WORLD CLASS MMA TRAINING FACILITY COMING TO AUSTIN, TEXAS
Posted on | September 7, 2007 | No Comments
PRESS RELEASE:
Austin to get World Class Training Facility
Darrell Gholar, a three time Greco Roman Wrestling National Champ and former World Champion MMA title holder, returned to the United States today after spending nearly seven years training Brazilian fighters on Brazil’s “Top Team.”
Gholar is a graduate of the now NCAA Champion University of Minnesota Gophers and former teammate of Team Quest’s Dan “Hollywood” Henderson while both were with the California Jets.
Asked about his return to the US, Mr. Gholar replied that he would be opening a World Class Mixed Martial Arts Training Center in Austin, TX with fellow Gopher alum Joe Reasbeck. “Joe, Dan, myself, 2000 Olympian Heath Sims, Olympic Silver medalist Matt Lindland, and Ryan Parsons we all trained together for the 1996 Olympics. So we have a lot of history together. We’re going to put Austin, Texas on the map for MMA in a big way. I’ll be bringing in guys from Brazil and of course Team Quest already has two of the premier mixed martial arts training facilities in the world.
The first Team Quest Training Center was founded in Oregon by Matt Lindland, Dan Henderson and UFC Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture. A second training center was opened last year in Southern California.
Team Quest’s Dan Henderson, the Pride World Champion in two weight classes, will be fighting for a unified World Title against Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, the light heavyweight UFC World Champion. The fight will take place on Sept. 8th in London, England.
“Even though Dan’s a friend, I had to prepare fighters to face him. It was part of my job in Brazil. In fact, the last time Dan lost, I think was to one of my fighters, so I have pretty good understanding of his strengths and weaknesses. I also know how incredibly tough he is—he’s going to be a tough nut to crack for Jackson. Rampage is a good athlete–strong as an ox and can really throw some heavy lumber, but so can Henderson. And even though Dan is giving up some weight, I’ve got to give him the edge. Rampage was a good high school wrestler, but I think people in MMA often underestimate how difficult it is make an Olympic wrestling team. Dan did it twice. It should be a good fight, but I expect Dan to come out on top.”
The site for the Austin Training Center should be determined in next few weeks. “That’s part of the reason I came back when I did. I was going to be training Vitor Belfort for his next fight, but we’re narrowing down our site choices and working with vendors, so I needed to get stateside. We’re also working out the final structure with Team Quest. We’re going to be able to do some incredible things because of the depth of talent in our facilities, plus I’ve maintained my relationship with Top Team in Brazil. I’m just excited to get back home to the US and get things kicked off in Austin.”
When asked why Texas for the training center and more specifically why Austin, Gholar responded, “Texas has in recent years become a rapid growth area for wrestling. We view wrestling as the most essential skill to being successful in MMA. I think because football is such a huge thing in Texas, people are really becoming aware of how compatible football and wrestling are—most often the best football players are wrestlers. This is helping to fuel the growth in wrestling and provides a good future pool of talent. There’s also very well established boxing, kick boxing and traditional martial arts in Texas. When you stand back and factor in Austin’s explosive growth, youthful population and proximity to the other major metros of Texas, it just made a lot of sense.”
When pressed for possible locations, Gholar added, “There are ongoing discussions, but one of the places we like is the proposed X-Park. It’s really a question of timing and how quickly they can pull things together—but we’re looking at sites all over the metro area. We’ll make a decision very soon.”
Gholar’s MMA credentials are impressive. Just a partial list of the guys Mr. Gholar has trained reads like a Who’s Who of mixed martial arts. They include Ze Mario Sperry, Murilo Bustamante, Ricardo Arona, Vitor Belfort, Fernando Margarida, Minotauro Nogueira, Shaolin, Royler Gracie, Carlinhos Gracie, Arthur Mariano, David Maswary, and Bas Rutten.
This doesn’t even take into account the countless number of Olympic and world class caliber wrestlers Gholar has trained with over the years, which of course includes his friends at Team Quest. When asked if he ever competed against the legendary Randy Couture, Mr. Gholar responded, “Many times, many times.” Pushed to disclose the result of those battles, he politely tried to defer saying only, “Again we’re talking about a friend of mine, we’re all pretty tight in the wrestling community…it was a long time ago and Randy is a great champion and great ambassador for our sport.” After repeated attempts to drag it out of him, Gholar finally submitted, “Yeah, I beat him.”