Blackzilians

Blackzilians

Est.	2011
Primary trainers	Henri Hooft Neil Melanson Jake Bonacci Jorge Santiago Greg Jones Corey Peacock
Past titleholders	Rashad Evans Miguel Torres Ryan Jimmo Vitor Belfort Eddie Alvarez
Training facilities	Boca Raton, Florida
Website	http://www.blackzilians.com/

The Blackzilians is a professional team of fighters in mixed martial arts, boxing, kickboxing, wrestling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu located in Boca Raton, Florida. They are most well known for being the team that includes former UFC light heavyweight champions 'Suga' Rashad Evans and Vitor Belfort and former UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez.

Founding of the Blackzilians

Owned by Glenn Robinson, the supercamp, commonly referred to as the Blackzilians, started when MMA fighters Jorge Santiago, Danillo Villefort, Yuri Villefort, and Gesias Cavalcante decided to leave American Top Team. Glenn Robinson, CEO of Authentic Sports Management, which manages these fighters, found a small gym in Boca Raton, Florida that only had 6 guys training out of it. Robinson struck a deal with Imperial Athletics to take over rent payments on the gym. Robinson then relocated the team to the world class training facility JACO Hybrid Training Center in Boca Raton. Rashad Evans met Robinson through one of his partners, John Rubenstein, and Rashad's manager at the time Jervis Cole. Robinson and Evans hit it off and Evans asked Robinson to take over as his manager. Michael Johnson was brought in as a temporary training partner for a few weeks, and he liked the atmosphere so much he never left. As they brought in training partners for up and coming fights, the trend continued. Many of the guys brought in for a training camp decided not to leave, and the Blackzilians have become a supercamp full of a number of notable MMA fighters.^[1] The name Blackzilians was coined when Strikeforce Middleweight Danillo Villefort was looking through their management's website and pointed out to Robinson that every fighter (at the time) was Black or Brazilian, and the name stuck.^[2]

Instructors

Henri Hooft is the head striking coach for the Blackzilians. He trained kickboxers to championship status such as Peter Aerts and Tyrone Spong.^[3]

• Jake Bonacci is the Strength and Conditioning Coach
• Jorge Santiago, UFC Veteran fighter, is the Brazilian jiu-jitsu Coach
• Greg Jones is the Wrestling Coach
• Corey Peacock, PhD is the Performance Coach
• Neil Melanson is the head Grappling Coach. His style is heavily influenced by the Hayastan school which mixes catch as catch can wrestling with Judo and Sambo

Notable fighters

Boxing Guillermo Rigondeaux (WBA, WBO, Summer Olympics)[4] Idel Torriente (Summer Olympics)[5] Kickboxing Cosmo Alexandre (Bellator, K-1, It's Showtime) Randy Blake (Glory, K-1)[6] Daniel Ghiță (Glory, It's Showtime, Local Kombat, K-1)[7] Murthel Groenhart (Glory, It's Showtime, K-1)[8] Robin van Roosmalen (Glory, It's Showtime, K-1)[8] Gökhan Saki (Glory, It's Showtime, K-1)[8] Paul Slowinski (SUPERKOMBAT, K-1)[9] Andrei Stoica (Glory, SUPERKOMBAT, K-1)[10] Tyrone Spong (WSOF, Glory, It's Showtime, K-1)[11] Rico Verhoeven (Glory, It's Showtime, SUPERKOMBAT, K-1)[8] Mixed martial arts Rashad Evans (UFC)[12] Anthony Johnson (UFC, WSOF)[1] Thiago Silva (UFC, WSOF)[1] Vitor Belfort (UFC, Affliction, Pride FC)[13] Cezar Ferreira (UFC)[14] Eddie Alvarez (UFC, Bellator)[15]

