In MMA, the greatest of all time debate usually comes down to one thing: dominance. How many belts did a fighter win? Which elite opponents did they beat along the way? Those are the parameters fighters get judged on. By that same logic, an MMA gym is measured by how many champions it has produced. And according to Daniel Cormier, no one takes that crown away from one gym.

There have been several MMA gyms over the years that left a serious mark. American Top Team and Xtreme Couture built reputations as championship factories, becoming the backbone behind multiple title runs. But after spending most of his life in California, the former two-division champion believes nothing comes close to American Kickboxing Academy’s greatness. 

Daniel Cormier talks about AKA’s unparalleled dominance in MMA 

“What we had, I don’t think will ever be replicated again in the sport of mixed martial arts. I believe that there are great teams right now. I don’t know that any team will ever get to where we were. You, Luke, me, Cain, (Jon) Fitch, (Mike) Swick, (Kyle) Kingsbury, (Josh) Koscheck, Trevor (Prangley), all built from the very start in AKA. Khabib came as a wrestler. Khabib, from 2013 when he got there to when he retired, inside of AKA. Nobody was coming over as a developed guy. We were all in-house, home-built family.” Cormier stated in an interview with fellow AKA teammate, Josh Thomson.  

Well, it’s true that MMA fans definitely have their own favorite gyms, usually tied to where their favorite fighters train. But when it comes to pure numbers, it’s hard to argue against AKA. Under head coach Javier Mendez, the gym has produced UFC champions like Khabib Nurmagomedov, Daniel Cormier himself, Cain Velasquez, and Islam Makhachev. And we would just scratch the surface there. 

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The dominance doesn’t stop with the UFC either. Over in the PFL, Usman Nurmagomedov rose to become the lightweight champion after coming up through American Kickboxing Academy as well. That alone shows AKA’s influence stretches across the entire MMA landscape, not just in the UFC. What makes it even more fascinating is that, according to a report by The Sports Rush, 19 champions have trained at AKA, and next is American Top Team with 16.  

That pretty much sums up how much AKA has defined this era of mixed martial arts, churning out elite champions year after year. Still, it’s fair to say that ‘The Eagle’ remains their most iconic figure. And that’s exactly why Daniel Cormier went on to share an old story from Khabib’s early days at the gym.  

‘DC’ Recalls the Mindset That Shaped Khabib Nurmagomedov 

Well, UFC fans know Khabib Nurmagomedov as the phenom who ruled the lightweight division with an iron fist and retired with an undefeated record. However, the Dagestani legend once started out as a complete novice. Still, the former 155-pound kingpin had one quality that shaped the greatness we see today: a constant willingness to learn and apply it in training.

Talking about one such moment, Daniel Cormier took a walk down memory lane and dug up stories from Khabib’s early days at AKA. He recalled how the young Russian absorbed knowledge from everyone around him, including ‘DC’ himself, who was already part of the team at the time.

“He’s saying that the Extended Stay America was up the street from AKA, and he was just walking to practice. But he was just locked in, and he was just learning every day and picking your brain. And as soon as you’re done with him, he walks over to me, or he walks over to Cain, or Luke, or Fitch, and so on. He was just constantly picking up information. Every chance he could, he was just learning. His dad had given him so much ability. He would take that back to his dad, take that back to Russia,” Cormier said in the same interview with Josh Thomson.

No doubt, the former lightweight champion’s hunger to learn and turn that knowledge into results inside the cage is what truly made him great. Furthermore, Cormier’s story also highlights something else: the environment at American Kickboxing Academy played a massive role in helping Khabib reach that level.

That said, do you believe AKA is the best MMA gym of all time? Let us know in the comments section below.