The landscape of mixed martial arts is home to many gyms that top-level fighters call home. From Team Khabib, Daniel Cormier and Cain Velasquez of American Kickboxing Academy (AKA), Georges St-Pierre from Firas Zahabi’s Tristar camp to Michael Chandler, Gilbert Burns and Vincente Luque of KillCliff FC – there’s no shortage of exceptional fight academies housing top fighters and champion. However, one gym in particular is on everyone’s radar, owing to its roster of dominant champions and extremely marketable fighters. That gym is American Top Team helmed by head coach Mike Brown.

Before Mike Brown was a household name as a champion-maker, he had humble beginnings as a fighter, even competing in the UFC. While Mike Brown had a decent MMA career with 26 wins out of 35 matches, the Florida native found even more wins as a coach at the behest of his roster of superstars at ATT. Before he was coach at the American Top Team, he was also one of their fighters. So let’s take a closer look at the fight academy that made the man, the fighter and the coach Mike Brown.

When was the American Top Team founded? History and background

Just by way of the number of champions and superstars that American Top Team has produced over the years, the fight academy should rightly be called the best MMA gym in the world. The gym has also been the subject of controversy and scrutiny owing to characters like Colby Covington, and owner Dan Lambert’s on-air beef with the late Blackzilians’ founder Glenn Robinson on TUF 21.

The all-star MMA gym was founded in 2001 by Dan Lambert – a BJJ enthusiast and businessman. It’s interesting to note that ATT wasn’t the first ‘Top Team’ per se, it was Brazilian Top Team headed by coach Ricardo Liborio – black belt under the renowned Carlson Gracie. American Top Team was conceived when Dan Lambert met up and collaborated with BTT coach Ricardo Liborio, Marcus Silveira and Marcelo Silveira. Although in business with Liborio, Brazilian Top Team and American Top Team were treated as separate teams.

Today American Top Team has over 40 affiliates worldwide and is widely considered to be the best gym for high-level MMA fighters. ATT was consistently the recipient of the ‘Best Gym’ accolade by the World MMA Awards for four consecutive years between 2016 and 2019.

Meet Mike Brown, ATT’s head coach

Mike Brown has had an illustrious career as an MMA fighter with five knockouts and 13 submission wins in his 26-9 MMA career. The former WEC featherweight champion joined the UFC in 2011 and gathered a 2-3 promotional record. In his last fight, he lost via first-round KO to Steven Siler, following which he decided hand up his gloves and focus on coaching fighters full-time.

Before his successes as a fighter and a coach, however, Mike Brown went through a dark period of d**g ab*se. Brown had a history with the substance ‘gamma-hydroxybutyrate’, commonly known on the street as ‘date r*pe’. This issue was brought to light by Brown’s own fighter Colby Covington during the UFC 272 pre-fight press conference with Jorge Masvidal, who went after the ATT head coach in his series of personal attacks – “[Masvidal] brought that dr*g addict Mike Brown with him, the guy who did GHB before his fights. He fought Rani Yahya on GHB among all the other steroids he did in his career. You brought that addict with you, Jorge? Did you bring that dru**ie?”

However, Brown remained unfazed and steadfast in face of his dark history being exposed to the whole world by someone he helped bring up. Regardless of his past, it seems like coach Mike Brown has turned his life around and dedicated it to honing some of the best fighters in the game today.

While Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal are just two big names ATT, the gym is home to some of the biggest superstars and champions in the UFC and across other promotions. Let’s take a look at some of the UFC fighters who trained at ATT.

List of UFC fighters who have trained at the ATT

American Top Team was the home to two of the biggest female champions in the game; bantamweight and featherweight champion Amanda Nunes, and straw weight champion Joanna Jędrzejczyk. In terms of legends, the team saw Andrei Arlovski, Junior dos Santos, Gleison Tibau and Kimbo Slice walk through the halls of ATT. The gym also served as homes to former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley and Olympic Judoka, form PFL lightweight champion and UFC bantamweight Kayla Harrison.

Dustin Poirier, as we know is one of the best fighters to come out of ATT, having held the interim UFC lightweight champion, with victories over Conor McGregor, Max Holloway, and Justin Gaethje. Top lightweight Arman Tsarukyan who is most likely next in line to face Islam Makhachev is also part of ATT’s current roster. With such legacy characters in one place, and various accolades, American Top Team has definitely carved out a niche of its own.

What do you think of American Top Team, and Mike Brown as a coach? Do let us know in the comments section below.