Lance Palmer seemed hesitant to engage Friday night against Alexandre Almeida, and it ultimately cost him his World Series of Fighting featherweight title.
Palmer didn't repeat the mistake afterward.
The blue-chip featherweight prospect and four-time college wrestling All-American said in post-fight interviews that his current MMA training headquarters, Urijah Faber's Team Alpha Male, is struggling to develop fighters because it lacks a head coach.
"This has been something that's been going on with our team before I was even there: not having a head coach," Palmer said in the interview recorded by MMA Junkie. "We have great mitt holders, great boxing coaches, great jiu-jitsu coaches, but we don't have a head coach who knows the game and has been in the game."
The judges' decision to grant a unanimous decision to Almeida prompted boos from he crowd and the promise of a quick rematch from WSOF President Ray Sefo. Still, the 27-year-old Palmer (10-2) was clearly frustrated after the bout.
Interesting comments by Lance Palmer on no head coach at Team Alpha Male https://t.co/Nc6goSnAFA
— Jason Floyd (@Jason_Floyd) December 19, 2015
Along with Faber, the Team Alpha Male camp in Sacramento, California, has been home to UFC bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw, flyweight challenger Joseph Benavidez, women's strawweight Paige VanZant, featherweight standout Chad Mendes and several other top-level competitors in MMA's lighter-weight divisions.
The team has found its success despite its reluctance to hire a head coach to oversee all aspects of training and strategy. Instead, the team prefers to operate as a kind of cooperative, with a group of instructors but no definitive leader or public face outside of Faber.
For a while, striking coach Duane Ludwig came close to holding this role, but he left amid an ugly public feud with Faber. Shortly after, Dillashaw, easily the team's prize pupil, followed. Striking coach Martin Kampmann has departed the team as well.
Now, Palmer—who also said he might think about changing camps himself—has offered this criticism, and it was sharp and to the point.
"That's something we have to look at," Palmer said of the team's coaching. "Because there's a lot of guys on our team that aren't getting to that next level or getting to that peak performance because we don't have somebody like [a head coach]."
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