UFC 322: Chepe Mariscal on training with Merab Dvalishvili
UFC 322’s Chepe Mariscal explains how he ended up training at Syndicate MMA in Las Vegas.
Chepe Mariscal has decided structure and surrounding himself with the best will elevate his game to the next level.
At UFC 322, Mariscal (18-6 MMA, 5-0 UFC) hopes to reap the fruits of his labor when he battles Pat Sabatini (20-5 MMA, 7-2 UFC) at Madison Square Garden in New York. This training camp has differed from those in the past in that Mariscal actually has a home base rather than being a bit of a nomad. Mariscal has latched onto Syndicate MMA, where he trains alongside UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili on a daily basis.
“I felt like I needed more of that coach vibe, somebody to take control,” Mariscal recently told MMA Junkie Radio. “I was doing a lot of the floating stuff and having teammates corner me. I just found out that’s not being part of a champion. I felt like that. I was like, ‘You know what? I need a right coach.’ I just fell into the mix where I was talking to other fighters and they were telling me how coaches were in the area, even out here in Henderson at 10th Planet, where to do jiu-jitsu, where to do MMA. Somebody told me to go to Syndicate and try it out. I did the week tryout. Merab, even during that week tryout, we sparred three times that week. I got work in with all these guys from Russia and Georgia. It was just like, ‘Man, this is dope. These guys have something different.’ They were just beating me up, so I was like, all right. I like a gym where there’s competition. That’s what made me stick to Syndicate and the coaching. (John) Wood is really good at game-planning. Him and Merab are good at game-planning and beating me up in sparring. They’re good together. Even when I have John Wood in my corner during sparring, he’s just a great engineer for the sport.
Dvalishvili (21-4 MMA, 14-2 UFC) is already regarded by some as the best bantamweight in the sport’s history. Being a part of Dvalshvili’s daily routine, Mariscal has witnessed first-hand the greatness – and still struggles to wrap his head around it.
“It’s hard to explain,” Mariscal said. “You have to be there to see it. This guy will come in and do a little shakeout. He goes in the ring. I give him three rounds and another guy will come in and give him two rounds. Then, he’ll do another two rounds with somebody fresh and then another guy. He has like eight, 10 rounds already in the cage. You’re like, ‘What the f*ck is this guy made out of?’ I’ll even talk to the other guys and be like, ‘Hey, we’re going to jump this motherf*cker today. We’re going to go in there. I’m going to go hard on him for three rounds. Then, you’re going to go in there.’
“He’s a f*cking machine, dude. And the thing is he goes in there and you know he’s not thinking. He’s just doing. He’s not trying to get in your head. He’s trying to just have fun. I’ll land something clean or he’ll land something clean and we’re just like, ‘Oh, that was nice.’ Things like that. He’ll teach you stuff along the way. But he’s mostly just moving all the time. I’m on the line of trying to break the code, too.”
