MMA Gym Power Rankings

Back in April, I attempted to rank the Top Five MMA gyms. While I made a valiant effort in the end, it was hardly a complete list and had several key omissions.

So nearly a year later, I return wiser and armed with several more months of MMA results to draw upon.

The rankings are based on number of pro fighters a gym has, the level of promotion, how many contenders the gym has and how many title bouts and belts fighters from the gym have won.

Honorable Mentions

Best Small Gym:

So many of the gyms on this list are large academies with a bevy of high level pro fighters. I wanted to give a shout out to a much smaller gym that still was excellent with its few fighters.

Red Devil Sport Club with Fedor Emelianenko and Gegard Mousasi has a truly excellent pair of fighters but doesn't have much depth.

Best Gym that didn't make the list:

Wolfslair Academy, the freezing lair of TUF winner Micheal Bisping, PRIDE and UFC Champion Quinton Jackson, UFC Heavyweight contender Cheick Kongo and UFC veteran Paul Kelly.

A very nice gym with good results but has hit a touch of hard times recently with Rampage walking away from the UFC and Bisping fighting for his UFC life.

10. H.I.T. Squad

In Granite City, Ill., rests the Hughes Intensive Training (H.I.T.) Squad campus, and I mean campus. Not just a training facility, which is huge by the way, but also dorms, dining halls and athletic training staff that allows fighters to live at the facility year round.

Of course the head coach of the H.I.T. Squad is the legendary UFC welterweight Matt Hughes, whose amazing 43-7 career could carry a gym on its own.

Rising UFC star Brian Foster calls the H.I.T. campus home along with UFC lightweight prospect Matt Veach. Strikeforce star Robbie Lawler, as well as UFC gatekeeper Chris Lytle also train with H.I.T.

This gym also has a bevy of young, rising fighters who are just starting to see pro action, including names like Cortez Coleman and David Jesus Fuentes.

This gym is still coming together but considering the amazing facilities and talent at the top this could easily become the Midwest's Mecca of MMA.

9. Team Rough House

The British Invasion of MMA is underway and it is not from Michael Bisping's gym as many would have thought, but rather the fighters from the Nottingham-based Bushido MMA Academy have made a serious statement in the past months.

It started in June when Dan Hardy won a razor sharp decision over Marcus Davis, and continued into September when Paul Daley makes his UFC debut and dominates top contender Martin Kampmann.

Three Team Rough House also made the house in the U.S.A. vs England TUF season: Nick Osipczak, and the two finalists in 155 Andre Winner and TUF winner Ross Pearson.

Dan Hardy put an exclamation point on this amazing year for the gym from the right coast of the Atlantic pond with a dominating win over Mike Swick and earning a title shot.

With the Wolfslair struggling the Bushido Academy's Team Rough House could easily rise to become the premier European MMA gym.

8. Team Sityodtong

Mark DellaGrotte alone gets this gym in the Top Ten, one of the best coaches in all of MMA. Team Sityodtong doesn't have many fighters but its coaching staff is one of the best in fighting.

The Boston based gym is most famous for being the site of Kenny Florian's and Marcus Davis' fight camps, and has recently added WEC Lightweight Mike Campbell and UFC veteran Stephan Bonnar.

This gym is one of the premier Muay Thai gyms in the United States and with Kenny Florian and his brother Keith Florian constantly there the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu level of Sityodtong is excellent as well.

DellaGrotte is gaining more respect as a coach and look for fighters to start turning to him for help as Randy Couture's and Greg Jackson's gyms begin to crowd.

7. Team Quest

One of the original MMA gyms, Team Quest has outlasted its early days competitors of the Lion's Den and Big John McCarthy's training facility.

Team Quest's longevity due to the leadership of its fighter-coaches Dan Henderson and Matt Lindland, both legends in the sport and have proven to be excellent coaches as well.

The list of pro fighters for Team Quest is impressive, topped by the coaches: former PRIDE Light Heavyweight and Middleweight Champion Dan Henderson and legendary MMA wrestler Matt Lindland.

UFC veterans Ed Herman and Krzysztof Soszynski as well as Middleweight contender Chael Sonnen call Quest home.

Quest also has two excellent 155 prospects, 6-0 TUF contestant Richie Whitson and 18-3 Zac George who are both looking to move into larger promotions.

Team Quest's future is as bright as its past and one thing is certain, this gym isn't going anywhere.

6. Minnesota Martial Arts Academy

The premier Martial Arts Academy that isn't located near a coast, Minnesota Martial Arts Academy has some of the best facilities of any gym in the world.

It boasts a Gracie Jiu Jitsu school along with a Submission Wrestling, Muay Thai and Jeet Kune Do schools in addition to the Mixed Martial Arts program.

For many years Sean Sherk was the standard bearer of this gym and represented it very well basically by himself. Sherk credited his coaches at MMAA for his exceptional boxing after being labeled 'just a wrestler'.

Sherk has been joined in the frozen north by Jacob Volkmann, Nick Thompson, Paul Bradley and of course UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar.

