Tompkins not down with Wanderlei's 'Brazilian' training schedule
The list is of fighters he's training is at 28 but it's ever changing for Shawn Tompkins, a mixed martial arts trainer out of Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas. Tompkins has added TUF 8 alum David Kaplan to his ledger of student but one of his most high profile guys is gone. Tompkins told RawVegas.tv that Wanderlei Silva's training schedule was too inconsistent. That doesn't sound very positive with Wandy's fight against Rich Franklin at UFC 99 just five weeks away:
"I think we just have different ideas on what a training schedule should be," said Tompkins, who also trains Forrest Griffin, Randy Couture and Tyson Griffin. "People have brought it up before. There's the 'Brazilian time' and I don't have time for 'Brazilian time.' We had a few conflicts at the beginning of camp and I decided it was best if he got a different trainer."
Watch Tompkins talk about Forrest v. Anderson Silva (3:45):
Tompkins also addresses the Couture's divorce. He says the gym will go on without the leadership of Kim Couture. He does say that there are legitimate questions about whether Kim will continue her fight career. Tompkins says Kim may not be able to do without the folks from Xtreme Couture.
If anything Tompkins is a confident guy saying that Mark Della Grotte is his top competition for the best trainer in the mixed martial arts world. He says that Greg Jackson, the trainer for Georges St. Pierre, Keith Jardine, Nate Marquardt and Rashad Evans, doesn't build fighters from the ground up.
