Mushin featured on morning news show in Utah.

Brandon Kiser and Brian Yamasaki represent Damage Control MMA every Friday Night on 1280 the Zone Sports Radio with their friend Mike Stidham. Recent in studio guests include Jeff Monson and Erik Paulson.

The team heads down to LA for CSW Camp 2011 and captures some great new clips for Damage Control MMA.

Jeff Monson stops by Mushin while he was in town to get some training in with our guys.

In the above picture: Brandon Melendez (The Ultimate Fighter), Brandon Kiser (Host of Damage Control MMA), Kyacey Uscola (The Ulimate Figher and Bodog), Jake Paul (Gladiator Challenge World Champ), Brian Yamasaki (Host of Damage Control MMA).

2010 – The biggest year in Fight Core history. We stepped up our game by opening a new training facility in North Salt Lake, bringing in world class fighters, signing a licensing agreement with Full Contact Fighter and reaching a million views on the Damage Control MMA website.  

Utah’s best coaches were assembled for the grand opening of the New Mushin Gym in North Salt Lake. The gym is twice the size of the former location and features all brand new Dollamur Grappling Mats, fully stocked pro shop, bag rack, boxing ring and world class coaching. Classes are available 5 days a week and are open to everyone from the general public, to first time MMA enthusiasts and on to world class pro fighters.

Fight Core and Damage Control join forces with Full Contact Fighter to bring together the best fight shorts with the best online training program in the industry.

Highlight of Fight Core in 2009

JANUARY

Kyacey Uscola heads to Salt Lake City to get acclimated to the higher elevation before his fight with Hank Weiss on Febuary 20th at the Energy Solutions Arena.

Brian Yamasaki and Brandon Kiser start working on the Ultimate Combat Experience as guest commentators for the long time friend Mike Stidham.  Tune in on Channel 30 every Sunday at 3:00 pm

Fight Core meets a Catch Wrestling legend Billy Robinson and the founder of Scientific Wrestling Mr. Jake Shannon. These guys taught some moves on our show Damage Control and forever changed my game by teaching some of the coolest moves I have ever seen from Catch Wrestling! Meeting these guys is absolutely one of the best memories of 2009 and my entire Martial Arts Journey.

FEBUARY

Jake Paul defeats Cole Rose and Kyacey Uscola defeats Hank Weiss at the Energy Solutions Arena.

Konrad Jones goes the distance in his first fight against one of Utahs toughest, Kofe Azitzu.

MARCH

Record breaking attendance at the 2009 Erik Paulson seminar as we covered everything from STX (Savate Thai Cross Training) Kickboxing, to Judo Throws, to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. 

 Johnny Miller wins at Throwdown Fighting Event.

 APRIL

Konrad Jones and Kensei Sato make their MMA Debut at the UCE in Vernal Utah.

MAY

Brian Yamasaki and Brandon Kiser take our team to CSW Camp 2009.

Mushin Fight Team ranked in top 10 on one of the biggest internet fight sites in the world Sherdog.com

Me and Yamasaki travelled to Idaho to participate in a 10th planet JJ seminar and filmed some more segments for our show Damage Control.

JUNE

 Fight Core clothing line prepares to launch.

Aaron Okura and Paul Roberts both represented the Bernales Institute in the Ultimate Combat Experience bringing home two more wins.

Jake Paul defeats Lee Doss after much negative talk from the Jeremy Horn camp. This win made Jake the new Gladiator Challenge Champion.

Team Eilte demands a do-over and the rivalry builds. Jake gets an immediate rematch scheduled with Lee Doss after Jeremy Horn and company complain about the stoppage of the first fight.

Former Kickboxing Coach of Randy Couture and long time friend Cade Janjira joins the Fight Core team completing the coaching Trifecta.

JULY

Brandon Melendez joins Jake Paul on our fight team and rumors of a possible future fight agains Josh Burkman start buzzing.

AUGUST

Mushin to participate in Mike Stidhams new reality TV vison.

And still the Gladiator Challenge Champion… JAKE PAUL defeats Lee Doss with an 8 second K.O. in the immediate rematch that was demanded by Jeremy Horn and Lee Doss.

SEPTEMBER

Brian Yamasaki and Brandon Kiser featured on Hapkido TV.

Kiser travels to Puerto Rico joining Babalu and Eric Bad Apple to corner their friend Kyacey Uscola against one of Greg Jacksons fighters.

OCTOBER 

 Kiser travels to Boise to corner Kyacey Uscola with Urijah Faber and Jake Paul

NOVEMBER

Kiser and Yamasaki corner Brandon Melendez against Josh Burkman in one of Utahs biggest fights to date.

DECEMBER

Fight Core Soldiers show their loyalty. Chris “Super Grappler” Lanham and Trevor Warner get Fight Core ink.

Stay tuned for the 2010 line up of Fight Core shirts and gear. Yamasaki and I have been everywhere from Puerto Rico to Boise pumping our merchandise and sponsoring fighters, wrestling teams, local musicians and models.

The new products will start being released in November 2009.

Kyacey Uscola lost a 3 round decision to Kyle Noke from Greg Jacksons camp last weekend. We travelled to Puerto Rico for their first major MMA promotion TOP COMBAT where Kyacey was the main event.

The trip was amazing. We stayed at a beach front resort and Puerto Rico was one of the coolest places I have ever travelled to. Below is the view from our hotel room deck.

With hot and humid weather we quickly cut the 8 pounds that Kyacey needed to lose.

Kyacey and Kyle squared off afther the weigh ins.

From the weigh ins we hooked up with Erik Apple and Babalu along with our local contact Victor who took us out for some authentic Puerto Rican cuisine followed by appearances at the local mall.