Matt Mitrione (UFC)[1] Michael Johnson (UFC)[1] Ryan Jimmo (UFC, MFC)[16] Fabio Mello (Bellator FC, Pride FC)[17] Marcus Aurélio (UFC, Pride FC)[18] Jorge Santiago (UFC, Strikeforce, Sengoku)[16] Siyar Bahadurzada (UFC, Sengoku, Shooto)[19] Gesias Cavalcante (Strikeforce, Shooto, K-1)[16] Guto Inocente (Strikeforce, UFC)[20] Andrews Nakahara (K-1, DREAM) Braulio Estima (ADCC)[1] Miguel Torres (UFC, WEC)[1] Danillo Villefort (UFC, WEC, Strikeforce) [2] Yuri Villefort (UFC, Strikeforce)[16] Abel Trujillo (UFC)[16] Luiz Firmino (Pride FC, Shooto, DREAM)[21] Claude Patrick (UFC, KOTC)[22] Ryan LaFlare (UFC)[23] Gilbert Burns (BJJ World Champion) Tom Niinimäki (UFC)[24] Stefan Struve (UFC) Hans Stringer (UFC, WSOF) / Beslan Isaev (M-1 Global and ACB) [25] / Musa Khamanaev (M-1 Global Lightweight Champion and Combat Sambo World Champion) [26]

References

1. "Glenn Robinson: The Man Behind The Blackzilians". Bloody Elbow. Retrieved 2014-01-14.
2. "Video: How the Blackzilians Got Its Name". Sherdog.com. 2012-08-18. Retrieved 2014-01-14.
3. Henri Hooft's profile blackzilians.com
4. Time Till Next Fight (2013-04-03). "Two-Time Olympic Gold Medalist And Champion Guillermo Rigondeaux Joins The Blackzilians, Becomes The Team'S First Pro Boxer". BlackZilians. Retrieved 2014-01-14.
5. Idel Torriente's profile blackzilians.com
6. GLORY 15: Randy 'Boom Boom' Blake talks Jean-Claude Van Damme, Chuck Norris, training with Tyrone Spong, and more!
7. Daniel Ghita moving to Florida to train with Overeem and "Blackzilian" team by Dave Walsh (liverkick.com) 24 February 2012
8. K-1 Champ Murthel Groenhart is Training with Alistair Overeem at Blackzillians
9. Paul Slowinski to debut in MMA September 21 on MMA Downunder 4
10. Andrei Stoica training at The Blackzilians
11. "Tyrone Spong Returns to His Roots, Faces Melvin Manhoef This Weekend". MMAWeekly.com. 2012-01-27. Retrieved 2014-01-14.
12. ""Suga" Rashad Evans - Official UFC® Fighter Profile". Ufc.com. 2013-11-17. Retrieved 2014-01-14.
13. "Vitor Belfort Joins Blackzilians; Rashad Evans to Serve as Head Coach for UFC 152 Training Camp". MMA Fighting. Retrieved 2014-01-14.
14. http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2013/4/23/4257552/ufc-mauricio-rua-training-cezar-mutante-blackzilians-mma-newsh. Retrieved June 13, 2013. Missing or empty |title= (help)
15. "Belfort and the shelf life of a 'Phenom' - MMA Blog - ESPN". Sports.espn.go.com. Retrieved 2014-01-14.
16. Meet the Blackzilians: A Family of World Class Coaches and Fighters By Joshua Carey (bleacherreport.com) on December 23, 2011
17. Imperial Martial Arts and Fitness Center (2013-11-17). "Fabio Mello | Imperial Martial Arts and Fitness Center". Imperialathletics.com. Retrieved 2014-01-14.
18. Imperial Martial Arts and Fitness Center (2013-11-17). "Marcus Aurelio | Imperial Martial Arts and Fitness Center". Imperialathletics.com. Retrieved 2014-01-14.
19. "Siyar Bahadurzada Joins Blackzilians". 5thRound.com. 2012-06-28. Retrieved 2014-01-14.
20. "Antes de voltar ao Strikeforce, Guto analisa duelo Belfort x Jones". TATAME. Retrieved 2014-01-14.
21. Luiz Firmino's profile blackzilians.com
22. Claude Patrick's profile blackzilians.com
23. Ryan LaFlare's profile blackzilians.com
24. Tom Niinimäki's profile blackzilians.com
25. Beslan Isaev's profile blackzilians.com
26. Musa Khamanaev's profile blackzilians.com

External links

• "Home of the Blackzilians | BlackZilians". blackzilians.com. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
• "https://twitter.com/blackzilians". twitter.com. Retrieved 18 January 2014. External link in |title= (help)