mixed martial arts chris brennan

Chris Brennan is well known as a professional fighter, having fought in UFC, King of the Cage, Shooto and Warriors Quest. He is also the founder of the world famous Next Generation academy in Irvine, California.

In Liverpool for only a flying visit, the 6-hour seminar in the newly formed Scouse Shoot was a chance to meet and train with a true world-class fighter.

Around thirty people attended, mostly from the host club but a few familiar faces from the SFUK open-mat were also in attendance (notably a few from the Colleseum and also a small contingent from the Atherton Wrestlers club).

Being a BJJ black belt as well as a pro-MMA fighter, Chris was keen to include both techniques from no-gi submission wrestling and Vale Tudo in the session. After drilling the shoot and a number of other takedowns, we moved onto guard work.

It was evident that a number of the people there had limited knowledge of ground fighting, so techniques were kept simple but effective.

After working guard passing, striking from closed guard and half guard, we moved onto some submissions. We went through some chokes, arm bars, triangles and kimuras, all from various positions. Chris was keen to point out the subtleties of each manoeuvre that would ensure success, and was walking around happily answering any questions.

We found Chris to be very laid back and approachable; he would stroll around helping people out, and happily stay and chat if you had any questions. He is in his own words brutally honest, and not the type to shy away from any questions you may have. Asked about his recent weight cutting pictures, he candidly spoke about the effort he put into making weight for the fight and spoke openly about himself and his career.

After posing for photos (including the ubiquitous group shot) Chris took the time out to roll with one or two if the guys- this was quite surprising considering he had only had two hours sleep in the past 36 hours!

I spoke with Chris just after the seminar finished, as Chris was returning back to California 11am Sunday morning. This was his first time in the UK, but after the success of todays visit, I am sure we will see him back here soon.

Chris Brennan Interview Part 1

HT: Thanks for taking the time to speak with me. Next Generation; how did the school come about?

Chris Brennan : Well I was training for about five years I think, and I knew all along I wanted to teach. As I was training at the Gracie Academy I used to listen more than anything to Royce and Rorion teach, just so I could absorb the way they teach, the details in their techniques. They didnāt show a lot of different techniques, but the details that they went into on each move, helped me as I learned to teach the moves better.

I knew from the beginning I wanted a school; it was just a matter of being good enough to have one and having the money to open one.

And that happened in 1998?

Chris Brennan : March 13th 1998. I fought in the UFC, I won my first fight and lost my second. The money was pretty good back then, I got ten thousand dollars for winning one fight and I used that to open my first school.

How did it feel to open your own school? Was it the fulfilment of a dream or was it something you just knew you had to do?

Chris Brennan : I was a little nervous; I was a blue belt when I opened my school. I opened a very big, nice school with a cage inside. I was always nervous, wondering when a brown or black belt wanting to come in and train with me in front of my class. When it actually happened Iād been a blue belt for four and half years, so Iād been training for about 6. I rolled with a couple of guys that came in, Iāll leave the names out, and I had no problems training with them so I was pretty excited about that.

Did you find you got more respect after the guys came to your academy?

Chris Brennan : Yeah, but still to this day, I still donāt get near the respect I should in submission stuff. But its ok, I have a lot of students who can back me up on that.

And of course results speak for themselves.

Chris Brennan : Yeah, but even more so than that the way my students do in competition. As often as they win it reflects back on me so thatās more exciting than me winning myself.

You mentioned in conversation earlier, youāve got quite a roster of fighters now?

Chris Brennan : Ten male, one female and me. I'm the twelfth man.

You've also got quite a lot of students who don't compete NHB but do submission competitions. How much does it mean to you to be a coach compared to being a fighter?

Chris Brennan : I think we have had about 80 or 90 fights for my team, and I've missed one fight because my son was in the hospital. Other than that, I've fought on a Friday night in Hawaii, flown home through the middle of the night, landed in the morning and drove straight out into the desert to corner two of my fighters. I'll drive across the States just to corner at submission tournaments; it doesn't have to be for a fight. If I'm the one who's teaching them, it's my voice they hear every day, I'll be there for them.

So its something you have a lot of time for?

Chris Brennan : Yes and no, its hard at home, cause I'm always leaving my wife and kids at home. None of its paying me anything. I take 10% of what my fighters earn, I don't charge them to train, so when they fight for $1000 and I go to Japan for four or five days I get $100. But its all about my respect for them, they try so hard for me so I want to be there for them.

You've had quite a few famous fighters come to train at your place as well, how about name-dropping some of the guys youāve had come train with you?

Chris Brennan : Oh Jesus, well the whole thing with Marco Ruas and me started because Fabiano Iha was coming to my school to train with me. Marco showed up one day with him, he loved the place and stuck around and trained with me for a couple of years.

Val Ignatov, the Russian sombo guy who fought and lost to Matt Hughes in the UFC. He's got good leg locks.

Tony Galindo comes in all the time, Todd Medina, Javier and Romi used to come in a lot. God I don't know, lots!

Any memorable moments from some of the guys who you have had train there?

Chris Brennan : Well one of the most exciting days actually was during my Westside Submission Tournament. Genki Sudo came and competed. It was a blast watching him, as I got to ref all his matches. I had never seen him, I had heard of him before, so all the stuff he was throwing, wow! I was laughing while I was reffing! It was kind of disrespectful to his opponent but he was very impressive.

You had the Jackass crew at your school?

