It sounds like Duke Roufus runs a pretty tight knit camp up in Milwaukee. It’s a camp with a lot of high level pro fighters and in an environement like that it’s understandable that he’d want a pretty strict set of rules enforced. It’s also understandable that a lot of top pro-athletes wouldn’t be all that interested in living under someone elses thumb when they’re not in camp. Roufus spoke to MMAJunkie about Chico Camus’ recent split with his gym and the reasoning behind it.
“Honestly, I’m so happy he did well [at UFC on FOX 10],” Roufus told MMAjunkie. “I like Chico personally. It’s just a matter of code of conduct and keeping a training schedule at our academy. We have a pretty strict level of training at our academy. By default, with him being in the UFC, he’s a leader whether he wants to be or not for all the young athletes on the team. Everybody on the team wants to be where he’s at, and there’s a certain level of training that I expect from people. It’s nothing personal.”
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“I’ve been trying for a while,” Roufus said. “You try every route. You’re the bad guy, the good guy, the best friend. … I think the world of Chico. He’s a great kid. But you can only ask someone and beg them so many times. This is not the first time. It’s been many times. I know people will say, ‘The guy’s winning fights,’ but part of the special relationship the athletes have at our academy is because we are a true team. Everyone is helping everyone else win fights. We don’t have guys who just drop in and train when they have a fight.”
For Camus’ part it sounds like the loss of his main camp had a bad effect on him as he stated that it was “the least sparring I’ve ever done and the least jiu-jitsu I’ve ever done for a fight.” Whatever his camp ended up looking like it didn’t prevent a dominant performance at UFC on Fox 10. However, I imagine that he’ll want to find more full time training soon. Camus sounds interested in returning to Roufusport if possible, but Duke, for his part, seems less enthused by the idea.
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