Team Alpha Male’s “fighters training fighters” style has come with a lot of criticism over the years, even when the mantra hasn’t always been true. The team has had head coaches, including Duane Ludwig and Martin Kampmann. But after Kampmann exited last year, that slogan was especially accurate, as was the criticism that went with it — Team Alpha Male lacked a head coach to guide its fighters.
From the sound of things, the post-Kampmann era was a very tough stretch for Team Alpha Male fighters, highlighted by T.J. Dillashaw’s departure. The former UFC bantamweight champion moving to Denver to train at Elevation Fight Team was a major source of negative attention towards the Sacramento gym. In large part because it sparked a rivalry between Dillashaw and gym owner and fellow bantamweight Urijah Faber, who were longtime training partners of each other.
Lance Palmer, a staple of Team Alpha Male, wasn’t too hurt by Dillashaw’s exit, however.
“I’ve been friends with T.J. since I first moved to Sacramento five years ago,” Palmer told BloodyElbow.com’s The MMA Circus. “We’ve done a lot of training trips together, fight trips together. Through wrestling, I’ve known who T.J. was — not as well as I do now — but I’ve always known who he was. He wrestled Division 1, and same thing with (Chad) Mendes. So I’ve kind of always known who he was, but once I got to know him, he’s a great guy. I consider him a friend, no matter where he trains or what gym he chooses.”
“He went and did what he thought was right for his career. Nobody goes in the media and bashes somebody if they leave their job for a higher paying job or a job in a different city. That’s the name of the game. I don’t really care about that stuff. Our team is like a family, and a lot of guys had their feelings hurt because by it. But it didn’t really sway me either direction. I was friends with him then, and I’m still friends with him now.”
And while Dillashaw’s exit may not have been an especially sharp blow to the fighters. The severe lack of coaches nearly caused TAM to fall apart, according to the former WSOF featherweight champion.
“(Dillashaw) left when our team was honestly at a breaking point,” he said. “We didn’t have any structure. I had coach Joey, my boxing coach, who’s a great boxing coach. But we didn’t have an MMA coach. We were basically back to square one, training each other, and we’re too high level of a team for that.
“It was probably actually the beginning of January. It was after my fight,” he said. “We had Paige VanZant, Mendes, Urijah fight the week before me, December 12th, and I fought on the 18th. Those fights were an indication of how bad that fall was in the gym — not in the media. Not really having a structure of who’s fighting. It was just guys trying to train for fights and do our own thing. It was a mess. It was a disaster, honestly. Everybody lost that weekend except for Faber, but anybody will tell you that wasn’t a good performance by Faber, either.”
Team Alpha Male has recovered from its fall last year. Its fighters are mostly back on track. And, most importantly, it has a legitimate coaching staff now. Justin Buchholz has taken head coach duties, while Chris Holdsworth is the main jiu-jitsu coach and Danny Castillo is on deck for wrestling.
“After that, once we had time, we all kind of came together and figure out — Buchholz is the coach, but it’s been more of a corner-man job for him,” he said. “And now that he’s not fighting anymore, he’s able to take the reigns and make coaching his job. He’s very passionate about the sport. He was in the UFC and had Fight of the Nights. He’s had tons of experience. He’s cornered guys in championship fights in the UFC. He’s been all over the world cornering guys. He’s better than most coaches at the top gyms, at other gyms in the world, and that’s just because of his experience level in the sport.
“The biggest thing that Danny did for me was be able to take over the wrestling practices to where I can just focus on myself. It was a relief for me. I like helping and I like being apart of cornering guys and coaching and helping. I can during practice, don’t get me wrong. I’m still a huge part of the team as far as getting feedback. We all work together, no matter what. It’s not like, he’s a wrestling coach, only he’s allowed to teach anything. It’s still very much, everybody’s able to chip in and help out.
“With Holdsworth being the jiu-jitsu coach, it’s been awesome. He’s a high-level grappler; people don’t understand that. He’s been around the game of jiu-jitsu and MMA for a long time. He’s my age, he’s 28 or 29, and he’s been doing jiu-jitsu since he was a teenager. He’s been around it for a long time. He has a lot of experience. He’s competed a lot in jiu-jitsu and he was undefeated in MMA. So, really valuable having him being able to just teach right now while he’s not fighting. It’s been great.”
With Buchholz, Holdsworth and Castillo taking over the majority of the coaching duties, Palmer has been able to focus on himself leading up to his rematch against champ Alexandre Almeida at WSOF 32 later this month, rather than himself and his teammates. He plans on being victorious regardless, but expects viewers will be able to tell he received better coaching during this camp compared to his last.
“I think we’ll see a great performance either way. It was one of those fights that was just a bad performance. I didn’t feel great going into the fight. But also having the structure and coaching staff on point right now, it definitely helps because there are people focusing on me and my camp now,” he said. “Last camp it was just me doing things on my own and trying to get my mitt work in with my boxing coach. Going through practice and not really being corrected like we are now. I have so many people around me that can help make me better and help sharpen these tools for this fight. I will show a lot of improvement in my overall game. If you look at my fights before my last fight, I’ve had a lot of great performances and there were a lot of things I did well in the cage. So I’m looking just to add onto those things that I’ve already shown, and just keep showing my evolution.”
Palmer got in a little cross-training at Elevation Fight Team this past winter and considered moving to Denver, CO permanently. But Team Alpha Male is his home, and once the team got back on track, he knew he was staying home.
“I think I trained right after my fight, before New Year’s, in Denver. Denver’s an awesome city. Me and my girlfriend had talked about it a few times with how nice it would be to live in Denver and be able to train there. I definitely thought about it a little bit,” he admitted. “But once we got the coaching situation and everything figured out at Team Alpha Male, I was like, ‘Look, everything’s going well here. Buchholz knows what he’s talking about. Danny knows what he’s talking about — he had 22 or 23 under the Zuffa banner. Holdsworth is a great jiu-jitsu and MMA coach — he won The Ultimate Fighter.’
“I feel like I’m still young in my career, there’s a lot more that I can learn. I haven’t been to a [gym] where this many guys where, if you’re having trouble, you’re going to have trouble in every single round. There’s nobody that’s an easy round. We have guys that are still learning and picking up the techniques, but we have so many killers in the room. If you go to any other gym, you’re not going to really see that. I mean, Jackson’s has a bunch of different good guys at different weights, Team Elevation has different weight classes. But for my weight class, this is where the toughest guys in the world are.”