Chris Brennan : Yeah, they came for one day. I think the one everybody saw on TV was at Fabiano and Tito's school. They came to my school, they wrestled and stuff we kind of suplexed him a few times and slammed Johnny Knoxville around the cage a little bit!

Didn't Ryan Dunn get knocked out in the cage?

Chris Brennan : Yeah that was at Fabiano's school! He got knocked out there

You had the KOTC cage at NG for a long time.

Chris Brennan : We have a duplicate cage now, that one went with my KOTC title.

I'm not surprised, and if you don't mind I'll come to that later. You have fought extensively in both ring and cage, do you have a preference?

Chris Brennan : I like the ring now. I was thinking about selling our cage to get a ring now, cause I think a ring takes a little more technique takedown-wise, wrestling-wise. You can't really use the ring like you can a cage to take someone down, once you're on the ground you canāt just stuff them into the cage where they canāt get away. You have to be a bit more technical in passing the guard, work on holding guys down, not letting them get away. Your wrestling has to be a little more perfected.

I fought in Warriors Quest in Hawaii in a ring, I've fought twice in Shooto in a ring. I like it a lot.

We briefly mentioned KOTC earlier. You got stripped of your title- what was going on there behind the scenes?

Chris Brennan : I think I wasnāt one of the guys who would do exactly what Terry (Trebilcock, King of the Cage promoter) said. He offered me a couple of things that I found quite insulting, and I said no. He really relies on ticket sales, how many people can you get in the stand. I always had about 100/150 students and friends there, well the last few events people were buying tickets on the gate, other places, but I still had the same amount of people in the stand. But I wasn't turning in the same amount of money to him that I had been, so he thought my sales were going down. That's when he started leaning on me to go fight for the superfight belts, not my weight class belt. I wasn't having any part of that cause it was my pride and joy, I worked hard for that. He always gave me tough fighters.

I had Joe Stephenson first who they thought was going to beat me, Antonio McKee after that. Then I lost to Joe Hurley, I came back and I beat Kevin Hogan and they gave me Berger right after that. They were always giving me tough fights, I really enjoyed having my belt and when they told me he was going to give me another belt to fight for and give that one to Romie and Joe to fight for I was pretty mad about that.

He asked me if I wanted to fight Romie. I said "I donāt want to fight Romie, we're friends but youāre going to have to ask him because I'm the title holder, so if he says yes, I have to fight." They said they didn't want to fight either, so they said Joe Stephenson. I said alright but I want more money because I already beat him, I want to get paid. They came back and said no to that. Then they said youāre fighting John Alessio for the superfight belt, Joe and Romie are fighting for your belt. I was like " No! You can't take the belt away from me, I didn't say no to anybody!"

I don't know how it all came about but the next thing you know the rumour was that I wouldn't fight Romie, I never turned down a fight. I've lost, I'm not afraid to lose. I've fought good guys and lost, I've fought good guys and won. I've fought bad guys and lost!

I wasn't afraid to fight anyone, it was just a friendship thing and they said it came down to me because it was my belt. Then I ended up fighting for a different belt.

Even the day of the event, he said "weāre going to send the cage up to get some repairs done (cause it wasn't at my school at the time), we'll get it back to you on Tuesday". I walked away, I said to my brother "we will NEVER see that cage again."

After my loss to Alessio, sure enough, its in Ted's school now, and I never saw it again. You know, whatever.

But now, for some reason, they won't let my fighters fight in the event. Well, they said they could, but I couldn't corner them cause I can't be in the arena. I was their champion from KOTC 1, and they won't let me be there in case I talk down about his show while I'm there. I have no plans to do that, there's no reason for it.

They're the biggest event in California, they're not the UFC, and I don't think they ever will be but they're still good as an up-and-comer show.

You fought in UFC, KOTC, Shooto, and Warriorās Quest. Which would you say treats the fighters most professionally?

Chris Brennan : Warrior's Quest did, they were a phenomenal show at the beginning. I think that's why they're not around any more, they really dumped a lot of money into the fighters, really taking care of them. The UFC obviously in the same way as they have the money to back it up. When I fought for Zuffa it was a lot different from when I fought for SEG.

Shooto really takes care of me, they seem to like me a lot so I like them also.

KOTC is a little different. Weigh-ins are in a hotel room, with nobody else but you and the promoter and maybe the other fighter. I like the public weigh-ins, the press conference and that.

So what was it that prompted you to become a professional fighter? You could have stuck to coaching, or just submission tournaments?

Chris Brennan : I first started cause I bounced at a nightclub with Kimo and Todd Medina a long time ago. We used to fight a lot there! It was a pretty tough club!

I was a little guy, well actually I was about 220lbs, cause I was body-building back then. I heard of the first UFC and I went down and checked out the Gracie Academy. The second UFC me and Todd were working at the bar, and they were showing it on the big screen. From that point on I was like, "we're gonna do this for sure, I can do that".

Next thing you know, Kimo comes in and says he's training for the next UFC, "they're gonna let me in!".. I was like "you're kidding me!" So I told him say "I'm a tae-kwon-do guy", and sure enough they let him in! And he gave Royce everything he could handle in his first showing.

Back then I figured if I wanted to teach, I needed to fight and to do well so I could have some sort of name and a reason why someone should come train with me. That got me into it in the beginning, but after that, well I just love it.

I keep trying to retire but I can't!

Chris Brennan Interview Part 2

Related links: Training at Brennan's Academy

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