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RON FRAZIER DISCUSSES UPCOMING BOOK ON THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY OF MMA

By Percy Crawford | July 29, 2014
RON FRAZIER DISCUSSES UPCOMING BOOK ON THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY OF MMA

"It's gonna be a little bit of everything; details about my career and my experiences and some of my opinions on how to make things better for coaches and fighters. It's kind of the good, the bad, and the ugly of it all, the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows, but I'm not gonna throw away the bodies that are buried because I don't believe in doing things like that," stated world-class trainer Ron Frazier, who talked about the book he's currently writing regarding the good, the bad, and the ugly of mixed martial arts. Check it out!

PC: How is everything going Ron?

RF: Everything is going good. I'm just branching out trying to do many things.

PC: One of the many things is you are writing a book about your MMA experiences. Tell us a little bit about that.

RF: Yeah. My girl has actually been bugging me for about 3 or 4 years to write a book about all my experiences in MMA and kind of over the last few months, it's starting to come together and I'm like, "You know what? There has been a few people that talked to me about it and some interest." I just look back and I remember at UFC 140 when Tito Ortiz was fighting Ken Shamrock and I was covering it because I was doing local sports news here and then by UFC 151, I was training fighters.

PC: Not to give away too much that's gonna be in the book, but what kind of things can we expect to be in the book?

RF: It's gonna be a little bit of everything; details about my career and my experiences and some of my opinions on how to make things better for coaches and fighters. It's kind of the good, the bad, and the ugly of it all, the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows, but I'm not gonna throw away the bodies that are buried because I don't believe in doing things like that. The thing is this, if you knew a fighter was on PED's or something like that and you were training them, if you didn't speak up then, I don't think you can put it in the book. Unless that specific fighter has wrote a book or did a documentary detailing those things, then it's something I still wouldn't touch. Or if anybody had any issues with their girlfriend or wives and they wrote a book about it and put it out there and I knew about it, that would just stay with me. I don't believe in doing those things. Unless you address it at the time, I don't believe in coming back 10 years later bringing it back up. But you know I will be talking about fighters and why they were successful and some of the ones we thought should be successful maybe came up a little bit short, whether it was physical or mental or whatever it may be. That may ruffle a few feathers, but I'm a big boy, so I could handle that.

PC: Would you say the pinnacle of your career was when Xtreme Couture was looked at as the best gym in the country?

RF: Oh yeah! Just how the whole dynamics of that relationship came about. Mike Pyle played an intricate role of me getting into MMA, and Skipper Kelp, who started me off, we will talk about all of that in the book. It was a great experience training Randy Couture and the open mind that he had. It was like, here is this young boxing coach and he was willing to give me an opportunity and take a chance on me and I think it worked out for both of us. That will definitely be in it, and I feel very fortunate I've coached Randy Couture, Vitor Belfort, Wanderlei Silva and Forrest Griffin. Not too many people could put that on their resume.

PC: You addressed the PED's thing earlier. It seems like the more they are trying to get it under control, the more we hear of stories of failed tests. Do you think it's just so far out of control or what's your take on PED's in combat sports?

RF: It is a hard subject, but I try to put it in context. I've always had a different take on performance enhancing drugs. Not that I agree with people doing it because for one, most of them are illegal to have outside of a doctor's prescription anyway. And obviously it's against the rules of your sport, but having said that, when you look at it in it's totality and you say, okay, this guy tested positive, but he tested positive after a loss. Chael Sonnen, we know because he just tested positive in a big way and he has tested positive in the past, so we can assume that he's been doing them for a while, even though he's had some clean drug tests. How did his career benefit from it? It's not like he was some long-standing champion. He's fought for some titles and that was mainly because of his word play, but he hasn't overwhelmed anybody. Vitor did test positive in the past, but he tested positive after a loss where he was dominated by Dan Henderson I believe. Kevin Randleman I believe was on that same card and had an issue; he lost. I remember when Fernando Vargas fought Oscar De La Hoya and he tested positive; he lost. A lot of these guys are coming off of losses, so is it working or are they taking the wrong thing? I don't know. It seems like it is out of control and everybody is in an uproar, but when you look at it, it's like, what is it really doing for these guys? Is it really enhancing their performance? Or is it something that, it's here and we talk about it and we're not sure what to make of it. The thing is this, athletes are always gonna walk to that line and some are going to go over that line and push that edge, so when you're telling them, "Hey, you need to be on this specific diet and you need to take these supplements," but if all of that stops working or they are not working the way people want them to or somebody gets injured and you need to come back a little quicker, that's when you start getting into these things that when the commission tests you and you test positive, you're gonna start getting yourself in trouble. Obviously there is not the money in MMA that there is in football, so I think Matt Mitrione said it best, you know, when the test is for the most part failing these things is like failing an open book test, what are these guys doing? I think there are a lot more guys that are taking them that's passing tests and who is on it and who is not, I don't know!

PC: I don't think you can be in mixed martial arts for as long as you have, and even though you are a laid back guy, I'm sure you have had some conflict with a trainer or coach from the opposite side of things.

RF: Yeah, there has been one trainer in particular where I think the issue with us was... I thought it was childish on a personal note. I just thought, at one point, it may lead beyond just little snipes here and there and I was prepared to handle anything.

PC: You were very close with Shawn Tompkins. I'm sure at some point in your book we could expect something about him.

RF: I had great respect for Shawn and when we were in the IFL, we roomed together as well as being assistant coaches together under Bas Rutten. We would just sit and talk about what we wanted from our fighters and how we worked together. We worked real well together. I remember when he initially left the IFL, he went to Temecula to coach Dan Henderson and I was like, man, "This is where you wanna be [Vegas]," and some other people were pulling that same string and finally we got him here to Vegas. I thought we worked well together, so yeah, I will definitely touch on the late Shawn Tompkins. He was a great influence on my career.

PC: Do you have a release date tentatively scheduled?

RF: I want it to come out in the spring. That's what I'm shooting for now to have it come out in the spring. Hopefully we can get all of the details and everything that I have done in my career and also overcoming an illness. In 2012, I was diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis and just how that's affected me as a trainer and how being a physically active guy my whole life as a professional athlete and training professional athletes and then to have your body kind of betray you, it's an interesting emotional ride and something that I didn't expect. But training people, maybe the mental aspect of training people, helped me get through this.

PC: When you were doing radio and covering events, did you ever imagine in your wildest dreams you would be where you are today?

RF: Not a chance. If you would have asked me in 2001 would I be coaching in 2014, I would've said yeah, but I thought it would be basketball. I didn't think I would be training some of the top mixed martial artist in the world. So it's taking me places where I never thought I would go and it's been a great journey and that's what the book is about. It's gonna be 90% positive, but there is also some downsides and some bad sides to training fighters and the stress that it puts on your personal life and family and the travel and the pay and everything in between.

PC: I remember saying, "I want to interview the dude that always wears the doo rag. I didn't know your name and eventually went to Xtreme Couture's website to find out your name only to find out you were nowhere on social media at the time (laughing).

RF: (Laughing) You know what? The funny thing about that is, for the first two years of my career, no one knew my name. I was the black guy with the doo rag in everybody's corner. There will be a funny story of Wanderlei Silva in the book too because I think for about 4 or 5 months, he didn't know my name either.

PC: I wish you the best with your fighters and the book. Keep me posted and you know anything I can do to help promote the book, just say the word. Anything else you wanna add?

RF: I appreciate FightHype and yourself for always being here for me and always giving me a voice.



[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]

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