Embedded Files
Post date: 13-Oct-2013 19:50:16
“They were good when I got here. I think I made a couple of improvements here and there but I can’t really say they’ve made big improvements because they were good at the beginning”
That was Jeremy Horn’s answer to me when I asked him if he had noticed an improvement in the guys at Shooters Dundee during the time he has worked with them. Jeremy has done a seminar at the gym, once every year, for the past three years.
I attended his seminar this weekend and it was one of the best seminars I’ve been to. My skills improved greatly. The guys at Shooters Dundee, the only UK gym Jeremy has ever done a seminar at, can’t speak highly enough of Jeremy and his seminars. Yet he was humble enough to claim that he can’t take credit for any of the improvements the guys have made. Learning from, and getting to chat to, Jeremy over the course of the day, it was his humility that impressed, and surprised, me the most.
Jeremy started with a warm up – escaping the mount. He stressed the importance of escaping properly with good technique, not just by flinging your legs over the other guys arms. I hate when people do that escape and loved the fact he hated it too. Jeremy had impressed me already!
The first thing Jeremy taught was some details on escaping the mount. Within minutes he taught a detail which blew me away. Something so simple, yet so important, that I have already started drilling and adding to my game. I would love to tell you what that was, but you should have been at the seminar!
Jeremy then went on to focus on escaping back control. He emphasises that if you can defend back mount, there is nothing worse, positionally, that your opponent can do to you. Speaking to him later, I asked him what he felt was the most important area to get good at it in grappling, and he again emphasised the importance of defence;
“Defence is what keeps you in the game. Your offence can be awesome, but if your defence sucks then you’ll lose quickly. Defence is kinda underrated, particularly positional defence. A strong defence can take you so far.”
I found this fascinating. Here I was chatting to a man mountain of man, an ex UFC title challenger no less, with world class grappling, who could presumably overwhelm anyone on a mat with attack, yet he was emphasising defene. I asked him where this mentality and approach to fighting came from:
“Look at some of the Japanese fighters, I learned the mentality from them. In the past, a lot of Japanese fighters when they started training at a gym, moved into the gym. You were everybody’s whipping boy. They wouldn’t teach you anything. Only way you learned anything was by getting your ass kicked. You’d have to do everybody’s laundry, cook dinner for everyone. What that built was, before you learned anything about offense, you learnt how to defend yourself. If you look at Japanese fighters, very rarely do they get submitted, because they are tough as hell and their defence is awesome.”
Jeremy then went onto teach an excellent series of half guard attacks, which he bases the majority of his game around.
After the teaching portion of the seminar finished, I had a chance to chat with Jeremy a bit more about his career and some of his former fights and opponents.
Jeremy is one of the old school. A legend from the time when MMA was relatively new and the UFC was nowhere near the powerhouse it is today. If you got into fighting back then, you did it because you loved it.
I had read online that Jeremy’s first fight was in a barn. Like many old MMA stories, I had taken it with a pinch of salt. However, much to my shock, Jeremy confirmed that yes, indeed his first fight had taken place in a barn. He explained that he initially just trained with his friends, before moving to train with Pat Miletich in Iowa.
Getting into the UFC back in the day was a lot different to how it is now. Hearing Jeremy explain how he wound up on the UFCs radar was one of the more interesting points of the day, especially to a fan of the old school UFC like me, who has always wondered how those guys got into it;
“Back then it was a lot easier to get into the UFC because there weren’t as many people fighting. There weren’t as many good fighters. I got in just because John Peretti, who was the matchmaker came to one of Monte Cox’s shows that I was fighting on. I won the heavyweight tournament there and so he decided to put me in.
The way Jeremy calmly explain how as basically a kid, he won a one night heavyweight tournament (as a drastically undersized heavyweight) and then got offered a slot in the biggest MMA organisation in the world, you could be forgiven thinking that is a relatively normal occurrence.
Jeremy’s first fight in the UFC is a legendary story amongst MMA fans. In his very first fight, he fought Frank Shamrock for the UFC Middleweight title. Frank Shamrock at the time was the best fighter on the planet, and had defeated everyone he had fought with little issue. Before the fight, nobody gave Jeremy a chance. What ensued was a star making performance where Jeremy gave Shamrock all he could handle before eventually succumbing to an armbar 16 and a half minutes in.
How on earth did a young kid with no previous UFC fights wind up fighting the best MMA fighter in the world in his debut? To most people, that’s absolutely insane. To Jeremy, it’s a “funny story”
“I was supposed to be an alternate on UFC 17 (the tournament where Dan Henderson beat Carlos Newton and Allan Goes). A month out from the show, they decided that they were gonna do a PPV called Night of Champions, where all they were gonna do was show old title fights. They realised that they had to have at least one new fight, and decided it would be Frank Shamrock defending his title. They did it at UFC 17, I was actually the second or third fight of the night.
Considering his relative lack of experience, I assumed that was his toughest fight and look to him for confirmation
“Honestly, that one wasn’t that hard. I made a mistake at the end and I lost, but up and until then it was pretty easy.”
I’m shocked by the answer. Perhaps I shouldn’t be. This is a guy who as a young kid was thrown to the wolves and gave the wolf the toughest fight of his career. It’s clear that not a lot phases him. I ask him if any of his fights were tough, still amazed that someone could consider fighting Frank Shamrock at his peak as easy. Considering who he has been in the cage with, I found it amazing that it actually took him some time to think of a fight that he found tough. Eventually, he has an answer
“My second fight with Chuck was one of the harder ones. That would be the hardest one.”
