Are guys like Eric Albarracin and Javier Mendez even actually good coaches for MMA?

TheMMAnalyst said:
Nobody ever said they were.

He’s the head coach, he organizes the training camp and helps develop a strategy based on the opponent.

Again the question goes unanswered - if he’s so useless, why is he there?
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Why would he not be there? He's the owner and manager of the gym. I'm not saying he's useless. If you have low level striking you can probably learn some things from him. Several other coaches can teach you better techniques and strategies specifically in regards to striking for MMA. I think he's also a good guy and people just like being around him
 
Hellowhosthat said:
tbf the vast majority of top coaches were never good fighters.

Greg Jackson, Firas Zahabi, Mike Winklejohn, Henri Hooft, Diego Lima, Marc Montoya etc. A lot were pro fighters, but none of them particularly good ones.
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Yep, same in a lot of sports honestly.

Now there can be a lot of different reasons for that being so that I'm too tired to get into
 
bongwater said:
theres a reason why they javies mendes socal edmund!
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Bruh, come on, at least get the location right. AKA's at the Bay Area which is a few hundred miles away from SoCal.
Bay Area Edmund is more fitting.

Also Abdulmanap(RIP) gave praise to Javier's coaching system and methodology despite whatever people want to downplay it as. It's worked well enough over the years to give high level fighters all the way from Koscheck, Fitch, Cain, DC, to the Dagestani contingent of today their success.
 
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GolovKing said:
All of those guys were boxers just not professionally. They all were taught boxing themselves when they were young but got into training early on rather than trying to be fighters first. Eric literally knows nothing else besides wrestling and Javier knows nothing else besides American style kickboxing which is not even a good base for mma
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Dude , Javier's been coaching along side many many coaches for decades, he's learned along the way about it all. You're making no damn sense. Just how fighters learn and get better, so do coaches.
 
Willie said:
Javier is a former kick boxing champion, AKA until couple of years ago was not known to be a wrestling gym. Khabib and DC changed that.
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AKA was always known as a wrestling gym. You had Cain and DC and even Fitch and Koscheck back in the day. Javier was never a world kickboxing champion just a local american one back in the day
 
AKA guys are usually fantastic boxers with amazing feinting ability and combination punching. It is meat and potatoes but effective at the highest level.

AKA also boasted unmatched wrestling aggression before Khabib and his team joined guys like Fitch and Kos were drowning dudes.


My biggest knock is they seem to train too hard and are injury prone and less talented guys like Violent Bob Ross tend to get worse since they need to be slick instead of all force and AKA isn’t the best for being a sneakier fighter.
Regardless of what you believe Mendez and his team does well they for sure built an environment that gets the most out of Uber talents like Cain, DC, Khabib and Islam. The guys who can handle the pressure get insanely good.
 
PrideNverDies said:
AKA was always known as a wrestling gym. You had Cain and DC and even Fitch and Koscheck back in the day. Javier was never a world kickboxing champion just a local american one back in the day
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They started out as a kickboxing gym. He produced some local kickboxing talent in the 90s. Brian Johnston was their first UFC fighter in the mid 90s.You also have other guys like BJ Penn and Frank Shamrock during the later half of the 90s.Those folks sought out a kickboxing gym to learn how to strike.

AKA's first wave of their own MMA guys were like Bobby Southworth, Josh Thomson, Mike Swick, Paul Buentello, Jon Fitch and Mike Kyle.
 
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Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov said Javier Mendez was a great coach and had tremendous respect for him and gave him great praise.

If you still have questions about his legitimacy as a coach now that you know that, bless your heart.

Let us know if you know more about MMA coaching than Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov so we can all know how much to respect your opinion.
 
Hellowhosthat said:
Is Javier Mendes who's cornered five UFC champions a good coach for MMA?

Is this a serious question?
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That's not even including Umar(possible future champ) and Usman(Bellator Champion).

This is a terrible comp.
 
Mendez is legit from what I’ve seen… it’s that little fat dude with the big glasses that I’ve never seen do anything
 
He’s an amazing gym manager and head coach. In sports in general sometimes you need a guy that can steer the ship and put all the pieces in place. The most knowledgeable fight specific guys are sometimes terrible at the “managing and cornering” aspects.
 
Wow this is one of the shittest hot takes I've ever seen, even for Sherdog.

So serial champion trainer Javier Mendez isn't a top coach, he just facilitates top fighters coming together.. nothing to do with the elite gym he built based on the success of his coaching

Also the presumption that Mendez doesn't offer technical advice to his fighters based on absolute zero evidence is so retarded its hard to even address. On the balance of probabilities, over 20 yrs of elite fighters asking him to corner them suggest Javier brings something meaningful to the table
 
Willie said:
Javier is a former kick boxing champion, AKA until couple of years ago was not known to be a wrestling gym. Khabib and DC changed that.
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Not sure if trolling.

Koscheck, Fitch, and Cain were all out of AKA you goof.
 
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