The Most Unique, Unorthodox & Downright Strange Coaches In Mixed Martial Arts History

Some MMA coaches have their own training methods, where as others are more by the book. Whatever the process, all that really matters is whether they can bring their fighters results.

When coaches start incorporating novel, strange and wacky ideas, this can go one of two ways. If their fighters start to win, they are looked at as pioneering geniuses who bought something new to the sport which wasn’t there already. On the other hand, if their fighters start losing, they are bashed endlessly by the media and online discussions in which people cannot believe how they ever landed such jobs in the first place.

Whatever the results though, unique coaches are interesting at the very least. They bring new perspectives to the table and often generate styles and techniques which nobody previously thought about.

Whilst the top coaches in MMA are usually very serious, old school and experienced, many of them will not be developing new methods of training. Part of this is because they do not need to since they’ve already proven themselves. It would be somewhat foolish for a recognized coach to start an out of the box training program and risk a reputation which they have taken a lifetime to build.

With that being said, some of the coaches on this list are truly bizarre and would probably be better suited to a rehabilitation center than coaching a fighter in a cage. New and left field methods will always be criticised, and it is easy to see why when some of the names are examined closely. A bad coach can destroy a fighters career and confidence, so will always deserve to be harshly judged.

The 11 Strangest & Most Unique Coaches In MMA History

John Danaher

An extremely talented grappling coach, John Danaher is a strange, but very legitimate BJJ professor. Originally from New Zealand, Danaher has coached the likes of Georges St Pierre and Chris Weidman as well as ADCC winner Gordon Ryan and his teammate Gary Tonon.

Danaher is well known for his eccentric personality both in and outside of the gyms and has rarely been pictured not wearing a rashguard. In fact, he loves rashguards so much, Danaher wore one to the wedding of Jake Shields, as well as the funeral of Gordon Ryans father.

A true martial arts encyclopedia, Danaher is known to not only teach grappling, but also every other martial art to his student Gary Tonon who is currently signed to ONE championship. He is also a gigantic lover of weapons and will present a ceremonial knife to any of his students that earn a black belt from him.

Jean-Charles Skarbowsky

An established kickboxer, Skarbowsky has a record of 75 wins, 23 losses and 3 draws. With many of his fights having happened in Bangkok against solid Thai opposition, Skarbowsky is a real technician and legitimate fighter.

On the 12th series of TUF, Skarbowsky’s long time training partner and friend Georges St Pierre invited him to come and help train the UFC prospects. A rather unassuming looking man at only 5ft 9in tall and a slender frame, Skarbowsky certainly didn’t look like anything you’d never seen before.

Described as a “free thinker” by St Pierre, this is a fairly true, but liberal description of Skarbowsky. There are rumours he turned up to TUF whilst drunk, but this is likely not true. It has been confirmed however that he does like to drink a lot of alcohol before training and is still able to destroy his sparring partners.

Dan Freeman

One of the strangest ever picks for a coach on TUF. As previously mentioned, Georges St PIerre bought his wacky friend Jean-Charles Skarbowsky in to train kickboxing, but that makes sense as he is a fantastic fighter.

However, Ken Shamrock thought it would be a good idea to bring in his friend Dan Freeman, who is a bodybuilder…

Needless to say, Freeman didn’t really offer too much to the fighters other than nutritional advice which they likely already knew – since their goal was to become a professional fighter. On one episode, the cringe levels go through the roof as Ken Shamrock does not attend training and Freeman is left alone with the fighters. Eventually the training session has to be run by the fighters themselves since Freeman has no real knowledge about mixed martial arts.

Al Snow

Known best for his zany character in WWE, Al Snow is not a name you would associate with martial arts. Al Snow just happened to be good friends with legendary fighter Dan Severn and was the person who first introduced him to the world of professional wrestling.

One lesser known fact is that Snow also trained Dan Severn for his first few fights in MMA. Both Al Snow and Dan Severn didn’t really have any idea how to train for MMA since it was so new at the time and there weren’t really any specialist coaches that knew more than they did. Somehow it all came together though and Severn has a fantastic career record.

Latory Gonzalez

Perhaps an unfair addition to the list, Latory Gonzalez is the head coach of Mike Perry through no fault of her own. It seems that in recent years Mike Perry has decided that paying other people to coach him is not a good idea, so broke up with the platinum princess and fired the rest of his corner.

His new girlfriend and mother to his son was immediately promoted to the only coach on Perry’s team with the jobs of holding ice on his back in between rounds and giving him water to drink.