Brock Lesnar's career arch speaks very well to the coaching at MMAA, the year between his Frank Mir fights it is possible that no fighter has improved as much as Lesnar.

He went from literally walking right into a knee-bar to a very technical domination of a Jiu Jitsu blackbelt. This reflects very well on the coaching staff in Minnesota.

5. Xtreme Couture

The past year has not been kind to Xtreme Couture, which went from arguably being the best gym in MMA to being very close to falling out of the Top 5.

In the past year Xtreme Couture lost all the belts it held and its premier fighters: Randy Couture, Forrest Griffin and Martin Kampmann lost bouts.

But the Las Vegas based facility has plenty to hang its hat on. Two of the best lightweights in the UFC wear the Xtreme Couture badge, Tyson Griffin and Gary Maynard as well as UFC heavyweight prospect Todd Duffee.

Matt Riddle, a welterweight prospect also left Arizona Combat Sports to join the Couture team and trains with fellow Welterweights Johnny Hicks and Amir Sadollah.

While this gym may not have the army of title holders it once had, it is still one of the prime places for pro fighters looking to round out their game or take their game to the next level.

As its prospects develop, I expect Xtereme Couture to move up this list.

4. American Kickboxing Acadamy

Ironically its hard to find a gym with a better ground game than the American Kickboxing Academy.

The home of numerous NCAA wrestling All-Americans and National Champions and an innovative Jiu Jitsu black belt, the AKA may draw its name from kickboxing, but you don't want to hit the mat with any of its fighters.

This San Jose MMA gym has become a favorite destination of NCAA wrestlers looking to move into MMA.

Josh Koscheck and his wild right hands can found at AKA along with Cain Velasquez's double leg slams.

Also possibly the most underrated fighter in all of MMA, Jon Fitch who is possibly the best fighter on the ground in all of MMA.

Also strikers Bobby Southworth and Mike Swick call AKA, and also legendary kickboxer Cung Le has his fight camps at AKA.

The Jiu Jitsu coach at AKA is David Camarillo, who has blended Judo and Jiu Jitsu into what he calls Guerrilla Jiu Jitsu. It is fairly new and very complex but Jon Fitch is one of the only GJJ black belts in MMA and he has used to devastating effect.

AKA is a gym at its peak with outstanding fighters, outstanding coaches, but not many prospects.

3. American Top Team

This Miami-based gym is home to more pro fighters than any other gym, has contenders galore but only one defending champion, Brian Bowles, the WEC Batamweight champion.

American Top Team is so deep in contenders that when one of their fighters wins a title his first defense will likely come from the guy he shares a locker with on Tuesdays.

The depth of fighters is just insane, it has elite UFC fighters like Thiago Silva, Thiago Alves, to prospects Luis Arthur Cane, Cole Miller, to the former WEC Featherweight Champion Mike Thomas Brown, to Internet star Kimbo Slice to Human Weapon's Jason Chambers the variety of fighters is out of this world.

Fighters head to ATT when they are seeking motivation and to be pushed every day by an equally talented fighter, or to attend the world famous Jiu Jitsu classes.

This could easily become the No. 1 gym if the get a couple of more champions, bu their is no question this is one of the premier MMA gyms in the world.

2. Greg Jackson's MMA

Greg Jackson is the best coach in all of MMA, his game plans and fight camps are second to none when it comes to preparing a fighter to perfectly peak and preform.

Fighters that have trained their whole careers with Jackson has won belts and fighters are now coming to Jackson to revive struggling careers.

Georges St-Pierre is one of Jackson's star pupils, who under Jackson's instruction went from being a raw, athletic karate striker to being one of the most complete fighters in all of MMA with Olympic level wrestling.

Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Rashad Evans trains with Jackson, as does UFC gate keeper Kieth Jardine and as well as star prospect Jon Jones.

Top heavyweight contender Shane Carwin, Welterweight contender Carlos Condit, middleweight Nate Marquardt, lightweight Joe Stevenson and featherweight Leonard Garcia.

This gym is likely the best for fight prep, fight strategy and has a bevy of champions and could easily be argued to be the best gym in MMA.

1. Blackhouse/Team Nogueira

The gyms of the LA based Black House and the Rio de Janeiro based Team Nogueira are basically branches of each other as all the fighters travel between the gyms.

I can understand anyone who wants to argue that Greg Jackson's camp is the best in MMA, but just listen to the fighters who travel between the gyms.

Anderson Silva, the best fighter in the world, UFC Middleweight Champion

Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, 'Big Nog' Former PRIDE and UFC Heavyweight Champion

Lyoto Machida, UFC Light Heavyweight Champion and Pound-for-Pound elite

Antônio Rogério Nogueira, 'Little Nog' UFC Light Heavyweight contender

Jose Aldo, WEC Featherweight Champion, pound-for-pound elite

Junior dos Santos, UFC Heavyweight Contender

This list is likely the most talent laden six fighters at any one gym and has three Pound-for-Pound elites. While this gym may not have the depth of other gyms, no other gym can match that list of six fighters.

As annoying as it is that many of them refuse to face each other in actual fights, any time any of these guys have a match it is a must-see event.