The following is a guest post by EverythingLatest.
No one can dismiss the impact that Duane “Bang” Ludwig had on Team Alpha Male during his short tenure at the Sacramento gym as Head Coach. His training methods were revolutionary, and his eye for detail is something to behold.
Working with TJ Dillashaw, Ludwig was able to take potential and turn him into arguably one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. His reign at the top, most recently saw him demolish Renan Barao for the second time at UFC on Fox 16 with a fourth round stoppage of the former champ.
Developing the athletic ability of Dillashaw into one of the sport’s best strikers has been an impressive body of work by Ludwig. He also continues to work with the likes of Danny Castillo, Joseph Benavidez and a couple more of the Alpha Male hopefuls including Ultimate Fighter winner Chris Holdsworth.
However, Ludwig’s relationship with gym owner Urijah Faber has always been a frosty one. There were many choice words when Ludwig decided to leave the gym after under two years, and open his own facility in Colorado. With the likes of Dillashaw spending half of his camp in Colorado, the relationship between Faber and Ludwig was close to breaking point over Dillashaw – Team Alpha Male’s pinup boy and only UFC champ to fight out of the gym.
Things blew up recently too, when Ludwig told Sirius XM, “TJ is the only one that wants to be a champion.” He went on to say, “TJ trains a lot harder and is a lot more focused than anybody else on that team – period.”
These comments were met with some choice words from the stable’s fighters, most notably from UFC bantamweight, Cody “No Love” Garbrandt who tweeted Ludwig saying:
Ludwig did however go on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Hour to try and somewhat clear his comments up. Telling the revered journalist that his comments were taken out of context, and that he merely meant a lot of the Alpha Male athletes have the potential to become champions – they just have to alter their training slightly.
Needless to say, Ludwig continues to polarize opinion for his, sometimes erratic views. But these views won’t matter to gym owner Faber, who has distanced himself from Ludwig ever since the two parted ways. When interviewed, Faber is clear to point out that the gym now has a clear direction under their new Head Coach, ex-UFC fighter Martin Kampmann who was hired to the position back in December, 2014.
For the Danish-born fighter, getting back into MMA was not an option for a while. Kampmann had a relatively good run in the UFC welterweight division, defeating the likes of Jake Ellenberger, Thiago Alves and Rick Story during his 17-fight stint with the organization. But a highlight reel loss to Jonny Hendricks and another stoppage defeat to Carlos Condit ended the Dane’s professional MMA career.
With two devastating losses, Kampmann needed to get away from the sport for a while and found his “out” in a completely different sport. Yahoo journalist, Kevin Iole wrote a long piece on the Dane and his uncanny ability to play poker and mix it with the professionals.
Kampmann befriended poker pro Jason Somerville, who went on to teach him the basics of Texas Hold’Em – the most popular variant played by many of the pros today. After some intense coaching, Kampmann began playing competitive tournament poker, and after a short time won $52,740 when he took the Nevada Poker Challenge title in 2014.
After the success at the Nevada professional tournament, Kampmann continued to play sporadically while maintaining his fitness. And when the phone call came from Team Alpha Male, the Dane jumped at the chance of getting back into the sport that made him one of Europe’s most famous MMA fighters.
Kampmann cites poker as the catalyst to regaining his focus and helping him focus once more on his first love. And it seems to be working well for him and the Sacramento gym. Kampmann and Team Alpha Male seem a good fit with many of their up and coming fighters performing extremely well in their respective weight divisions. The likes of Paige Vanzant, Cody Garbrandt, Andrei Fili, Chris Holdsworth and current WSOF champion Lance Palmer are all climbing the rankings under the tutelage of Kampmann and the evergreen Faber.
Even while Ludwig was heading up the Sacramento gym’s coaching staff, bantamweight veteran Faber was always quite vocal about how hard Ludwig was to work with. Several times Faber was quoted as saying that people would never know what sort of mood “Bang” would turn up to work in, and it made for an uncomfortable atmosphere at times.
With the gym prospering as one of the best MMA stables around, Kampmann’s stock is rising in the sport, once again. Its slew of young hungry fighters seems to be bringing the buzz back to the region with some potential champions in the midst – regardless of their ex-coaches views. And with Kampmann, Team Alpha Male seems to have stability once more, as well as one of the best young coaches in the business.
EverythingLatest: After graduating from Arts College, and then going straight into a 9-5 job, the film industry seems a million miles away now, but she will always find a way! When not watching movies, and buried under popcorn, she likes to write for several movie blogs and play with her dog, Jimmy. Watch out for her blog soon!
Filed under: Features, MMA
