Chael was definitely there; he was Matt Lindland's big prospect. The first time I met him, Lindland introduced us and then Chael goes into this spiel about how he's undefeated except for drawing against a guy in Japan who he beat, and that he's going to be a world champion first, and then Governor of Oregon later. Afterwards, Lindland comes up to us and is like "I don't know what he's talking about-- he's not undefeated and he lost to that guy in Japan even though it was a draw." Even then, they all thought of Chael as having world-class talent but with a strong mental weakness. I got to attend that famous tournament in Denver that had him, Shogun, Jeremy Horn, Babalu, and Forrest Griffin (I talked to Forest backstage and he said he was a "Special Education teachers aide"). Chael of course lost to Forrest via triangle, and for like a minute before you could hear Matt Lindland screaming at Chael to not allow Griffin to get head control.
Follis was the head coach, but Innever really saw him get on the mat. There was no BJJ-specific classes that I could see, as everything was just called "grappling." Seemed like you had to cross-train elsewhere to really learn other martial arts, as Randy regularly went to Matt Hume's gym in Washington to learn new striking combinations from him and Maurice Smith.
I'll tell ya though, of all the tough guys they had in that place, there was none tougher than Chris Leben (aside from Randy). He was literally just an area kid who came in with his buddy one day to sign up for classes, but he just picked things up so fast and had that iron will. In those epic rounds I mentioned in my last post, Leben gave Randy as much trouble as anybody. The guy just naturally understands what it means to fight.
