From the octagon to the mat: Why MMA fighters are succeeding as high school wrestling coaches

When former Gilroy principal Marco Sanchez hired Daniel Cormier to become the school’s head wrestling coach in the spring of 2018, he envisioned the Mixed Martial Arts legend and former gold medal Olympian maintaining the program’s high level of success.

Sanchez’s bet on Cormier has paid off.

The former UFC champion has led Gilroy to five consecutive Central Coast Section titles – giving the program 21 in a row overall – and three Top 3 team finishes at the state championships.

But what Sanchez couldn’t see is the chain effect that hiring an MMA fighter to coach a high school team would have beyond Gilroy’s wrestling room.

Since Cormier took over the program, more coaches with MMA backgrounds have taken on similar roles across the state. MMA’s rise in popularity has helped improve wrestling participation numbers, those close to the sport say, and led to fighters who have stepped into the Octagon ring becoming high school coaches.

MMA is a combination of wrestling, boxing and martial arts such as judo, karate and kickboxing.

“I think the rise of MMA has contributed to a once dying sport,” said St. Francis girls wrestling coach Joey Bareng, a former MMA fighter. “Just 10 years ago, the sport was going downhill and dying. Ten years go by and you get to see a lot happening with any industry. MMA, jiu jitsu, it all contributes to (wrestling).”

It is no secret that great wrestlers make great MMA fighters. Stars such as Cormier, Jon Jones, Kamaru Usman and Tyron Woodley were all collegiate wrestlers who eventually became UFC champions.

Cormier’s hiring at Gilroy followed Greg Varela’s departure for Los Gatos after the 2017-18 season. Varela’s move left a massive void for Sanchez, a former wrestling coach himself, to fill. The principal fell into a bit of luck bringing in a UFC star.

“When Coach Varela moved over to Los Gatos, I was a bit stressed in that I really didn’t have anybody that was going to step in,” said Sanchez, now a CCS assistant commissioner. “Cormier walked into my office just out of the blue and I had heard rumors that he was interested, but I didn’t even try to approach him … But he was all in. I was really impressed with his initial impression. He really took this and fully embraced it as a head coach.”

Cormier didn’t show up at Gilroy alone.

Deron Winn, an MMA fighter who competed in the UFC’s middleweight division, was one of Cormier’s lead assistants. After five years at Gilroy, Winn was recently hired to be a wrestling coach at Fountain Valley High School in Southern California.

Winn isn’t the only Bay Area-based MMA fighter to land a high school coaching job. Former UFC Middleweight and Vallejo High wrestler Mark Muñoz coached at Fairmont Preparatory Academy from 2020 to 2022 and is now teaching club wrestling in Orange County. Antonio Andrade, an up-and-coming MMA fighter who trains at American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, was recently hired as an assistant coach at Gilroy.

The new crop of coaches has flourished rather quickly.

The St. Francis girls team sent 11 wrestlers to the CCS championships and four to the state tournament this past season under Bareng. The Lancers also won the West Catholic Athletic League team title.

While wrestling used in MMA is vastly different from traditional wrestling – most of the techniques used in MMA are set up by using feints or clinching – Bareng said that having experience in the cage has an upside for fighters who transition into high school coaching.

“When I got into MMA, learning about jiu jitsu and striking at the professional level really changed my outlook,” Bareng said. “There’s an advantage for me in coaching for sure. It helped me look at wrestling technique a little differently. I try to put the martial arts principles into the way I coach wrestling. I think that’s something that makes me unique.”

Sanchez and other wrestling coaches around the Bay Area are seeing the effects of the rise in MMA trickling down to amateur wrestling.

Last year, Alameda High School revived its wrestling program after 40 years without a team. After fielding just seven wrestlers in 2022, Alameda had a team of 43 this past season with many of its new wrestlers coming from a martial arts background.

“Alameda Island has many kids who have some sort of background in mixed martial arts,” Alameda coach Dennis Spencer said. “The kids have a decent level of combat presence and awareness. But having kids with a martial arts background helps foster competition which is good.”

Sanchez said the growing popularity of MMA has helped more athletes give wrestling a try.

“This year, we had 500 more wrestlers than we did last year in our section alone,” Sanchez said. “You have to wonder how much of that is related to how high profile MMA has become. I can’t quantify it with numbers, but anecdotally, I would say more kids are giving wrestling a try because of MMA.”

While sports like MMA, boxing and jiu jitsu are not sanctioned high school sports, wrestling gives any potential MMA fighter a good baseline to one day compete in the octagon.

Gilroy had three wrestlers win a state title in their respective weight class this season: Cody Merrill (285 pounds), Moses Mirabal (144) and Daniel Zepeda (138). Cormier said he believes all of them could make exciting MMA fighters one day.

“A lot of my kids are grounded in martial arts,” Cormier added. “They were born, built and grew up on the sport. I believe that if they choose, they could all have pretty good careers in MMA.”