For those who don’t know, Jeremy actually submitted Chuck Liddell the first time they fought, before losing a tough rematch. He wound up being the only man to ever submit Chuck Liddell. I ask him if that, knowing what Chuck went on to become, was his proudest moment.
“I view fights a little differently. When I fight I always expect to win. When I win, it’s not a big deal, it’s not a surprise. The fight that I was most proud of was my fight with Forrest Griffin. I thought I did well, like I finally fought at a level that I could be proud of. I feel like I’m a total underachiever. That fight was closer to what I’m truly capable of.”
This quote really sums up Jeremy. Only an incredibly humble man could consider all of the victories Jeremy has as “no big deal”. Only someone with incredibly high standards could achieve what Jeremy has achieved and consider himself to be an under achiever. One look at his record and career shows that he is anything but. Yet, he shows a great believe in himself. To reach the level he did, I guess you need to have that total confidence in yourself. Confident and also humble – that rare combination.
Talking about the Forrest Griffin fight, a fight he won with a head kick knockout, brings a smile to his face. He’s probably been asked about it a million times, but it will probably never bore him to talk and think about it. I ask him his thoughts on Forrest;
“Great guy. Strong competitor, what a lot of fighters should be. Strong minded, coming to fight, not a lot of nonsense, not a lot of BS”
Jeremy never has a bad word to say about anyone. However, his mention of nonsense and BS steers the conversation to perhaps his most famous foe, Chael Sonnen.
Jeremy fought Chael Sonnen three times in his career, all well before Chael became the character he is now. He won all three fights, including two submissions.
“I’m a huge fan of Chael. I think he’s a great fighter, I love his personality, the way he hypes a fight. I don’t really look at it like that’s the guy I beat 3 times. Everybody changes, everybody learns and grows, so who knows if we fought again if it would be the same. I think it would, just judging by what I’ve seen. He doesn’t seem like he’s that much more polished in submissions.
I never asked him how he thought a fourth fight would go, it was just something he offered. The competitive fire is clearly still there. Mind you, with someone who has had as many fights as Jeremy, that fighting spirit could probably never die entirely.
Chael isn’t the only guy Jeremy submitted in his career. He has recorded over 60 submission wins in his MMA career. With the recent controversy surrounding Rousimar Palhares, a man who Jeremy has actually fought, I thought there was no better person to give an opinion on the situation. If anyone has experienced someone tapping and having to stop applying the submission, it’s Jeremy;
“I hear a lot of people and from what I’ve seen, Palhares is definitely unbalanced. He’s not right in the head. Everytime I’ve met him, he’s always been polite, he’s always been nice, so I would tend to think that there’s no malice in what he’s doing. I think he’s just , you know, he gets caught in the moment not paying attention. When he’s fighting he’s a savage animal looking to kill somebody and it takes a little longer than it should to turn that off. I don’t think he’s trying to hurt people, I think he just doesn’t know any better. That being said, that’s part of the sport – if you can’t control yourself then maybe you shouldn’t compete in the sport. If you can’t control yourself, I guess you don’t fight.”
I am running out of time. Not with Jeremy, but with the other people at the seminar, desperate for just a few minutes rolling with Jeremy. So, to tie things up, I simply ask him for a few words about some of his more famous opponents.
“Anderson Silva – amazing fighter, great reflexes.
Dan Severn – Crazy! Huge head! I tried choking him, I couldn’t even get a guillotine because I couldn’t get my arm round his head
Big Nog – really tough
Randy Couture –that’s a tough one. Bitter loss, I think I should have won that decision.”
Again, not a bad word to say about anyone.
We wrap up the interview and Jeremy goes into the Shooters Dundee cage to roll with some of the starstruck students. I was one of them. During our roll, he effortlessly takes me to school, using pure technique despite being an absolute giant. He makes a point of using the techniques he showed in the seminar, as if anyone would doubt what he has shown. Amusingly, during one roll, he says that “there is always one who doesn’t believe what I show” after a student gets a bit too excited rolling with him. Yet he never raises the resistance, just plays with the student for a few more minutes before calling time on the seminar.
If you get the chance to attend one of Jeremy’s seminars, you really should. The techniques and concepts shown were game changing – this is not a seminar where you pay money just to meet a famous fighter. He is very approachable and happy to any answer questions you may have AND he is happy to roll with anyone at the end, which is always a plus for fanboys such as me haha!
You can see our roll here!
On my way home from the seminar, I of course was thinking about the techniques and the quality of the seminar, which have improved my skills leaps and bounds, but more so I was thinking about Jeremy himself. What a cool experience getting to train with someone who has had the career he has had, and has the knowledge he has to share. With all the discussion about Palhares, I feel like I’ve just been in there with his polar opposite. I’ll probably never fully understand his mentality or how he can be so humble.
Fighters are just a bit different.
Check out www.eliteperformancegym.com to find out more about Jeremy, training with Jeremy in his gym or even booking him for a seminar (highly recommended).
Massive thanks to Shooters Dundee for making me feel very welcome, giving us access to the seminar and generally being sound guys, and of course to Jeremy himself for being a pleasure to chat to and learn from.
Jimbo
#scottish MMA #Scotland MMA #Jermey Horn #Scotlands MMA broadcast #The MMA Show
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse