Interview w/ John Hackleman (Chuck Liddell's trainer)
Nick- First of all I want to congradulate you and chuck on a great win over Tito Otiz, How confident were you that he was going to win this fight?
John- I was confident uh, I was pretty sure he was going to win.
Nick- Yeah his hands were on point, He seemed a little hesitant the first round but when he let his hands go it was definatly over.
John- he usually feels out his opponent the first round. Very seldom does he go right out. As soon as he gets comfortable out there he starts bombing.
Nick- How does training change when facing a guy like Tito? Do you change training for each opponent?
John- No, not at all. We do the same, we have three things, grappling, standup, and conditioning.
Nick- Lets talk about the pit. From what I've seen and heard its not a fancy, modern school with the newest technology like altitude machines, but actually an old school blood, sweat and tears training camp.. Do you think this gives your fighters an advantage?
John- Seems to be working we have people all over wanting to come. And people that do come seem to get alot out of it. Seems to be working. [he laughs]
Nick- Whats Chuck doing now and when does he plan to get back to training?
John- He's acutally going to be here today at 1:00, he's back!
Nick- Who else do you train at the pit?
John- Lets see. I got two guy's fighting in K-1 at the end of this month, Scott Lighty and John Pulakowski. I got uh, Cruz Gomez, hes got about 12 or 13 fights. I got Jason Maflu, he's a submission expert that trains out here, hes been in a bunch of King Of The Cage fights. I got guys that come out like Matt Lindland. Ceaser Gracie brings his team out here. So we got guys coming and going. It stays pretty bust to tell you the truth.
Nick- John, I think a major part of your success as a trainer is the abilty to transfer fighting styles such as traditional boxing into MMA striking. What is the difference?
John- Just realizing that its a different sport you know, and alot of the guys will go to a boxing coach to work there striking, and then a Muay Thai coach to work there kicking, then a wrestler to go with there ground game. That kind of training doesnt seem to work as well as someone putting it all together. Its differnant when your going for a leglock and someone is punching you in the face.[he laughs] When youre doing boxiing standup, your not used to someone trying to take you down. And the same goes for Muay Thai. Someone that could put it all together is going to be much more succesfull like Team Quest or Militech or Gracie.. those guys seem to put together real well. Its always good to go get some training once in a while, like chuck does when he trained with Lewis. Chuck actually has a training-conditioning coach now, a guy named Tom Tom. And he does real well with chuck on the conditioning. But 90-95 percent of chucks training is done right here at the Pit, Old school punching, kicking, grappling, sweating, bleeding the whole 9 yeards.
Nick- Did using different trainers affect his fighting in Pride?
John- Well that was Dana White's idea. He had in idea and we were willing to go with it and it didnt seem to work out that well. We were kind of breaking up the training. And when two guys are trying to work for the same thing but there not on the same page you know over-training some things, undertraining others. It just wasnt the whole Pit feel. Chuck likes the Pit feel, he likes the old school pit. He's been here since 91 you know, we kind of have a repore with all of our team. I think he's more comfotable training the way hes alway's trained.
Nick- Do you plan on training with Gan Mcgee again?
John-I dont know. Right now he's doing other things and so am I. In the future who know's depending on what he has coming up. We might hook up again, hes right up the street. And to be honest Slo kickboxing and The Pit are right up the street from each other. Even though there seperated there pretty closely related, there cousins. So we kind of go back and forth sometimes. The doors alway's open for him.
Nick-As far as future fighters, are your doors open to them?
John-Sometimes, were real picky because the pit, as you guy's know are a real small, old school backyard gym, we have to feel real comfortable, so we turn down more people than we let in. We feel real comfortable with Team Quest guys, you know, Matt Lindland and those guy's are alway's welcome. There's a real close relashionship with Team Quest, Ceaser Gracie and those guys, we go back and forth and there always welcome.. I just heard from big Wes Simms and I really like him so I'd be willing to work with him. Work on some stuff for his next fight. But mostly its just us guys at the pit you know were not Militich or Team Quest.
Nick- So its a small operation?
John- yeah thats the way I like it. Most of my time is spent on kids and people that work out. I mean, I got 250 students at the pit and most of them are guy's that just want to get there belt. you know doctors, lawyers, construction workers. And the fight Team is just about ten guy's that get together in the cage and beat each other up.
Nick- Well John thanks again and good luck to you and all your future fighters.
John- Okay, thank you sir.