Adding another three wins to their already impressive resume, the Blackzilian camp appears to have that special element that makes for an elite training entity. With a state of the art gym, superstar talent and a group of trainers that reads off like the cast of the Expendables, they’ve become the ‘It’ camp. The man behind the success story, Glenn Robinson, is fairly low key and humble. If you ask him to compare his gym to the other super powers like ATT, AKA or Jackson’s MMA, he’ll tell you, ‘We’re all great camps with something for everyone.’ To him, it’s more about progress and moving forward, and not necessarily about competing with those other guys for a ‘best’ title. As long as his guys are getting better and winning, he’s happy, and that’s exactly what they’re doing. They’re winning.
Last night’s World Series of Fighting card featured four members from the Blackzilian camp, and of those four, three won by first round finish. I spoke to Glenn this morning to get his thoughts on the success of his athletes and the training home he has made for them. Here’s what he had to say:
Team Victories
It was great to see my guys do so well. A lot of the world didn’t get to see Gesias Cavalcante win, and that was a shame, because JZ is coming off a couple of rough years, personally, and he finished his opponent in 63 seconds on the preliminary card. For the first time in a while, when they put the camera on his face, I saw the original JZ. I saw the focus in his eyes, and I knew that he was going to win. When he’s focused, he’s unstoppable. Unfortunately, he had a couple bad years, but last night, he showed the world that he’s still a great fighter.
Tyrone came here when Rashad was training for Tito Ortiz and just stayed permanently. We’ve been planning and talking about this day for a couple years now, and it’s been a long time coming. It was really great to see him debut like that. Of course Anthony looked great out there, and if you want to pick a fight with him, you’ve got to be prepared to back it up. For the last couple weeks, Linderman was talking trash and AJ didn’t say a word back.
Miguel Torres (It should be noted that Miguel trained at TriStar for this fight)
Firas is a great trainer, and TriStar is a great gym. I think if you really paid attention to his fight last night, you’d notice that Firas has done a really good job improving Miguel’s stand-up. People don’t realize that Marlon Moraes is a two time Muay Thai champion, and Miguel stood with him and fought his fight, and did well. He didn’t get the win, and that’s a shame, but it just goes to show you how good Marlon really is. Miguel has to define who he is by himself. That’s something only he can do, and once he does that, he’ll be fine. I think his next fight, he’ll be back in the groove.
Commercials
Ryan Loco did all the commercials except the two featuring Rashad Evans. We were on a really tight deadline, but he got them done, and it was in like a two day time frame. Shot, edited, everything. The best way to brand recognition is to run a spot like that on television. When they called and said they had some spots open. They actually ran a lot more than I expected, so I’m thankful for that. Those companies are a big part of how we fund our fighters, so that kind of exposure is important. Ryan did a great job putting them together, and he did it in record breaking time. I think they make the statement of who we are. We are not ordinary.
Tyrone Spong and Mr. Klitschko
Oh, he’ll knock out either. I think Wladimir has a fight, so Vitali is the more logical choice. Tyrone wants to make it very clear that he wants an opportunity to knock out Klitschko. If he’s the tough fighter that he always says he is, then he will have no problem getting into the ring with Tyrone Spong.
Here’s the tweet Tyrone released last night:
Great win 4 me 2nite but I would like 2 fight @mrklitscho & round out my wins. @arielhelwani let him know @glennauthentic
— TyroneSpong (@Tyrone_spong) November 4, 2012
Anthony Johnson‘s Future Plans
Right now, we’re only concerned with World Series of Fighting. They’ve given him a really good opportunity, so he’s not looking anywhere else. He’s got some fights to go, because he signed a three fight contract with WSOF. They put on a great show last night, and they took really good care of Anthony.
Coming up on the horizon for the Blackzilians is Thiago Silva vs. Stanislav Nedkov on November 10 and Matt Mitrione vs. Philip De Fries on December 29.
You can follow Glenn via his Twitter account, @GlennAuthentic
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