Kyacey was in the best shape of his life. In fact the Fight Dr. had never seen a resting heart rate so low on the day of competition. We got him taped, warmed up and ready for battle.

Unfortunately the fight didn’t go our way. Kyle and Kyacey fought back and fourth both standing and on the ground. They traded some heavy leather and scrambled for position on the ground. The mat was like a slip and slide due to a wet vinyl surface which had a major impact on their ability to do anything.

After the fight we explored Puerto Rico in true Uscola fashion by getting off the beaten path.

It was fun being on the other end of the interview in a show with a format very similar to ours. Basically Allen Hughes of Hapkido TV goes around and interviews people with mucho bad assness the same way Yamasaki and I do but this time Yamasaki and I were the ones being interviewed.

After weeks of drilling fight specific combos, Jake Paul went out and KO’d Lee Doss in 5 seconds using the core technique we built for this fight.

A solid training camp was assembled for Jake, Johnny and Jeremy. It brought together the experience of three coaches. Cade Janjira, Brian Yamasaki and Brandon Kiser. Unfortunately for Johnny and Jeremy their opponents didn’t show so they were unable to fight.

The pre-fight tasks ran smooth as Jake prepared for battle. He has a lot more experience then most fighters his age and he was surrounded by a very experienced team of coaches and support staff.

What a sweet victory after all the controversy and trash talk that came from their camp.

Wendover was packed with the biggest concentration of Friends & Family of Fight Core that we have ever assembled. Thank you so much to everyone that made the trip to Wendover to support the team. A lot of people were also set to come down for Johnny Miller and still decided to make the trip even though his fight was cancelled.

The Victory was awesome and the after parties were epic!

THE END…

The show appears to be moving in a slightly new direction by putting more emphasis on the EXPERIENCE. Fighters audition for the show and are assigned to an MMA Gym where they will be prepared for their MMA fight debut by professional fight trainers.  

Yamasaki and I were given a girl by the name of Rachel Kemker. We have only been given about 6 weeks to get her ready for her fight which isn’t long enough. 

Our team uses a specific form of periodization to get the maximum benefit out of our fight camps and preperation for your first fight will usually take over a year with no prior experience. Each section of periodization is designed to build the body up for the next session so that the athletes can reach their maximum physical potential without having their body give out in the process. We have had to make some serious adjustments to our typical fight training program in order to get Rachel as ready as possible in this amount of time.

With everything else that has been going on with our own TV show and gym we had to call in reinforcements to help us get Rachel ready for this fight.  We have been getting some much needed assistance from one of our senior students Karen Pratt and our long time friend Cade Janjira.

Karen has been training at Mushin for 5 years and has attended seminars with Master Chai and Erik Paulson. She is also a Utah State Grappling Champion.

Cade Janjira is a World Class Muay Thai coach who has trained some of the best fighters in the world including Randy Couture who thanked Cade in his post fight interview against Tim Sylvia.

Rachel has also been utilizing our new girls kick boxing class to help her get ready. She has had a few bumps in the road but continues to press forward with her training and her pursuit of this fight goal. We will have to see what the next few weeks brings.

Mushin and UCTC have battled it out in the cage many times. Their camp is being run by Mike Stidham and Mike “Sugaloaf” Crissman.

Mike Crissman has been racking up the experience by fighting all the time in the UCE. The guy has been fighting 2, 3 and even 4 times a month. He has moved up and down in many different weight classes and is going to bring a lot of real world, hands on fighting experience to Rachels opponent.

Mike Stidham has watched, cornered, promoted and trained more people for more fights then anyone I can think of, period. He has participated in every aspect of this sport to the fullest. Mr. Stidham is kick boxing champion from back in the days when only the best of the best could call themselves professional fighting champions. He was also doing Walt Bayless Jiu-Jitsu long before masses even knew what grappling was. Then add his years of wrestling experience and you have a very well rounded and knowledgable MMA coach. If that wasn’t enough, he also owns one of the largest and most well equipped MMA gyms in the State of Utah. Yamasaki and I are going to have our work cut out for us on this one.

Filming commenced the night that Rachel was brought to our gym for introductions. There has been a lot of interview updates and great training footage captured as we have begun the process. I think this is going to make for a very interesting TV show and I can wait to see how it turns out.

Filming has wrapped up on this project! To see the results watch the Ultimate Comabat Experience on Sundays at 3:00pm on WB 30.  

Mushin Self Defense barely has 1,000 square feet of training space but that hasn’t stopped the Mushin Crew from makin big things happen.

The gym has a hard core yet cozy vibe with an old school feel to it. Long before the big chain gyms and MMA Super Centers like Throwdown came to town, Yamasaki and I were putting in work on the MMA Frontline and 10 years later we are still on the hustle.

We currently have two pro fighters training for title fights. Jake Paul and Brandon Melendez have their fight camps in full effect at Mushin right now. In addition to that we also have Mike Stidhams new reality TV show filming out of our gym as we try and get a female fighter with no experience ready for her first MMA fight in 5 short weeks. Mushin attendance for the regular scheduled Muay Thai and CSW classes is at an all time high and we have also added a new class to the line up… Girls Kickboxing. Yamasaki and Pete getting ready to leave for the Annual TBA camp in Oregon. On top of all that we are also filming for our new TV Show DAMAGE CONTROL.

With all of this going on we have had to rely heavily on our most senior student Shane “potato bug” Taylor and Fighter Corps graduate Konrad “Rebar” Jones. These guys have been warming up the classes everyday and keeping our students sharp.

We have also called in reinforcements in the form of one World Class Muay Thai Coach Cade Janjira. Cade has been running the sparring sessions and keeping the fighters in line.

Stay tuned for updates. We will keep you posted on the results of the Title Fights, Jakes rematch, and Rachels debut. 2009 has been one of our best years ever and we are only half way through.