More bizzarely than the girlfriend of Mike Perry being the only person in his corner is the fact that he decided it would be a good idea to do this whilst still in the UFC. There have been countless incidents of fighters coaches being worth their weight in gold and spotting opportunities and adjustments which won the fight for them. However, for the time being at least it seems that Mike Perry disagrees.

Eddie Bravo

A brilliant BJJ revolutionary, Eddie Bravo is a fantasticly unique coach, but certainly “unique” to say the least. Developing the entire 10th planet jiu jitsu by himself, it is Eddie Bravo who is largely credited for bringing the likes of rubber guard and even some leg lock variations to MMA.

Coaching the likes of Tony Ferguson and Kelvin Gastelum, Bravo is not for everyone, but certainly has solid MMA credentials, especially if a fighter is flexible.

With that being said, the more you learn about Eddie Bravo, the stranger he becomes, with names of various positions in his 10th planet system known as phrases such as “crackhead control” and “chill-dog”, he is not a typical BJJ instructor. In addition to this, Bravo can be found on the Joe Rogan podcast revealing his belief that space is fake and when questioned about his wacky theories simply replying “look in to it”.

Marv Marinovic

Obsessed with Soviet style training, Marv Marinovic clearly knew what he was doing. At the time he was training fighters, Soviet styles of training and conditioning were far more advanced than regular western styles. Even to this day, there are methods of Russian weightlifting and wrestling which are technically superior to anything the west has to offer.

On camera, Marinovic’s training methods certainly look unorthodox to say the least, but they do get results. He certainly made BJ Penn more athletic and explosive, as well as training with various NFL teams.

Edmond Tarverdyan

You would be forgiven for thinking that Edmond Taverdyan was a low profile game of thrones character, but he was actually the head coach of Ronda Rousey.

Hated by almost the entire MMA community, Taverdyan didn’t teach Rousey any of her judo technique since this was already perfected by the likes of Gene LeBell and Gokor Chivichyan. Instead, it’s not really known what Taverdyan actually taught Ronda Rousey or any of his other fighters other than making them believe that their stand up striking skills were a lot better than reality showed.

Infamously known for shouting “head movement” as loud as he could, this was not enough to save Ronda Rousey, nor Travis Browne as they both slumped towards the end of their careers.

Taverdyan seems to be a man who was in the right place at the right time, yet took a lot of credit for Rousey’s early success.

Steven Seagal

Better known for low budget action movies that being an MMA coach, Seagal, who is a black belt in aikido, still believes he is capable of both these jobs.

There is a reasonable amount of footage showing the legendary Anderson Silva training with Steven Seagal, although nobody is quite sure what the arrangement was, or whether any money changed hands. All that is factual about the matter is that Silva claimed Steven Seagal is a nice guy, but certainly not his coach.

Seagal seems to have a different opinion and believes that he taught him the front kick used to knock out Vitor Belfort at UFC 126. In an interview with Ariel Helwani, Seagal said “It’s not exactly karate, just something that I created, it’s something a bit different”. He added that he’s never seen the said kick before because “nobody knows it”.

Ido Portal

An often ridiculed character on the internet, Ido Portal is a master of the human body. Whilst his applications and methods may not be for everyone, you can clearly see his movements are somewhat “different” to the average person. These movements can clearly be seen in Conor McGregor’s style, particularly during the Jose Aldo fight where he moved backwards and forwards extremely quickly to surprise the Brazilian and knock him out.

However, since Nate Diaz said the following in a press conference, Portal has never quite got his respect back “You’re playing touch-butt in the park with that dork, the [one with the] ponytail”. The off the cuff remark was not too accurate, but hilarious nonetheless.

Joshua Fabia

The founder of the School of self awareness,Fabia interestingly does not seem to possess any.

Somehow Fabia was able to become the MMA coach of Diego Sanchez, despite not having any MMA experience. When watching footage of Fabia, you are able to see he has some kind of training in traditional martial arts, although how much of this is legitimate I have no idea.

His training methods go from a range of absurd to ridiculous such as dodging a heavy bag, chasing Diego Sanchez with a knife around the gym, blindfolded training and hanging fighters upside down whilst hitting them. The benefits of this kind of training are unknown at best, and at the worst offer no benefit whatsoever.

Fabia should be an inspiration for anyone who wants to become an MMA coach since he seems particularly unqualified to be anywhere near amateur level fighters, let alone UFC calibre.