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.

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.

Jake “The Snake” Paul is scheduled to rematch Lee Doss as his first Welter Weight Title defense for Gladiator Challenge. The fight will take place on Saturday August 29th 2009 at the Denver Nugget Hotel and Casino in Wendover Nevada. 

My understanding is that Team Elite wants a do-over. Can’t really blame them for that, if I was as outspoken and disrespectful as they were leading up to this fight and then lost in the 2nd round to a team of “nobody’s”… I guess I would want another shot at redemption too. Jake is working hard to defend his title and I am confident he will. He has is primary trainers Brian Yamasaki and myself along with Team Fighter Corps and a couple other additions to his fight camp including a couple of south paws, kick boxers and World Class Trainer Cade Janjira.

"Rebar", Shane, Cade Janjira, Kiser, JTS, Sterling Niitsuma

 I don’t know what warranted some of the comments coming from their camp as Team Elite and Team Mushin have been trading victories for years.

It seems like our teams used to have a decent repoire with each other but the rivalry has continued to build over the years. I think rivalry makes for great fights and it’s good for the sport. We can’t all be friends and affiliates. I have enough friends and I don’t want to be pals with every other gym but I’ve tried to maintain some level of respect for the other teams out there.

I travelled to Oregon to corner Dennis Davis in Sport Fight. Brandon Melendez was also on the card and Jeremy was there to corner. We shared a bus, locker room and flight home. I left that trip thinking Jeremy was a decent down to earth guy.  We would say hello and shake hands when we would see each other at the fights. Shortly after that Harold Lucambio ended up fighting Demarcus Johnson. The two exchanged groin shots and battled their way to a decision. Demarcus won the fight and I went to shake hands and congratulate the other team. Jeremy said some pretty shitty stuff at a pretty shitty time. We just lost an intense fight that we worked very hard for and went to thank the other team only to be insulted. It was poor timing and the rivalry has continued to grow ever since.

Lee Doss and Jake Paul were scheduled to fight a year or so ago in Jeremy Horn’s production. Jake received a better offer on another card and took it. Lee Doss had a lot to say about that. These two were destined to meet in the cage at some point.

 On June 13th they ended up fighting for the Gladiator Challenge Title. Jake won the fight in the second round by ref stoppage.  It wasn’t a close fight. It’s not like these two guys fought to a split decision, in fact Jake came out of there without a scratch or bruise on him. Elite wants the rematch and they are going to get it.

I am very proud of Jake for the way he has conducted himself through this entire process. He has been a true professional and gentlemen.

See the pictures from the shoot on the shopping page!

We were slangin a lot of baby oil and hittin mad bicep curls at Mushin for our Fight Core Shoot.

Yamasaki broke out the video camera and captured the dorkiness of me and Jake getting pumped up for the pics. I am sure that footage will end up on Damage Control at some point and I am terrifed to see it. None the less the shoot went really well and we captured some good pics for the online shopping cart that Sterling Okura is building right now.

This little weekend adventure to Idaho for a seminar all started when Yamasaki began posting pieces of our old TV show Taking it to the MMAT on the internet. As he was doing this he stumbled across a the profile of a guy who had thousands of members which eventually took Yamasaki to a website called submissions101.com. The site is owned by 10th Planet JJ “purple shirt” Ari Bolden and is one of the biggest and baddest places you can go for Jiu-Jitsu on the web.

We ended up recording a few clips of our show as a house warming gift for the submissions101 site. The clips were well received and repoir was starting to build as Yamasaki continued to communicate with the online community at submissions101.

A couple of weeks ago while we were at CSW camp in LA Yamasaki told me we would be going to Idaho to meet Ari Bolden in person and have our first official lesson in 10th Planet JJ. I am always down for an adventure so I was on board but I have to admit, I wasn’t real thrilled about what I had seen up to that point from the 10th Planet system. I didn’t think there moves would fit very well into my game because most of what I had seen was half guard and rubber guard stuff.

I can think of two times in my past that sort of shaped what I think of the lock down and half guard game. The first is a time when I was teaching Kyacey Uscola some techniques from the guard and he said “wow that’s cool Kiser but I don’t want to practice that. I like the move a lot and I can see how effective it would be but if I start getting confident in fighting from my back then I won’t fight as hard to stay on top.” For a brief moment I was offended. I thought to myself, damn this guy is a kucklehead. But after I let those words settle in, I realized there was a lot of wisdom in that. I have often reflected on what Kyacey said that day and I feel like I have been a better “top” fighter ever since.  The second converstation that impacted my desire to learn the lockdown was when Dennis Davis was showing me some things that Evan Tanner would do to guys from there which basically consisted of  punching them in the face.

With that in mind, here we are, on our way to a seminar where I suspect we are going to cover a bunch of cool moves from your back which would make me even more comfortable there and would eventually have me getting pounded under a guy like Jake Paul or Yamasaki.

I woke up Friday morning, worked from 7am to 4pm. Then did a power lifting session and went straight from that to the UCE to film for our new show called Damage Control. Got in an awesome fight with Shannon which Yamasaki recorded and will be using for our new openening sequence. Wrapped that up and went to Yamasaki’s house where we rolled, studied and filmed for the seminar that we would be taking on Saturday. I ended up crashing on Yamasaki’s couch at 2am and woke up as the victim of Brian’s Bannana in the sleeping mouth joke at 5am. Slammed a warm cup of coffee down and hit the road by 5:30am. 3 hours of sleep and a 5 hour drive ahead of us.

Our drive was perfectly timed as we pulled into Keith Owens (Pedros Sauer Black Belt) club 10 minutes before the seminar started. We received a very warm welcome from everyone there and got to meet Ari Bolden for the first time.

We bowed in for the seminar and went right into the lock down. The very first thing we covered was the Whip Up and it was awesome. It took me right to the position I battle for whenever I get put on my back. I believe in 10th planet they call the position Dog Fight. It’s one step away from my favorite postion call Quarter. The wheels started turning and I was really excited about what I was learning.

I am so glad I took this chance to learn a new perspective. It’s going to be a lot of fun to see where this piece of the game fits for me.