In almost every promotion you ever watch whether it’s in the UFC, Strikeforce, Bellator or otherwise, when a fighter is victorious and given a chance to talk, they thank coaches, trainers and teammates.
It’s pretty commonplace to thank those that helped the fighter get to the win.
With the thank you also comes payment. Almost every fighter pays a fee to managers, agents, trainers, coaches, or teams to help them get ready for a bout, and that’s always money out of pocket from the athlete.
Well, one of the top camps in the world is changing the way they do business to help give some of that money back to the athletes that perform night in, and night out on the biggest or smallest stages.
Coconut Creek, Fla based American Top Team has changed their rates for fighters training at their gym.
A previous fee of 20% was required for management and training services by the gym, or a 10% fee for fighters just training at the facility.
Well now American Top Team has slashed that to a flat 5% fee across the board, whether fighters are just training there or require the services of their management team headed up by gym owner Dan Lambert.
“One of the great privileges that we have here not only do we have a facility where you can show up, it’s 20,000 square feet, everything under one roof. You don’t have to go one place to do your boxing, another place for your jiu-jitsu, now you get it all under one roof. We also have the advantage of having Dan Lambert as one of the primary owners and investors in the team,” American Top Team manager John Hartnett told MMAWeekly.com.
“That’s a guy that’s never got a lot of credit for the things he’s done in the sport. This is just another thing he’s doing to help the sport grow and hopefully bring some new names down here, and make this room an even better place to train.”
The idea behind the price changes really does come down to money. Not so much more money for the gym, but more money going back to the fighters.
For every fighter like Thiago Alves training at American Top Team, there are hundreds of hopeful, up and coming fighters that want to live the dream and train full time, but with a lack of money they simply can’t continue to train and live.
This new cost structure is American Top Team’s way of giving back.
“Anybody that has any idea about what the business is and how much hard work a professional fighter has to do from the ground up to really build themselves up, and get them deep into the business, there’s a lot of expenses to be a full time fighter,” Hartnett explained.
“You’ve got to pay rent, you’ve got your grocery bill, if you’ve got kids it’s even tougher, all off of fighting 2 or 3 times a year if you’re lucky. It makes it extremely easier in that aspect. Cut some costs and get some world class training at the same time.”
American Top Team has traditionally been one of the most stable and well respected camps in MMA. Helping to launch the careers of fighters like Thiago Alves, Mike Brown, Cole Miller, JZ Cavalcante and others, the owners and trainers of the Florida based team are hopeful to set a new trend with their cost structure now represented.
“We opened a whole can of worms dropping our flag over the banner, we were the first people to do that in the UFC. That opened up a whole avenue for sponsorships and things like that,” said Hartnett.
“Hopefully this is going to provide opportunity for guys out there who are maybe already in the UFC, and you don’t have a home, you need somewhere to train, you can come here, train with world class guys. If you’ve got a manager, keep your manager, if you need management we’ll take care of management as well and that’s all for that 5-percent fee. It’s a nominal fee for world class training and a top notch facility.”
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