATHLETE OF THE MONTH Monika! *VIDEO* appeared first on Alliance Training Center.

The post UFC Mixed Martial Arts Fighter Phil ‘Mr. Wonderful’ Davis Update *VIDEO* appeared first on Alliance Training Center.

Danny Martinez (born 1984 in Arizona) is an American mixed martial artist. He has competed in the TKO, XFC and Rage in the Cage promotions. In the latter, he is the current bantamweight champion. Martinez is a freestyle fighter, who holds, as of February 2012, a 15-4 record, with his victories spread out evenly between knockouts, submissions and decisions.

He is currently instructing the KIDS MMA training program at Alliance Training Center. If you see him, ask about his awesome DEALS for Private Training Sessions.

To sign up for Danny’s Little Gremlins KIDS MMA Training, CLICK HERE!!!

The post Alliance’s Mixed Martial Arts Fighter / Instructor Danny “The Gremlin” Martinez *VIDEO* appeared first on Alliance Training Center.

Get An Exclusive Inside Look At How Top UFC Athletes Prepare For A Professional Mixed Martial Arts Fight!!!

Saturday, February 25th – 11am to 3pm at Alliance Training Center!

This 4-hour interactive workshop is both lecture and hands-on and is designed to show you all phases of a complete strength & conditioning program for fighters.

TOPICS INCLUDE:

• Introduce the “Critical Components” used in the DB Strength Training System
• Proper Dynamic Warm-Up – Focus on injury prevention, range of motion, foam rolling, activation, and more
• Fighter-specific Mobility and Flexibility Movements – Discuss assessment protocols and the importance of joint integrity work
• Medicine Ball Power Movements – Experience my “go to” movements and drills
• Strength Training – Reveal the “method to the madness”. Discuss periodization, circuit training, frequency, overtraining concerns, and more
• Core Development – Sample the drills and tools I use with top, UFC athletes on a weekly basis to help strengthen their core muscles
• Metabolic Conditioning – Breakdown common circuit layouts and talk about methods I like, methods I dislike, and the ones I use frequently
• Proper Cool-Down Techniques – Talk about an overlooked aspect of fitness and why I always incorporate it into our sessions
• The value of Recovery – We will cover the importance of rest and share a number of recovery techniques
• Nutrition – Examine macronutrients and what foods are a must for MMA athletes
• Challenges – Learn how to deal with injuries, tough travel schedules, and short notice fights. We will analyze case scenarios to ensure we are all on the same page and getting our fighters in the best condition of their lives
• And much, much more!

The post Get An Exclusive Inside Look At How Top UFC Athletes Prepare For A Professional Mixed Martial Arts Fight!!! *VIDEO* appeared first on Alliance Training Center.

Article by Coach Doug Balzarini
Want to get to the next level? Put the necessary hard work in with metabolic conditioning and you are on your way.

In this 6-part series, I will briefly explain the essential pieces that comprise a complete strength and conditioning program for a MMA athlete.

The six components are:
1. Dynamic Warm-Up
2. Explosive Movements
3. MMA-Specific Resistance Training
4. Flexibility
5. Metabolic Conditioning or Energy System Development (ESD)
6. Regeneration Time

While we may not include all six components into every single session, they are the foundation for our complete 8 to 10 week camp.

I love intense, heart pounding, push yourself to the limit training. There isn’t a better feeling out there (let’s keep it rated PG people) than crushing a hard core training session. There is that great sense of accomplishment when you know you’ve pushed yourself to the limit, both mentally and physically. This type of aggressive training is designed to improve an athlete’s strength, power, endurance, coordination, and overall physical and mental toughness. And it is for these reasons that I include them into our program.

What are these sessions exactly?
We do a variety of “metabolic conditioning” sessions, including treadmill sprints, hill repeats, Tabata protocols, and multiple strength & conditioning circuits. For the purpose of this article, we are going to focus on the s&c circuit variations we incorporate. Typically, they consist of 3-5 rounds (sets) and last up to 5 minutes long. Each athlete performs the exercise(s) at his station either solo, or with a partner, and then moves on to the next station. This process continues until the 5 minutes is completed.

Common circuit layout
1. Repetition-Based Stations: this involves having each athlete at their own station and completing a certain number of reps before moving on to the next station. I rarely use this format because people go at different paces so stations may be finished at different times and then we could have a “back-up” at a certain station. This works best for 1 or 2 athletes.

2. Obstacle Course Set-Up: I do incorporate this format if I only have a couple athletes (less than 4). This involves 4-8 stations and having the athletes complete them in a certain order as fast as possible. This is a great way to create a little competition between the athletes to see who can complete the course in the shortest amount of time. You usually let the winner give our “punishment” in terms of jump squats or burpees at the end of the session.

3. Timed Stations: As I described above, this is the format I utilize most frequently.

Method to the madness
Once I have determined my layout, I will look at the movements themselves…do I want to include all lower body movements, all upper body, just pushes, just pulls, what plane of motion should I incorporate, what energy system do I want to target today? If you’ve watched a fight, tournament, or even been in one yourself; you’ll know that you utilize everything I just mentioned. So my short answer is – all the above.

The usual set up involves a lower body followed by an upper body movement. I do vary it, but that’s the most common approach. If I lay out two lower body movements, I will start with a more powerful, explosive movement (i.e. broad jumps or pop-ups) then follow it with a grounded, endurance movement (i.e. prowler push). Now if our next opponent is an All-American wrestler with a reputation for repeatedly shooting a single, then we may incorporate some additional exercises that will teach explosiveness with the legs and hips to help defend against a shot. I’m not a big believer in “mimicking the movement patterns of the sport” with my strength & conditioning sessions. I’ll let the other coaches (BJJ, boxing, wrestling) handle that aspect. I think that my goal as a strength coach is to have my athlete in the best shape of his/her life so he/she can stay injury-free and excel in all those other disciplines.

All that being said, these circuits will focus a bit more on the anaerobic system or, to use a popular industry term; “power endurance”. But really, every match you witness, you’ll see every energy pathway exhausted. You’ll see pushing and pulling, lateral movement, sagittal movement, rotational movement, and hopefully you’ll see shoulder flexion when your arm is raised in victory!

These circuits are just one aspect of a complete strength & conditioning program. When implemented correctly, they will help your athletes achieve their true potential in strength, power, speed, conditioning, and mind-set!

About Doug
Doug Balzarini is currently the strength and conditioning coach for the Alliance MMA Fight Team in Chula Vista, CA. He is also the founder of DBStrength.com, which provides fitness-related articles and education. Previously, Doug worked at Fitness Quest 10 for 6 ½ years as a personal trainer, strength coach, and Operations Director for Todd Durkin Enterprises (TDE).

A Massachusetts native, he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science with a minor in Business Management from Westfield State University. Since moving to San Diego he has completed some graduate work in Biomechanics at SDSU, obtained an ACE Personal Trainer certification, the NSCA-CSCS certification, TRX instructor training, EFI Gravity instructor training, LIFT Sandbag Certification, Spinning certification, FMS training, and received his CPR/AED instructor status. He has also appeared in dozens of fitness videos, written numerous fitness articles, completed a MMA Conditioning Coach certification program and has competed in multiple grappling tournaments.

Prior to working at Fitness Quest 10, Doug worked for the American Council on Exercise as the Continuing Education Coordinator where he was responsible for managing over 400 continuing education providers.

For more information please visit www.dbstrength.com.

The post Critical Component Series – Metabolic Conditioning (5 of 6) *VIDEO* appeared first on Alliance Training Center.